What does social security mean by other work?

In the course of deciding whether or not an applicant for SSDI or SSI will be eligible to receive benefits, two decisions will most likely be made.

The first is this: Can the claimant do their past work? Depending on the demands of their past work and what their current functional limitations are, it may be decided that they are no longer capable of performing their past work. In fact, this is fairly common.

The second question, then, is this: Can the claimant do "other work"?

As you may have guessed by now, it is not enough, in the eyes of the social security adminisration for a claimant to be so disabled that they cannot return to their job. They must, to satisfy the disability criteria used by SSA, prove that their condition prevents them from doing other forms of work.

So, what is "other work"? Other work? Other can potentially equate to any work that the social security administration can cite from a dictionary of occupational titles, which is essentially a listing of jobs that exist within the national economy. It doesn't matter, of course, whether or not these jobs actually exist in a claimant's city or town of residence, or even exists within their state of evidence. As long as the job exists somewhere in the country, a claimant may potentially be denied disability if it is determined that they are capable of doing other work.

So, then, what prevents a person from being given a disability denial on the basis that they can do other work? Basically, a claimant's work history and the job skills they have will be a large determinant. Individuals who have transferable work skills will be considered more likely to be able to transition to other forms of work. Individuals with higher levels of education will also be considered more likely to be able to transition to other forms of work. In this way, of course, the social security administration penalizes individuals who have more education and greater job skills versus claimants with less education and fewer job skills.

Other factors that come into consideration are a claimant's age and the claimant's physical and mental limitations. Regarding age, it should be fairly obvious to most that older individuals will typically find it harder to transition to other forms of work, while individuals with mental limitations (including problems with depression, anxiety, memory, and cognition) and physical limitations (for instance,difficulty lifting more than a certain amount of weight or difficulty sitting or standing for more than a certain length of time due to a back problem) will find it difficult to adapt to the specific job requirements of other work--not to mention the fact that employers may screen out job applicants who are known to possess certain problems and limitations.

Other work is very often the means by which social security will deny a case for disability. How does a claimant guard against this? At the disability application and request for reconsideration levels, there may be little that a claimant can do other than to be sure that the work history information they submit is complete and detailed. At the disability hearing level, however, a disability representative (a disability attorney or a non-attorney representative) may be successful in arguing that a claimant's limitations and vocational considerations (age, skills, education) rule out the ability to engage in competitive employment.









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Social Security Disability Secrets

Social Security Disability Requirements




Other Posts and Pages
How to get on disability
How to qualify for disability benefits
Does my condition qualify for disability - links
Can you get a second Social Security Disability Hearing if a judge denies you?
When should you get a Representative for Social Security Disability or SSI?