Your health is keeping you from returning to a job you once did. Social Security may reach a different conclusion. If it finds that you can still do that work, it may deny your disability claim at that stage.
Social Security looks at your current physical and mental limits. It then compares them with the demands of your past work. If you receive this type of denial, you may want to review how Social Security described your old job. You can check whether that description matches the work you actually did.
How Social Security measures what you can do
Social Security uses residual functional capacity to describe the most you can still do despite limits from your health. Medical records and other evidence help show how those limits affect physical and mental job tasks.
The agency then looks at your past relevant work. This generally means qualifying work from the period Social Security considers under its current rules. The work must meet the agency’s earnings standard and last long enough for you to learn the job. If your abilities still allow you to perform that work, Social Security will find that you are not disabled at this stage.
Why the details of your old job matter
Your job title may give only a basic idea of what you did each day. Social Security also looks at the duties you actually performed. Your work history helps show how much lifting, standing or other activity your former job required.
That description does not control the entire decision. Even if you cannot perform the job exactly as you once did, Social Security may decide that you can do the same type of work as people generally perform it across the country.
Reviewing your work history
You may want to review the jobs you reported and compare them with the work you actually did. Consider noting which duties your health now makes difficult or prevents you from doing. Keeping those details with your medical records may help you explain your work history more clearly as you navigate the process.