Residual Functional Capacity (RFC): Where Many Social Security Disability Claims Are Won or Lost The Sequential Process

Residual Functional Capacity (RFC): Where Many Social Security Disability Claims Are Won or Lost

Understanding Step Four of Social Security’s Five-Step Sequential Evaluation Process

Part Five of Powell & Denny’s Guide to Social Security Disability Benefits

“My doctor agrees I can’t do my old job anymore. Doesn’t that mean I should receive disability benefits?”  Not necessarily.

Many people believe that once they prove they cannot return to their previous job, their disability claim is over, but in reality, one of the most important parts of the disability evaluation is just beginning.  At Step Four, Social Security asks a different question:

What can you still do despite your medical conditions?

That question is known as your Residual Functional Capacity, or RFC.

If you’ve never heard that term before, don’t worry, most people haven’t; yet it is often the single most important issue in a Social Security Disability claim.

Recommended Reading: What if I cannot return to my job?

Where We Are in the Disability Process

The Powell & Denny Guide to Social Security Disability

✓ Part One

How Social Security Decides Disability

✓ Part Two

Can You Work?

✓ Part Three

Severe Impairment

✓ Part Four

Do You Meet a Listing?

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► PART FIVE

Residual Functional Capacity

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Part Six

Other Work

Part Seven

Pain

Part Eight

Burden of Proof

What Is Residual Functional Capacity?

Think of your RFC as a picture of your abilities after taking your medical conditions into account.  Instead of asking “What diagnosis do you have,” Social Security asks “What are you still capable of doing on a regular and continuing basis?”

That is a very different question.

Two people may have exactly the same diagnosis.

One may continue working.

The other may be unable to complete a normal workday.

Their diagnoses are identical.

Their RFCs are not.

Recommended Reading: Isn’t My Diagnosis Enough?

Figure 1

Medical Conditions

│

▼

Symptoms & Limitations

│

▼

Residual Functional Capacity

│

▼

Can You Perform Your Past Work?

RFC Is About Function—Not Labels

This is one of the biggest misconceptions in disability law.

Many people become focused on proving they have a serious diagnosis, and your diagnosis certainly matters, but Social Security is usually more interested in how that diagnosis affects your ability to function.

For example…

Can you:

• sit for six hours?
• stand throughout the workday?
• lift twenty pounds?
• use your hands repeatedly?
• climb stairs?
• stoop?
• kneel?
• reach overhead?

The answers to those questions often become more important than the diagnosis itself.

Recommended Reading: Why Your Restrictions Are More Important than Your Diagnosis

Recommended Reading: Why Your Postural Limitations Matter

It’s More Than Physical Limitations

Many people assume RFC is only about lifting and carrying.  It isn’t.

Social Security also evaluates whether you can:

• concentrate throughout the workday;
• remember instructions;
• stay on task;
• interact appropriately with supervisors and coworkers;
• adapt to workplace changes;
• maintain regular attendance.

Mental impairments can affect a person’s ability to work just as much as physical limitations, as are the side effects of the medication you are prescribed.

Recommended Reading: Why The Side Effects of Your Medication Matters

Pain Is Part of RFC

Many applicants believe pain is evaluated separately.  It really isn’t.

Pain becomes one of the factors Social Security considers when deciding your Residual Functional Capacity.  For example…

Can pain:

• interfere with concentration?
• require you to change positions frequently?
• force you to lie down during the day?
• slow your work pace?
• cause excessive absences?
• prevent you from finishing an eight-hour workday?

Those questions become critically important.

In fact, we’ll devote an entire article later in this series to explaining how Social Security evaluates pain and other symptoms.

Recommended Reading: How Chronic Pain Affects Your Claim for Disability Benefits

Figure 2

Medical Condition

│

▼

Pain • Fatigue • Weakness

Medication Side Effects

Mental Symptoms

│

▼

Residual Functional Capacity

│

▼

Ability to Sustain Full-Time Work

A Common Example

Imagine two construction workers.  Both undergo lumbar surgery.  Both have similar MRI findings.

The first returns to work after several months and performs heavy labor without significant restrictions.

The second cannot stand longer than fifteen minutes, must alternate between sitting and standing, takes narcotic pain medication that causes drowsiness, and misses work several days each month because of pain.

Their MRIs may look remarkably similar.  Their ability to function is completely different.

That difference is what RFC is designed to measure.

Powell & Denny Practice Tip

When talking with your physician, don’t simply describe your diagnosis.

Describe your limitations.

Explain:

• how long you can sit;
• how long you can stand;
• how often you need to rest;
• whether pain affects your concentration;
• whether medication makes you sleepy, jittery or nauseous;
• whether you need help performing household activities.

Those are the kinds of limitations Social Security evaluates every day.

The Bottom Line

Your diagnosis opens the door.  Your Residual Functional Capacity often determines whether you walk through it.

Social Security is not simply asking what disease you have.  They are asking Considering all of your medical conditions, what can you still do eight hours a day, five days a week, on a regular and continuing basis?

That question lies at the heart of many disability claims.

Recommended Reading

Continue the Powell & Denny Guide to Social Security Disability

✓ Part Four
Do You Have to Meet a Listing to Win Your Disability Claim?

➡ Coming Next

Can You Perform Other Work? Understanding Step Five of the Disability Process

Coming Next…

Can You Perform Other Work?

If Social Security determines that you cannot return to your previous job, does that mean you’ll automatically receive disability benefits?

Not yet.

The Administration still has one final question to answer.

Can you perform other work that exists in significant numbers in the national economy?

To answer that question, Social Security considers your:

• age,
• education,
• work experience,
• transferable skills, and
• Residual Functional Capacity.

Understanding how those vocational factors work—and who has the burden of proof—can make the difference between an approval and a denial.