Employment Issues in Social Security Disability Cases

Some of the issues that can arise in a Social Security disability case stem from the performance of your past relevant work. The Social Security regulations provide that statements made by the claimant with regard to past work are usually enough to determine the skill level of such work, as well as the related exertional and non-exertional demands of the job.  Your New York Social Security disability attorney can further assist you with preparing for your testimony.

The regulations further provide that if a vocational expert or specialist testifies, he or she may offer pertinent evidence regarding the physical and mental demands of a claimant’s past relevant work, either relating to how claimant did it or as it is typically done in the national economy. Such evidence may prove helpful in evaluating the truthfulness of the claimant’s explanation of his or her prior work.

Judges will also be curious as to what the physical and mental demands of the claimant’s prior jobs are as normally required by other employers in the national economy. This issue will arise if you are not able to do any of your prior jobs as you actually performed them, but those jobs concerned functional demands that are considerably more than what is commonly required by other employers.

It is important for you to note that you will be found not disabled if you have the ability to perform any of your prior jobs as normally required by employers in the national economy.  If you need a New York Social Security disability attorney, please contact Markhoff & Mittman, PC for a free consultation.