Quick answer: It means SSA reached the last step of its five-step review and decided that, given what you can still do and your age, education and work history, you could adjust to some other kind of work. It is a finding about your capacity, not a job offer. The notice also sets a 60-day window to appeal.

By Crystal G. Rouse, Partner & Attorney, Hall & Rouse, P.C.

“Can do other work” is a confusing sentence to find in a denial letter, because it can sound like SSA is saying you are fine. It is describing where your claim stopped in a five-step review.

What does “can adjust to other work” mean?

Social Security uses a five-step evaluation, called the “sequential evaluation process,” to decide disability. Whether an individual can hypothetically still do other types of work is “step five” of the review that is applied to every adult disability claim. The five steps, in order:

  1. Are you doing substantial gainful activity? If so, you are not disabled. The evaluation stops.
  2. Do you have a severe impairment that meets the duration requirement? If not, you are not disabled. The evaluation stops.
  3. Does your impairment meet or equal a listing? If so, you are disabled. If not, SSA moves to the next step, where it assesses your residual functional capacity (RFC, the most you can still do despite your limitations).
  4. Can you still do your past relevant work? If so, you are not disabled. SSA moves to the next, and last, step.
  5. Can you adjust to other work, considering your RFC, age, education and work experience? If you can, you are not disabled. If you cannot, you are disabled.

Step five comes after SSA has found you cannot do your past work (or if you do not have any past work). The denial means that even if you cannot do your old job, there are still enough less-demanding jobs in the national labor market that can accommodate your physical and/or mental limitations, and would theoretically allow for work.

Is SSA saying a job is waiting for me?

No. SSA is not in the business of actually finding work for you. SSA’s regulations say the other work has to exist in significant numbers in your region or in several regions of the country. It also says three things do not matter: whether that work exists close to you, whether a specific opening is available to you, and whether you would be hired if you applied. The finding measures capacity against the national economy, not your local job market.

How does age change the answer?

At step five SSA weighs your RFC, age, education and work experience together, and its age rule says age alone is not used to find that someone cannot adjust to other work. The regulation sets age categories. Under 50 is “younger individual,” and SSA generally does not consider age a serious barrier to adjusting. At 50 to 54, age combined with a severe impairment and limited work experience may seriously affect the ability to adjust. At 55 and over, the rule says age significantly affects your potential to find other work.

If you are within a few days to a few months of an older category and using it would lead to a finding of disabled, SSA considers whether to use the older category after looking at all the factors in the case.

What are the “grid rules”?

They are SSA’s Medical-Vocational Guidelines, a set of tables that match strength level (sedentary, light, medium, heavy or very heavy), age, education and work experience to a conclusion of disabled or not disabled. They apply when your limitations include physical strength limits and you cannot do your past relevant work.

Two points explain why age does not always settle a claim:

  • The tables turn heavily on the strength level in your RFC. Medium capacity ordinarily does not support a disability finding under the rules, even with age as an adverse factor, with narrow exceptions. Heavy and very heavy ordinarily support a not-disabled finding.
  • If your limits are mainly mental or sensory rather than physical, the rules do not direct a result. The decision-maker has to consider all the relevant facts instead.

What happens after this kind of denial?

You generally have 60 days from the day you receive the notice to ask for an appeal. SSA presumes you received it within 5 days of the date printed on the letter, and you can show you received it later. If you miss it, you may lose the right to appeal and the last decision can become final. SSA can extend the deadline for good cause, but the request has to be in writing and explain the reason for the delay.

The notice SSA sent explains how to file the appeal.

If you would like a real look at what your RFC says and how the rest of the file lines up with it, we’re here. This is general information about Social Security Disability law in North Carolina. It is not legal advice for any specific case. If you are dealing with a particular claim, contact Hall & Rouse, P.C. for a free consultation.

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About the author

Crystal G. Rouse, Partner & Attorney at Hall & Rouse, P.C. Board Certified Social Security Disability Law Specialist (NC State Bar Board of Legal Specialization). Ms. Rouse has more than 16 years of private practice experience handling disability claims before the Social Security Administration. In 2019, she became a partner at Charles T. Hall Law Firm and continues to practice here as Hall & Rouse. Prior to private practice, for eight years she worked at the Social Security Administration’s Disability Determination Services. Ms. Rouse updates the law book, Social Security Disability Practice, published by Thomson Reuters. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. No law firm can guarantee the outcome of a Social Security disability case.

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