How Sedentary Work Affects Your Eligibility for Financial Help
Serious health problems change everything—what you can do every day at home, and what you can do at work.
When you can’t work much at all because of your health, Social Security Disability benefits could provide vital monthly income support to stabilize your life.
The main requirement is being unable to work because of your medical issues. But what if you can do much less demanding work, what Social Security calls “sedentary work,” where you’re mostly sitting?
Sedentary work has a highly specific meaning to Social Security. On this page, the Arizona Social Security Disability lawyers at Slepian Ellexson break it down for you.
Being able to do sedentary work could complicate your disability claim, but it doesn’t mean you’ll never get approved. You have to approach your case the right way.
In Arizona, you can talk to us at Slepian Ellexson to better understand your individual situation. We’ve helped thousands of people secure life-changing disability benefits.
YOU PAY NO DISABILITY ATTORNEY FEE until you win benefits.
How Strenuous Was Your Job? Social Security’s Range from Sedentary Work to Very Heavy Work
As Social Security decides whether you have a disability that , claims examiners will look at your past work, they’ll look at your health issues, and they’ll look at how your health now interferes with your work.
They may place your ability to work into one of five categories. “Sedentary work” is the least physical work. “Very heavy work” is the most physical.
If Social Security decides sedentary work is the most you can do, that means fewer jobs are possible for you, and you could be more likely to win benefits.
But they also could decide that you can do sedentary work and you’re qualified for sedentary jobs—so you can work, period. Then you’ll be .
If claims examiners decide you can do heavy or very heavy work, you’ll probably be denied.
This is how the Social Security Administration defines these levels of physical work:
- Sedentary Work
Your job doesn’t require you to lift or carry more than 10 pounds at a time. You might need to carry items like office supplies or small tools. You do most of your job sitting, but you need to stand and walk occasionally.
- Light Work
You occasionally need to lift objects up to 20 pounds for your job and frequently up to 10-pound items. Social Security says this kind of job includes “a good deal of walking or standing.” If you’re sitting most of the time, it’s the kind of sitting job where you’re working controls.
- Medium Work
You need to lift or carry up to 50 pounds for your job occasionally and frequently lift or carry objects over 25 pounds.
- Heavy Work
You occasionally lift or carry up to 100 pounds as part of your job and frequently lift or carry items over 50 pounds.
- Very Heavy Work
You need to lift or carry more than 100 pounds occasionally and frequently lift or carry items over 50 pounds.
At each step up this scale of physical work, if Social Security decides you can do a certain level of work, they’ll usually say you can do the levels below that, too.
In your Social Security Disability application, you’ll need to provide plenty of details about your training, education and past job duties.
Social Security will use that information to judge your case, so you want to be sure to present it correctly. You don’t want to overstate or understate your physical job abilities.
This can take the special care that an experienced Social Security Disability lawyer knows how to apply.
Start with a FREE conversation about your situation with the Arizona disability lawyers at Slepian Ellexson.
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How to Get Social Security Disability if You Can Do Sedentary Work
Being able to perform what Social Security calls sedentary work could get you denied for disability benefits. But you also could get approved if you show the right combination of facts about your situation.
Social Security looks at your health impairments and work background from multiple angles.
In your disability claim, you’ll need to explain each of these in a way that supports benefits approval:
- Your “Residual Functional Capacity” (RFC)
“Residual functional capacity” is the measurement Social Security uses to decide how much you can do despite your medical problems. Your RFC covers things like lifting, standing, walking and carrying, along with mental skills like remembering information and concentrating on tasks. You get your RFC through exams from medical providers. Social Security uses your RFC to place you on the scale from sedentary work to very heavy work.
- Your Age
Your age becomes a major factor at this point in the process. The reason is that if you’re unable to handle the same work demands as your past jobs, Social Security looks at whether you could shift to less demanding work. But the older you are, the less able you are to make a work change. When you reach 50 and above, it becomes easier to get approved for benefits because even if you could physically handle sedentary work, you may be unable to switch to jobs you haven’t done before without transferable skills. They may see younger people as more likely to pull off a career change.
- Your Training, Education and Experience
Another part of deciding whether you could seek different work despite your new health limitations is whether you have skills that transfer. Did you pick up skills from school, training programs and job experiences that you could use in a more sedentary job? Or are your skills primarily the kind that require physical strength and dexterity? Combined with your age, your work background and skills determine whether you truly could do sedentary work, not just whether you physically could do it.
Sedentary jobs are often jobs in an office, at a desk or in front of computer. They may be administrative, professional or technical jobs.
If you’re experienced in these areas, it could be more challenging for you to win disability benefits when Social Security decides you can do sedentary work.
But it’s possible for you to win benefits because you may have limitations even for a sedentary job, such as inability to sit for long periods, inability to look at a screen for long periods, inability to use your hands to type, the need for frequent breaks, the need for special accommodations, trouble understanding and following directions, or trouble focusing.
This is what it comes down to: winning disability benefits requires you to provide a full picture of your health and work situation.
The Arizona disability attorneys at Slepian Ellexson know how to put all the parts together for a strong claim—and a better chance at financial relief and a more secure life.
Regardless of what kind of work you’ve done, let us help you build your disability claim.
