Social Security Regulation SSR 83-10 defines light work as lifting no more than 20 pounds at time with frequent lifting or carrying up to 10 pounds. Light work requires a great deal of walking or standing-standing or walking for as much as 6 hours out of an 8 hour workday. Sitting is intermittent.

A light job could also involve sitting most of the time with some pushing and pulling of your arm and hands or using leg and foot controls. For more information, and for more help with your claim, click here or call 727-894-3188.

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Social Security Ruling SSR 83-10 defines medium work as lifting no more than 50 pounds at a time with frequent lifting or carrying of objects weighing up to 25 pounds. This requires frequent bending and stooping.

The full range of medium work requires you to stand or walk, off and on, for a total of 6 hours in a 8 hour day and use your arms and hands to grasp, hold, and turn objects.

One of the most important factors in medium work is being on your feet for most of the day and be able to do frequent lifting or carrying up to 25 pounds. For more information, and for more help with your claim, click here or call 727-894-3188.

If you would like more information about your rights regarding Social Security Disability Benefits, you can order our FREE book,"Your Rights to Social Security Disability Benefits" by submitting the form in the sidebar. We will send it out immediately along with other important information.

For more information about Social Security Disability Benefits, visit our law firm web site at CaveyLaw.com. If you would like to speak with one of our Social Security Disability Benefits attorneys about your case, feel free to call us anytime at (727) 897-9117 or simply submit our contact form and we will get back to you quickly.

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What is a transferable work skill? This concept creates tremendous problems in the determination of whether you are entitled to Social Security Disability benefits. If you look at the Medical-Vocational Guidelines or Grids, you will find a number of odd things.

There are Grids for Sedentary, Light and Medium work and the Grids provide that you will never be found disabled if you have skills that transfer to other jobs in the physical category that exist in the national economy in significant numbers. So, if your are restricted to sedentary work and your skills as a receptionist would transfer to the skills of a phone operator, you are not disabled.

Another odd factor is your age plays a role in transferability of skills, If you are 50 years or older and can only do sedentary work, the whole outcome of your cases depends on whether you have skills that would transfer to sedentary work. But if you are 55 years or older and only do light work, the whole outcome of your case depends on whether you skills transfer to semiskilled or skilled light work.

The older you are, the easier it is to show that you skills are not transferable to other jobs.

If your work was unskilled, SSA presumes that you have no transferable skills. Transferable skills becomes an issue if you have done semiskilled or skilled work in the past.

We will illustrate how the Grids consider of your age, education, transferable skills, and residual functional capacity (RFC) in a future posting so you can actually see how this analysis is done by SSA. For more information, and for more help with your claim, click here or call 727-894-3188.

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You can’t work because of you disability but how do you prove that to the Social Security Administration (SSA)? Most cases are decided by the SSA at Hurdle 5: Other Work. SSA applies a Grid evaluation process that looks at your age, education, transferable work skills, and your residual functional capacity (RFC).

Your doctor will hopefully write in your medical records what you can physically do despite your disability. Not all doctors understand the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) and the Social Security regulation definitions of medium, light, and sedentary work. Perhaps your disability cross over the physical requirements of light and sedentary work. What happens?

The Social Security regulations say that SSA can’t apply one of the Grid rules to your case, unless you are capable of doing a “full or wide range” of work at the exertional level that applies to the applicable Grid. In other words, you must be capable of doing a full or wide range of work at the sedentary, light, or medium level.

You or your representative must understand the definitions of sedentary, light, and medium work so the proper Grid is applied to your case. For more information, and for more help with your claim, click here or call 727-894-3188.

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The last factor in the Grids is your work experience. Do you remember when you filled out your application for Social Security Disability you were asked to list the jobs you held for the 15 years before you became disabled? You were asked about your job duties, what you did, how you did it, and the ins and outs of your job.

Did you think to ask why you were being asked those questions and what that had to do with your claim for Social Security Disability Benefits?

The Social Security Administration (SSA) classifies work as unskilled, semiskilled, and skilled. The Social Security regulations define unskilled work as work that you learned in 30 days. Every thing else is semiskilled or skilled.

One of the most commonly questions asked by SSA is “Are your skills transferable to another job?” If you have done secretarial work and answered the phone, are those phone skills something you could take to another job like a security monitor? Those are the kinds of questions that SSA will be asking in making a disability determination.

So, when you fill out those forms asking about your prior job duties, don’t puff your resume! Be honest about your job and your job duties. Puffing can come back to haunt you if you have to explain to the Administrative Law Judge deciding your case that you really did not have managerial duties or really did not do what you said you did on your application. What do you think that will do to your chances of winning with that Judge? For more information, and for more help with your claim, click here or call 727-894-3188.

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