Whether you can qualify for Social Security Disability or SSI benefits is generally based upon a work standard. The standard is whether you can perform work which exists in the national economy. This work needs to be able to be performed either full-time or at a level that rises to substantial gainful activity or $1350 a month in 2022. The problem with the words “national economy,” however, is that it is very vague. In this blog post we are going to briefly discuss and explore what is and is not work in the national economy.
For work to exist in the national economy, such a job must exist in “significant numbers.” Essentially, this means that it cannot be a rare job that hardly anyone knows of; nor can it be an old job that no longer exists, such as an elevator operator. This hypothetical job must also exist in significant numbers in either the local region in which you live or at least several regions throughout the nation. Unfortunately, this means that a job may not even be available near you but may still be used to determine that you can in fact work.
Examples of factors that generally have no effect upon whether such a hypothetical job exists include: a job that does not exist in your local area, jobs that have no available openings, whether you would actually be hired if you applied, whether you have tried to secure a position, the hiring practices of employers, technological changes in the industry, economic conditions, and whether you want to do a particular type of work or not.
Instead of using any of these factors, Social Security and the Vocational Experts that determine whether you can or cannot work a job utilize a variety of vocational databases such as Skill Tran, the Dictionary of Occupational Titles, the Occupational Outlook Handbook, and other publications that analyze jobs and vocational requirements. We at Mission Possible recommend that you give our representatives a call to have a vocational evaluation performed on your past work to discuss how to improve your chances of obtaining disability benefits.
– Michael
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