WHAT' ARE THE CRITICAL ISSUES AT STEP 4?

Social Security uses a five step process to decide if a person is disabled according to the regulations.  Most cases are decided at Step 4 or Step 5.

The central issue at Step 4 is:  Can the claimant perform any of his/her past relevant work?  Yes = not disabled.  No = disabled.

This discussion really involves two questions.  To answer the Step 4 issue, two separate things must be decided.

1.  What is the claimant's Residual Functional Capacity?  In other words, what is the claimant's exertional ability?  Is he limited to sedentary work, light work, or medium work?  The medical evidence will determine this.

2. Do the claimant's education, work experience, age and residual functional capacity allow him to perform any past relevant work?  Yes = not disabled.  No = disabled.

Obviously, it's important to adequately describe and classify past work.  If the claimant's past work included sedentary work as an accountant, for example, he would need a very limiting impairment to prevent return to this work, because it is not very physically demanding.  However, if his past work included no job below the medium exertion level, he will be disabled if limited to performing light or sedentary jobs.

Oh, and did I mention that these Step 4 issues primarily effect claimants who are age 50 or over?

Younger claimants will usually go down to Step 5:  Is there any work in the national economy that the claimant could perform?  Here, even an unskilled sedentary job would lead to a denial.  So, there is a tremendous advantage for claimants who are at least 50 years of age.

But if you are 50 or over, your attorney should take great care to get all your past work properly described and classified.  I cringe when I see claimants who skipped over their past work when they filed their applications.  Most people simply don't know how critical and important work history is when filing Social Security disability claims.  I see cases frequently that are won simply by properly classifying past jobs.

In the application forms, the questions do seem silly.  What part of a day did you walk, stand, sit, reach, crouch, kneel, stoop?  What is the maximum you lifted?  How much reaching and handling did you do in each job?  Easy to skip over.  But in Step 4, your decision maker is going to use this information to decide whether you can still perform any of your past relevant work.  If you want to win, fill out the Job History Report carefully and religiously.