How does the Social Security Administration decide whether a claimant seeking Winston-Salem or North Carolina disability benefits can still work?
The Social Security Administration goes through several different steps when it evaluates your North Carolina disability claim, but a significant part of its decision process is the evaluation of whether or not you can still work.
Many of my North Carolina and Winston-Salem disability clients are confused by the way that the Social Security Administration approaches this issue.
This confusion is normal because the Social Security rules and guidelines are technical and complex. Furthermore, the Social Security Administration breaks down the question of whether or not you can work into several sub-questions. I cannot cover every detail here, but I will briefly go through the main steps that the Social Security Administration takes.
Is it enough to get North Carolina disability benefits that I cannot do my old job?
As a very beginning step, the Social Security Administration will look at whether or not you are working (and whether it considers your job to qualify as “substantial gainful activity”).
However, this is only a first step, and the fact that you cannot do your old job is not enough to qualify you for North Carolina or Winston-Salem disability benefits because even if you cannot do your old job, unless your impairment matches an impairment on a specific list of impairment, the Social Security Administration will analyze whether or not you can do any of your “past relevant work” or any “other work.”
What counts as “past relevant work”?
When the Social Security Administration looks at your “past relevant work” it looks at every job that you have done in the past 15 years. That means that the question is not just whether or not you can do the job that you just had, but whether or not you can do any job (as long as the Social Security Administration considers that job to qualify as “substantial gainful activity”) that you have held in the last 15 years.
The main things that matter about this past job are that you did it long enough to learn how to do it, and that you could still do it. Sometimes the way the Social Security Administration looks at past jobs might not seem fair. For example:
- Some past part-time work might count if it is considered “substantial gainful activity.”
- Even though you could no longer do the job as it was done when you did it, if the job has changed so that it requires less exertion than it used to, then you might not be found disabled.
- It doesn’t matter whether or not the job is still available or even if it still exists.
What counts as “other work”?
Anything that is considered “substantial gainful activity” counts as “other work” when the Social Security Administration is evaluating whether or not you can perform some other work despite your impairment.
This decision about whether or not you can do other work can be a very complicated matter because it involves several factors and is extremely hypothetical.
The Social Security Administration uses a Vocational Expert on this issue, and asks the expert to look at your work ability, your age, your education, and your past work experience, and come up with an opinion about whether or not you are able to perform any other work. And to make it worse, this other work doesn’t have to be available in Winston-Salem, or even in North Carolina; it only has to exist “in significant numbers in the national economy.”
Get knowledgeable and experienced help from a North Carolina disability lawyer
The rules and regulations of the Social Security Administration are complex and contain a lot of specialized definitions. I work in this area all the time and can help develop all the factors of your case.
If you would like me to evaluate your North Carolina disability claim, use the contact information below or the evaluation form to the right.
Dorman and Howie, PC
North Carolina disability lawyers
210 East Dalton Road
King, North Carolina 27021
