Steward

MEMORANDUM *

We reverse the judgment of the district court and remand with instructions to remand to the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) for an award of benefits.

The vocational expert (VE) testified that each of the three jobs was semi-skilled and had a Specific Vocational Preparation level of three (SVP-3). Under Social Security Administration (SSA) rulings and regulations, an applicant must possess transferable skills from previous work in order to perform SVP-3 jobs. 1 The ALJ found, however, that Steward had no transferable skills. Thus, Steward was not capable of performing the jobs as a matter of SSA regulations, even if persuasive evidence supported the VE’s deviation from the skill levels in the Dictionary of Occupational Titles [DOT].

The VE’s subsequent testimony that Steward could in fact perform the jobs because they were entry-level and required no transferable skills was inconsistent with the regulatory definitions of “SVP-3” and “semi-skilled.” The ALJ was not entitled to rely on this portion of the VE’s testimony. 3 We disagree with the Commissioner’s characterization of this issue as an evidentiary conflict between the VE and the DOT. The issue is a legal…