Can You Do Your Prior Job? It Matters in Disability Cases

In many social security disability cases, the government must show that you are able to work in any job that may be available in the economy. But what about your actual job — the job that you last worked at full time, before suffering your disability?

That matters as well. As part of a disability claim, you must show a court that you cannot return to the work you were last doing before your disability started. If you can return to work in your most recent job, you won’t be able to get disability benefits.

Prior Work

Often, people applying for disability cannot return to their prior work–that’s why they’re applying for disability. If they could go back to their prior work, they would have done so. And for people who may work in more physically demanding jobs, who have physical disabilities, it might be a bit easier to show they cannot go back to their most recent field of employment.

Physically Easy Jobs

But sometimes people applying for disability last worked in jobs that the public does not see as being physically demanding, and in fact, many jobs don’t take a lot of physical exertion–at least the public doesn’t perceive those jobs that way.

As an example, imagine a secretary who is applying for disability. The judge may see secretarial work as very light, physically, with little or no physical exertion required.

A social security disability attorney must point out to the judge that the prior secretarial job required lifting boxes, moving file cabinets, sitting long periods of time, or doing other things that take some measure of physicality.

Or, imagine that the secretary, because of his or her injury or disability, must be on medication that prevents him or her from focusing, remembering or concentrating–all things required of a good secretarial job.

Transferable Skills

OK, so you can’t do your prior job. But did that job give you skills, called transferable skills, that you can apply to a new job? Social security will look at what skills your most recent job required, which could be used to do some other job in the national economy.

Social security will ask, did your prior job give you skills, and can those skills be used elsewhere–are they transferrable to another job? Even seemingly “easy” skills can be transferrable skills, like alphabetizing or counting or using computer software.

Some people acquire skills through their work, but those skills really aren’t transferable to another work environment. They may be in work that is highly specialized.

Unskilled Jobs

You may have last worked in what the law calls an unskilled job. That sounds like an insult, but when it comes to social security that’s a good thing because the law assumes you acquired no transferrable skills, working in an unskilled job, making it easier to get your disability benefits.

Usually, jobs that can be completely learned and trained for in 30 days, will be considered unskilled.

Schedule a consultation with our Tampa personal injury lawyers at Barbas, Nunez, Sanders, Butler & Hovsepian today if you feel you may be right for disability or if you had a disability claim denied.

Sources:

ssa.gov/blog/en/posts/2024-07-15.html

ssa.gov/OP_Home/rulings/di/02/SSR82-41-di-02.html