 SSDRC What is the Application Process for Social Security Disability and SSI? How do you Win Benefits under Social Security Disability or SSI? If I am determined disabled, how far back will Social Security pay benefits? How do you prove your disability case if you have a mental condition? What Can I Do to Improve My Chances of Winning Disability Benefits Common Mistakes after Receiving a Denial of Social Security Disability or SSI Benefits How to File for Disability - Tips for Filing If You Get Approved For SSDI Will You Also Get Medicare? How much does a Social Security disability attorney get paid? Social Security Disability SSI Criteria and the Evaluation Process How long does it take to be approved for SSI or Social Security disability? What do you Need to Prove to Qualify for Disability Benefits? Social Security Disability SSI and Fibromyalgia Social Security Disability SSI and Degenerative Disc Disease Can I Qualify For Disability and Receive Benefits based on Depression? Answers to questions about SSD and SSI disability What Disabilities Qualify for SSI and Social Security Disability Benefits? Social Security Disability Status Social Security Disability Tips — how a claim gets worked on Social Security Disability, SSI Disability - Terms, Definitions, Concepts |
What does social security mean by past work?How to prove you are disabled and win disability benefits When you file an initial claim (or an appeal) for social security disability or SSI, the disability examiner who reviews your case uses your medical records to determine what your phsyical and mental capabilities are. The assessment of your current capabilities is known as your RFC rating. RFC stands for residual functional capacity. For example, some claimants, after a review of their records, are considered to have a light RFC, meaning they are considered by the social security administration to be only capable of light exertion, or light duty, work activity (for SSA purposes, light work is work in which you would be required to lift ten pounds frequently and twenty pounds occasionally). If you are restricted to light work, meaning that you have a light RFC rating, and your past work was medium work (meaning that your past work required the ability to lift twenty-five pounds frequently and fifty pounds occasionally), then you would not be considered capable of going back to your past work. In such a case, the disability examiner would need to consider whether or not you are capable of doing some type of other work that you might seem logically suited for based on your age, educational level, acquired job skills and the transferrability of those skills to other jobs, and, of course, your residual functional capacity rating. Past work is the step of the sequential evaluation process (the process used by the social security administration to decide disability claims in which the claimant has not met the approval criteria of a listing in the impairment listing manual, or blue book) where many claims are denied. But what exactly is past work? Past work potentially includes all the jobs that you might have done in the past fifteen years. This fifteen year period is known as the relevant period. Jobs performed in this timeframe are considered in the disability claim process because it is thought that any job skills you may have acquired in such jobs might still be "relevant" to the current labor market. However, not every job that you did in the last fifteen years would necessarily be considered by SSA. If you worked a job in the relevant period but did not do the job long enough to learn its requirements (for example, if you quit the job in the training period), or you did not work and earn what SSA refers to as a "substantial and gainful income" while you had the job, then the job will not be considered by the disability examiner when he or she evaluates your ability (or inability) to go back to an old job. continued at: How does the social security administration get information about your past work? 
Return to: SSDRC, or the Questions, Answers, Tips, and Advice page Topics and Questions SSD and SSI are Federal Programs The title II Social Security Disability and title 16 SSI Disability programs operate under federal guidelines and, therefore, the program requirements--medical and non-medical--apply to all states: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming Recent approval and denial statistics for various states can be viewed here: Social Security Disability, SSI Approval and Denial Statistics by state Special Section: Disability Lawyers and unnecessary claim denials |