You know you can’t go back to your old job. Maybe you spent years working in construction, manufacturing, healthcare, a warehouse, or another physically demanding job. Your medical condition now makes that work impossible. Then Social Security denies your disability claim because it believes you can do a less physically demanding, “sit-down” job.
Can Social Security really deny you for that reason? Yes, but being able to sit does not automatically mean you can work. Social Security has to look at what you can actually do despite your medical limitations and, in some cases, whether you can adjust to other work.
For Michigan disability applicants, a denial based on the ability to do other work may leave out limitations that make even a desk job difficult or impossible to maintain.
Can Social Security Deny Disability If You Can’t Do Your Old Job?
Yes. Being unable to return to your previous job does not necessarily qualify you for Social Security Disability.
Social Security uses a multi-step process to decide whether an adult is disabled. If your condition prevents you from performing your past relevant work, Social Security may then look at whether you can adjust to other work that exists in significant numbers in the national economy.
For someone who spent years doing physical work, this can lead to a frustrating result. Social Security may agree that you can no longer do the job you have always done but still deny the claim because it believes you could perform less physically demanding work.
What Does Social Security Consider a Sedentary or “Sit-Down” Job?
Social Security generally refers to this type of work as sedentary work, but sedentary work means more than simply being able to sit in a chair.
Under Social Security guidance, performing the full range of sedentary work generally requires being able to sit for about six hours during an eight-hour workday. A person also generally needs to be capable of standing and walking for up to about two hours and lifting no more than 10 pounds at a time.
Depending on your medical conditions, Social Security may also need to consider limitations involving your hands, concentration, ability to follow instructions, ability to interact with other people, and other work-related activities. The issue is whether you can reliably meet the demands of a job throughout a normal work schedule, not whether you can sit for a period of time.
What If You Can Sit but Not for 6 Hours a Day?
Someone may be able to sit through a doctor's appointment or watch television from a chair at home and still be unable to sit through most of an eight-hour workday. Social Security's guidance recognizes that the full range of sedentary work generally requires approximately six hours of sitting, with normal breaks at roughly two-hour intervals.
A person's ability to do sedentary work may be more limited if a medical condition requires them to:
- Frequently switch between sitting and standing
- Elevate their legs during the day
- Lie down at unpredictable times
- Take extra or prolonged breaks
- Avoid prolonged sitting because of pain
- Miss work regularly because of symptoms or medical treatment
- Limit how often they use their hands
- Deal with problems involving concentration, memory, or pace
Social Security's RFC guidance looks at whether a person can sustain work activities on a regular and continuing basis, generally eight hours per day, five days per week, or an equivalent schedule. Being able to sit for an hour is very different from being able to meet the demands of a full-time sedentary job week after week.
How Does Your RFC Affect a Social Security Disability Denial?
Social Security calls what you can still do despite your limitations your residual functional capacity, usually shortened to RFC.
An RFC can include physical and mental restrictions caused by your medical conditions and related symptoms, including pain. Social Security uses it when deciding whether you can perform your past work and, when necessary, whether there is other work you can do.
This is also why a diagnosis by itself does not tell Social Security everything it needs to know. Someone with severe back problems, for example, may have trouble sitting for long periods, need to alternate between sitting and standing, have limits on lifting and walking, or need additional breaks because of pain. The same diagnosis can affect two people very differently, so the records showing what your condition prevents you from doing are an important part of the disability claim.
Does Age Matter If Social Security Says You Can Do a Sit-Down Job?
Yes. When Social Security decides whether you can adjust to other work, it considers your RFC along with factors that include your age, education, and work experience.
For example, someone who spent decades doing physical labor and can no longer perform that work is not evaluated solely on whether a desk job theoretically exists. Social Security has vocational rules for deciding whether someone can adjust to other work based on the factors that apply to the claim.
At the hearing level, a vocational expert may also testify about jobs that Social Security believes a person with certain limitations could perform. The limitations included in that analysis matter. If the person's actual limitations are more restrictive than the ones Social Security considered, the jobs identified may not reflect what that person can realistically do.
What If Social Security Says You Can Do Sedentary Work but You Can’t?
A denial that says you can perform sedentary or other work does not necessarily mean the issue is over. The next question is why Social Security believes you can do that work and whether the medical evidence supports the limitations it used to reach that decision.
At Bruce Weider, PC, Social Security Disability claims and appeals are a major part of our practice. Bruce Weider has more than 30 years of experience helping people in Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor, and communities throughout Michigan pursue disability benefits.
If Social Security says you can do a “sit-down job” but pain, physical restrictions, mental limitations, or other symptoms prevent you from maintaining that kind of work, contact Bruce Weider, PC. We can review the denial, the medical evidence, and the work limitations Social Security used to decide your claim.
