DISABILITY BENEFIT MAY HINGE ON YOUR PAST WORK

For claimants who are at lest 50 years of age, Social Security places a lot of emphasis on past work. Especially important questions are:

1. How much physical work was involved in your past jobs? How much standing, walking, bending, kneeling, lifting and reaching. The harder the job was physically, the more likely you are to be found disabled.

2. How skilled was the past work and did you gain any transferable skills? In other words, how difficult would it be for you to adjust to a slightly different job that is easier than the one you were doing?

One of the first things I do when preparing a claimant for a hearing is to review past relevant work. That is all the full-time work the claimant has done during the most recent 15-year period. It is important to present to the presiding judge certain facts about each job: a brief, basic description of each job; how many hours was the claimant standing/walking/sitting during a typical 8-hour workday? and what is the maximum lifting required for each job? This information helps to place each past job into an "exertional category"--sedentary, light, medium, heavy or very heavy wok.

This can be tedious and time consuming investigation--but absolutely critical to the success of your case. Your advocate will ask you, "How many hours per day did you stand in this job? How many hours did you walk in a typical day? What is the maximum weight you had to lift? The information garnered by these questions will be used in your hearing and may hold the key to favorable decision.

It is important to distinguish between demands of past work and your current limitations. How much you were expected to lift on your past job is not the same as how much are you able to lift now? One is past, the other is present. One is about a job you can no longer do and the other is about how you are restricted today. For example: On my past job, I was required to lift up to 50 pounds frequently. Today, due to my back impairment, I can not lift more than 10 pounds occasionally." Therefore, I could not perform the requirements of my previous job.

Honestly, Social Security disability is confusing, frustrating and complicated. That's why most claimants trying to get benefits hire an experienced advocate/attorney to help them. It saves a lot of anguish and doubles the odds of success, according to some studies.