When you filed for Social Security Disability (SSD), you probably anticipated a lot of questions about your health. So why does the paperwork include questions about what work you’ve done and require you to describe it in excruciating detail, including how much you lifted, how often you had to bend or kneel and how long you spent on your feet?
The answer is that a disability decision involves more than your diagnosis. The Social Security Administration (SSA) also must consider whether your medical condition prevents you from doing your most recent job or jobs.
Your job title isn’t always an explanation of your work
Two people can have the same job title and still spend their workdays very differently. One person called an “office manager” may spend the entire day at their desk handling emails and phone calls. In another office, the manager may spend a large chunk of their day moving boxes of supplies, standing at a counter sorting mail, kneeling and bending to file paperwork and helping customers.
The reason SSA requires a complete description of your actual duties to understand the demands of your past work activity in relation to the limitations you have due to your conditions. SSA looks specifically at the work you’ve performed in the last five years when deciding whether you can return to one of those jobs. Claims examiners must compare the physical and mental demands of that work with what you can do now, given your disabilities.
The work activity form SSA requires you to complete includes questions about:
- How much time you spent sitting, standing and walking
- The heaviest items you lifted and how often you lifted them
- Tasks that required concentration, memory or working with other people
- Equipment you used, decisions you made and people you supervised
Details matter. If your job involved lifting boxes every day, writing only “customer service” could leave SSA with an incomplete picture. Similarly, a job that sounds physically demanding may have included long periods of sitting.
Be as specific and accurate as you can when describing your work. Think about what you did on a typical day and what you had to do occasionally, even if it was not in your job description. If your condition caused you to reduce your hours, change duties or leave a job, explain that too. An experienced disability attorney can help you present a clear work history and address mistakes or missing details that could affect how your claim is evaluated.