Many clients will tell me that they enjoy working, and they loved their last job.
Some even think that they could do that previous job, it’s just that they were laid off, or the job moved. While they have medical conditions that affect their ability to work, a bigger issue for them is that they simply can’t find a job.
But does that help with a disability case? Like many parts of Social Security law, it’s complicated, and often depends quite a bit on each individual case, and even the specific testimony that might come up at a hearing.
The hard and fast rule is that your ability to find a job doesn’t matter to Social Security. Even if you live in an area with no, or few jobs, Social Security will likely find that there are other jobs somewhere in the national economy that you can do.
However, if you have limitations from your medical impairments that significantly erode the vocational base, meaning that the potential jobs that you could perform do not exist in significant numbers in the national economy, you can still be found disabled.
Furthermore, once you reach the age of 50, Social Security begins to take into account the so-called “grid rules.” Under the grid rules, SSA can find that you can perform unskilled sedentary jobs, but if you haven’t done a job like that in the last five years, you’ll still be found disabled.
