Chapter: I-3-7
Subject: Appeals Council Remands
This transmittal amends section I-3-7-13 of chapter I-3-7 of the Hearings, Appeals, and Litigation Law (HALLEX) manual to implement Social Security Ruling (SSR) 24-3p, Titles II and XVI: Use of Occupational Information and Vocational Specialist and Vocational Expert Evidence in Disability Determinations and Decisions, which replaces SSR 00-4p: Titles II and XVI: Use of Vocational Expert and Vocational Specialist Evidence, and Other Reliable Occupational Information in Disability Decisions.
I-3-7-13 – We updated the list of issues that the Appeals Council may remand a case for due to the need for an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) to obtain additional vocational evidence. The list was updated to reflect that the needed vocational evidence included examples such as whether the vocational expert (VE) identified the source(s) of data they used; accounted for or explained the differences between the source of data the VE relied on and programmatic definitions; accounted for or explained how a cited occupation may be performed differently with more modern materials and processes for the occupations listed in EM-24027; and described their general process for estimating job numbers.
Date: January 6, 2025