SSA Changes Past Relevant Work Rule

On 6/22/24, the Social Security Administration changed how they determine Past Relevant Work. In the past, the Administration went back 15 years prior to the date of the hearing, or the date last insured if expired, to determine past relevant work. This means at step four of the process, we had to prove you could not perform any of the work you had performed in the previous 15 years. This has now changed to only include the previous 5 years. This means that now we only have to prove you cannot return to the work performed in the previous five years at step four of the process. What does this mean for you? A couple things: it can have a large impact on hearings if the type of work you had done previously changed dramatically, and you don’t have to give testimony regarding, or try to remember all the small details of, work you performed more than five years prior to the hearing date (or date last insured).