What is Residual Functional Capacity?
Proving that your medical condition limits your ability to work is essential to winning Social Security Disability benefits.
Social Security uses a tool called a “residual functional capacity,” or RFC, assessment to determine what you can do despite your health problems and whether you will win benefits.
To help you understand it better, let’s take that term apart:
- “Residual” means “what’s left” of your abilities after your condition has become so severe that you stopped working.
- “Functional” is what you can still do.
- “Capacity” is how much of it you can still do.
To figure out your residual functional capacity, Social Security assesses your impairment, your medical records and your work history, and decides whether your symptoms are severe enough to keep you out of just about any full-time job on a consistent and reliable basis.
This assessment accounts for both the physical and mental impacts of your condition.
If Social Security adjudicators agree your disorder has sufficiently diminished your RFC, they will consider you eligible for benefits. If they find your symptoms aren’t severe enough to severely limit your ability to work, you will have a harder time proving you qualify for financial relief.
Uncertainty around a residual functional capacity assessment will naturally make you worry. If Social Security disagrees with you, frustration is sure to follow.
You can cut the guesswork by talking to an experienced Social Security Disability attorney.
At Nash Disability Law, Social Security Disability is all we do. We can gather your medical records, look at your physical and mental status, and help you obtain the right explanation from your doctors about your RFC.
Our disability lawyers in Chicago, Illinois and Indiana can give you a clear picture of how Social Security might approach your case.
In Chicago and around the country, Social Security Disability benefits could help you cover expenses when poor health won’t let you work.
But they certainly won’t just take your word for it that you need benefits. Social Security wants to be sure you can’t do your job, or any other job, for at least 12 consecutive months.
Work with us to secure these much-needed benefits so you can live a fuller, more financially stable life.
You pay no attorney fee until you win disability benefits.
What Does Social Security Look for in Your Residual Functional Capacity?
The best place to start is understanding how Social Security determines your residual functional capacity.
Remember, your RFC is what you can still do despite the negative impacts of your health issues.
There is some wriggle room in Social Security’s RFC process. They will take into account all your symptoms, even those that aren’t directly linked to your diagnosed impairment, such as from another, less severe impairment.
It’s the combination of all your health struggles that Social Security wants to know.
Physical Capacity: In a residual functional capacity assessment, Social Security will want evidence of your condition’s limits on your basic movements, such as sitting, standing, walking, lifting, carrying, reaching, pushing, pulling, crouching or using your hands.
Mental Capacity: Your ability to remember information, carry out instructions, respond to your supervisors and coworkers, and manage yourself and the stress of a job also goes into the assessment.
You need to communicate well with your doctor about your daily limitations. Doctors don’t always think of disability the same way Social Security does. They aren’t always familiar with what Social Security wants to see about your RFC.
Your disability lawyer can help you with this, making sure you get the right information documented with your doctor.
At Nash Disability Law, we can help you build a winning disability case. We have been helping people across Chicagoland, Illinois and Indiana for more than 40 years.
Get a FREE evaluation of your disability claim.
How Does Social Security Assess If My Residual Functional Capacity Qualifies Me for Disability Benefits?
Social Security uses a five-step process to determine that you have an eligible disability.
Step 1: Social Security assesses your current work activity. If you are participating in “substantial gainful activity,” which means earning a certain amount of money through work every month, you will be considered ineligible.
Steps 2 and 3: Social Security next assesses the severity of your impairment. Then they look at the medical evidence and compare your condition to Social Security’s own list of impairments that it recognizes as potentially eligible for benefits.
Step 4: This is where your RFC comes in. Social Security determines whether you can still perform work you have done before, based on your RFC.
Step 5: If you can’t do your old job, Social Security uses your RFC to see if you can do something else.
A lot happens behind the scenes, and the only control you have is what you submit to Social Security.
You need to put together the strongest evidence and tell a clear story about how you are eligible for disability benefits because your health blocks your ability to work.
Having a legal expert who has successfully navigated this process thousands of times is a huge advantage.
The disability attorneys at Nash Disability Law can walk you through the process, help you build the strongest possible claim, and help you reach a better path after illness robbed you of your livelihood.
