Has the insurance company denied your disability claim because they say you can do “sedentary work”?
What does that mean? A sitting job?
Sedentary work can involve lifting, sitting for hours without a break, assembly line work that requires fine motor skills, or other duties you may not be capable of because of your disability.
How do you prove to your insurance company or the Social Security Administration (SSA) that you can’t do sedentary work and that you deserve the full benefits allowed?
What Does Sedentary Work Mean?
In order to prove that you are not capable of doing sedentary work, you must have evidence that shows you are completely disabled.
But first, let’s dive into the official definition of sedentary work.
The SSA defines sedentary work as a job that involves lifting no more than 10 pounds at a time and occasionally lifting or carrying articles like docket files, ledgers, and small tools. Although the majority of time is spent sitting, a certain amount of walking and standing is often necessary in carrying out job duties. Therefore, jobs are sedentary if walking and standing are required occasionally, and other sedentary criteria are met.
This means that while working a sedentary job, you may be required to do the following:
- Lift or push up to 10 pounds up to 1/3 of the day (or 2.5 hours throughout an 8-hour work day)
- Sit most of the day (up to 6 hours)
- Be able to use your arms and hands to write, move small files or objects, type, etc …
- Must be able to focus and concentrate
- Must be able to lean over a desk or table
While the above activities might seem easy enough, your disability and the medications used in your treatment may make these tasks impossible.
Even so, your insurance company or the SSA may insist that you are capable of doing some kind of unskilled sedentary work. In order to determine what sort of job you might be able to do, they use a reference called the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (the D.O.T.).
The D.O.T. was last updated over 20 years ago and is out of date.
The Employment Service and the Department of Labor stopped using the D.O.T. in favor of a more updated online version, but as unfair as it seems, the obsolete job descriptions in the D.O.T. are still used by the Social Security Administration and many insurance companies to deny claims.
How Do You Prove You are Incapable of Doing Sedentary Work?
Here are just some of the reasons why you might not be able to work a sedentary job:
- You are in pain and need pain medication throughout the day that may make you sleepy or unable to focus
- You are unable to lift 10 pounds
- You are unable to stand or walk for more than 2 hours combined per day
- You can’t sit for 6 out of 8 hours
- You need to have one or more legs elevated
- You need a medically required device to help you walk
- You must take frequent breaks due to a physical or mental condition
- You must recline or assume a lying down position during the day
- Limited in the use of your dominant hand
- Unable to follow instructions due to lack of concentration
To show the insurance company or the SSA that you are unable to work at a sedentary job you must have evidence that shows you are completely disabled.
Where does this evidence come from?
It comes from your medical records in the form of an Attending Physician Statement (APS), a Functional Capacity Evaluation (FCE), or some other type of testing to prove your limitations.
What if My Doctor Won’t Fill out my APS Form?
Unfortunately, many doctors don’t want to go to the trouble of filling out an Attending Physician Statement.
It’s not that they don’t care about your health–it’s that the forms are made by insurance companies, and are therefore time-consuming.
Sometimes they’re afraid to get involved because they think they might get pulled into a dispute between you and the insurance company.
We know how frustrating that must be for you.
That’s why we developed a FREE guide that you can download giving you tons of information on how to get your doctor to fill out your disability forms.
Tucker Disability Law’s Exclusive Insider’s Guide to Getting Your Doctor to Fill out Your APS is available at the click of a button right here.
Once you get the guide, there’s also a video to watch with even more really helpful tips to help you succeed.
We’d love to know what you think of the guide and the video, so feel free to contact us using the blue contact form or fill out the questionnaire at the end of the video if you’d like to schedule a FREE evaluation of your case with one of our expert disability lawyers.
At Tucker Disability Law we don’t settle for less. Neither should you.
