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If you’re applying for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI), you may hear people talk about “the grids” like they’re a secret code. They’re not.
This article will show you how the medical-vocational grid rules affect eligibility for Social Security disability benefits. It explains what the grid rules are, when SSA uses them, and the four inputs that matter most. You’ll also get a simple matrix for a quick self-check, a few example scenarios, and a checklist of what to document so the SSA can clearly see your limits and work history.
If this feels confusing, this article helps you understand the system.
Medical-vocational grid rules are tables that the SSA uses at Step 5 to decide whether you can adjust to other work when you can’t do your past job. They combine your RFC (what you can still do), age, education, and work history to guide the decision.
The grids are designed to help people age 50 and older, especially when their work history is physical, and they don’t have skills that easily transfer to lighter work.
The grids won’t automatically approve you. They don’t replace medical evidence. They’re just one tool the SSA uses when deciding whether you can do a different job.
If you’re older than 50 and can’t do your past work, the grid rules may play a bigger role in your case. The SSA knows retraining and changing to a new line of work is harder when you’re older.
Even if you’re younger than 50, the same basics matter, especially your Residual Functional Capacity (RFC), which is the SSA’s estimate of what you can still do in a full-time work setting despite your limits.
The grids are only one piece of the decision, but they can help you understand what the SSA is focusing on most.
The SSA uses a five-step process to decide disability cases. The grid rules come in when SSA is deciding if you can adjust to other types of work (Step 5). Reviewers look at your age, education, and work experience.
Here’s the basic process:
The grids help most when your limits are mostly exertional (strength-related), like lifting, standing, and walking.
If your limitations are mainly non-exertional, such as needing frequent breaks or struggling to stay on task due to pain or fatigue, the SSA needs evidence to evaluate your claim.
It weighs your functional limits like how long you can sit, stand, or walk, how much you can lift, and how well you can use your hands. It assesses what you can do all day, every day, and whether you need position changes or breaks to do so.
First, the SSA assigns your RFC a strength level such as sedentary, light, or medium. Your specific limits determine where you fit in those broad categories.
The SSA uses age categories because switching to new types of work is usually harder for older people, especially if they have serious limitations and used to do physical work.
Categories:
Age alone won’t win a case, but it can tip the decision in your favor. If you’re near age 50, 55, or 60, age may matter more in your case.
Education is one of the work-related factors the SSA uses to decide whether you could realistically adjust to other work. It’s not a measure of intelligence. It’s whether your education gives you options for less physical jobs.
The SSA groups education into broad categories, like limited education versus high school and above.
The SSA decides if your past work skills transfer to other jobs easily. If you had physical jobs, your skills may not transfer easily to sedentary work. But tasks like scheduling, paperwork, customer coordination, or supervising may transfer more easily.
One key detail: The SSA may describe your job differently than you would. That’s why it helps to document what you actually did, how often you did it, and how physically demanding it was.
This matrix is simplified, not the full SSA tables. It can help you see if your situation is more favorable under the grid framework, but it doesn’t guarantee an outcome.
Start with your likely RFC level, then find your age category. Next, look at your education level and if you have transferable skills.
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Get EvaluationBeing in a borderline age group really matters in SSA decisions. If you’re close to the next age category, the SSA may use the older category if your overall work-related factors suggest that switching to other work would be difficult.
For example, if you’re close to turning 55, limited to sedentary work, and your past jobs were physical with few transferable skills, the SSA may use the next age category at Step 5.
If you’re close to the next age category, make sure your records clearly show why switching to other work would be difficult, based on your functional limits and work background.
The grids focus mostly on limits to strength and movement like lifting, standing, and walking.
But many people also have non-exertional limits that don’t fit neatly into “sedentary” or “light” work categories.
These limits can affect your ability to work full-time even if you can lift and carry things.
If these limits affect you, they’re worth documenting. They explain the difference between being able to do something briefly and being able to do it reliably all day for full-time work.
Strong grid-based cases have medical records clearly supporting the functional limits that place you in a specific RFC level. That means your records connect your symptoms to work-related limits over time.
Here are important RFC details:
When you talk to your provider, describe your limits in detail. For example, say, “I can stand about 10 minutes before I need to sit.” Or “I need to change positions every 15 to 20 minutes to keep my symptoms from spiking.”
You’re not telling your provider what to write. You’re giving them clear information so their notes reflect your day-to-day functional limitations.
Consistency matters too. When the same limits show up across visitation notes, it’s easier for the SSA to see them as ongoing, not from one bad day.
Your work history isn’t just job titles. The SSA needs to know what you did for work, how physical it was, and if your skills could transfer to other jobs that fit your RFC.
A strong work history summary includes:
The goal isn’t to make your job sound worse than it was. It’s to be specific so the SSA isn’t guessing what you did from a job title.
Here’s a good example: “I packed orders most of the shift, lifting 30-50 pounds regularly. I used a pallet jack, stood and walked most of the day, and didn’t do office paperwork beyond scanning.”
If you think the grids might help in your case, follow these practical next steps.
Advocate’s disability experts and clinical staff can review your case and help you understand what the SSA is likely to focus on. We can see how relevant the grid framework is in your case.
We can also help you gather records and document your work history and functional limits. We support you throughout the process, including appeals if needed.
Plus, there’s $0 upfront cost. You only pay if you win.
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Talk with our team about your situation. We'll walk you through what comes next.
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Get EvaluationYes. The grid rules are used in disability decisions for both SSI and SSDI. The programs have different non-medical requirements, but the medical and vocational evaluation works the same.
Probably not. The grid rules don’t usually apply if you’re younger than 50. The SSA is more likely to say you can adjust to other work if it believes you can do sedentary or light work.
If you’re younger than 50, focus on clearly documenting all your limits, including non-exertional limits. The key question is whether you can sustain full-time work, not just do tasks briefly.
Yes, sometimes. It depends on what you did at work and what your limits are now. Make sure the SSA has a detailed work description for each job, not just job titles.
The official grid tables are in SSA regulations: Appendix 2 to Subpart P of Part 404.
No. You don’t need a representative to understand the grids or gather the right information. Some cases are straightforward. Others get more complicated when non-exertional limits or transferable skills are in dispute.
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