(a) General. The Board will consider vocational factors when the claimant is applying for—

(1) An employee annuity based on disability for any regular employment; (See § 220.45(b))

(2) Widow(er) disability annuity; or

(3) Child's disability annuity based on disability before age 22.

(b) Disability determinations in which vocational factors must be considered along with medical evidence. When the Board cannot decide whether the claimant is disabled on medical evidence alone, the Board must use other evidence.

(1) The Board will use information from the claimant about his or her age, education, and work experience.

(2) The Board will consider the doctors' reports, and hospital records, as well as the claimant's own statements and other evidence to determine a claimant's residual functional capacity and how it affects the work the claimant can do. Sometimes, to do this, the Board will need to ask the claimant to have special examinations or tests. (See § 220.50.)

(3) If the Board finds that the claimant can no longer do the work he or she has done in the past, the Board will determine whether the claimant can do other work (jobs) which exist in significant numbers in the national economy.