If you’ve received a denial or two from Social Security, you may find a section that states you’re not disabled because you have “transferable skills” to other types of work.
The transferable skills issue is one of the most more complicated and frustrating aspects of the disability system.
This issue tends to arise in cases where a claimant is over the age of 50. Social Security agrees that the individual is limited to sit down work and has done work at a higher exertional level within the past five years, but in their opinion, this individual also has transferable skills to other types of work that can be done while seated.
Transferable skills can be as complex as using a specific type of machinery, or as mundane as customer service or even telephone use. Whether these skills actually are transferable to another line of work is largely a judgement call of the examiner looking at the file.
And more often than not, the jobs that these skills supposedly transfer to barely even exist in the 21st century American economy.
Here’s the good news: experienced disability attorneys can usually argue around the transferable skill issue at a hearing. In many cases, a vocational expert will testify at a hearing that actually, Social Security got it wrong.
Attorneys can also argue that the jobs that these skills transfer to are too different to matter. Sometimes, Social Security just miscategorized past work.
So, while it can be frustrating to be denied over transferable skills, it’s also very much worth appealing a denial in this scenario.
