Fed Regist. 2012 Jul 25;77(143):43492-6.
We are revising our rules to give adjudicators the discretion to proceed to the fifth step of the sequential evaluation process for assessing disability when we have insufficient information about a claimant's past relevant work history to make the findings required for step 4. If an adjudicator finds at step 5 that a claimant may be unable to adjust to other work existing in the national economy, the adjudicator will return to the fourth step to develop the claimant's work history and make a finding about whether the claimant can perform his or her past relevant work. We expect that this new expedited process will not disadvantage any claimant or change the ultimate conclusion about whether a claimant is disabled, but it will promote administrative efficiency and help us make more timely disability determinations and decisions.
我们正在修订规则，以便在我们没有足够关于申请人过去相关工作经历的信息来做出第四步所需的认定时，赋予裁决者酌情权，进入连续评估过程的第五步以评估残疾情况。如果裁决者在第五步发现申请人可能无法适应国民经济中存在的其他工作，裁决者将返回第四步，完善申请人的工作经历，并就申请人是否能够从事其过去的相关工作做出认定。我们预计，这一新的快速程序不会对任何申请人不利，也不会改变关于申请人是否残疾的最终结论，但它将提高行政效率，并帮助我们更及时地做出残疾认定和决定。
