One thing many clients tell me led them to apply for disability is that there are simply no jobs where they live.
This is especially true for claimants who live in rural areas where the only employer may be a gas station or grocery store with lifting or standing requirements that they can no longer meet.
I’ll admit, in theory, this is a good reason to apply for disability if you have other medical conditions as well. Unfortunately, Social Security doesn’t quite agree.
When the SSA reviews your disability application, they consider not just whether you can do your past jobs in the last five years as they are actually and typically performed, but also whether there are any jobs at all in the national economy that you could perform.
That gets tricky, because everyone at SSA may fully agree there’s no way you could work as a cashier or bagger near you, but then suggest you get jobs as a sorter or inspector, that allegedly exist somewhere else in the country hundreds, or maybe thousands of miles away.
So, is there a way around this? The best thing you can do is get regular medical treatment, as the more evidence showing the severity of your condition you send to Social Security, the more likely they are to agree you are disabled.
But if you do get to a hearing, it also may not be a bad idea to tell a judge how hard it is to find jobs near you. It’s not something that’s officially part of how cases are decided, but some judges are more understanding of this reasoning than others. Still, exactly how location will impact your disability claim is something you should discuss with a disability attorney early on in the process.
