Your Social Security Disability claim has just been denied. In scanning the letter, you see the phrase transferable skills. What does that mean, and why does it matter?
A skill is something you learned at a past job that you could use at another job. For example, you may have learned how to use certain computer programs, keep financial records, prepare reports, or operate special equipment.
Social Security may decide that even though you cannot do your old job anymore, you learned skills from that job that you could use in a different, easier job.
For some people, especially those age 50 and older, this can make the difference between being approved and denied.
Social Security Cannot Just Assume You Have Skills
Just because you worked for many years does not mean you developed skills that can be used in another job. Social Security needs to look at what you actually did at your past jobs. What duties did you perform? What did you learn to do? How often did you do those things?
A hospital nurse is a good example. Nursing can be very physical work. Hospital nurses may have to lift, move, and turn patients, so a nurse with serious back problems may no longer be able to do that job.
But nurses also learn important skills in their jobs. They have medical knowledge. They understand medical terms, know how medications work and interact, can calculate medication dosages, keep detailed medical charts, and understand doctors’ orders and treatment plans. Those skills may be transferable to another job.
Social Security may decide that these developed skills could be used in a job that is much less physically demanding. For example, a nurse could work a desk job for an insurance company answering questions about medical care or reviewing medical information. They would be using the skills they developed as a hospital nurse and transferring them to the less physically demanding work at the insurance company.
This Is Why Your Work History Form Is So Important
The SSA-3369 Work History Report asks you to describe what you did at your past jobs. This form serves a vital purpose for the SSA.
Social Security uses the answers you submit here to decide what your past jobs required from you, both mentally and physically, and what skills you may have learned from these positions. If you give incomplete or inaccurate answers, Social Security may get the wrong idea about your work.
For example, suppose you occasionally helped train a new employee. You might write that you “supervised employees” without giving it much thought. But that answer could make your job sound more skilled than it really was.
Small details can make a big difference.
That is why completing the SSA-3369 correctly is so important. At Disability Advocates, our experienced team completes this form with our clients. We ask questions to make sure we understand what they actually did at their past jobs. We help make sure important details are not left out and that the answers accurately describe their work.
If Social Security has denied your disability claim because they believe that you have transferable skills, do not assume they got it right. They may have misunderstood or misinterpreted your past work, the skills you actually learned, or whether you can still use those skills.
And that could be the reason your disability claim was denied.