I recently had a Social Security disability hearing for a 59-year-old man (John Doe) who had been a plant manager for a cement company. The district office had denied his claim on the grounds that he retained the ability to perform light work (lift up to 20 pounds). The district office concluded its job as it did it was a medium job (lifting up to 50 pounds). The office later concluded that he could not do the job as he did, but that he could do the job as described in the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT). The DOT described the plant manager position as “light duty,” as is generally done in the national economy.
Since the district office found that he had the residual functional capacity (RFC) to perform light duty and that the plant manager job was light duty as defined in the DOT, they denied his disability claim.
In reviewing Mr. Doe’s case with him, I discovered that he had less than a high school education, that he had worked for his employer for 35 years, that he did not hire or fire, that he did not prepare reports, and that he did. he supervises two other workers, but he did much of the work himself. I concluded that his occupation sounded more like a “maintenance mechanic” than a “plant manager” according to the DOT. I consulted the book and yes, his job seemed to be that of a maintenance mechanic.
At the hearing in front of the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ), I stated that John Doe was disabled according to the grid due to the fact that he was elderly (59), had limited education (less than high school), was reduced to light jobs because of his ailments, and his actual job at the cement plant was as a maintenance mechanic even though he was called a plant manager.
The vocational expert (VE) who was at the hearing agreed that, according to John Doe’s testimony, he was actually a maintenance mechanic and not a plant manager. He also agreed that John Doe could not do the maintenance mechanic position as he did or as it was described in the national economy because it required a mid-level job (lifting up to 50 pounds).
However, the ALJ was bothered by the fact that John Doe had claimed throughout his application that he was a “plant manager” on the forms he had filled out. I convinced him with affidavits from his former owner and former safety director that his duties were those of a maintenance mechanic and not those of a plant manager. Based on the affidavits, the ALJ awarded John Doe his disability benefits.
In short, the key to John Doe’s case was determining that his previous job as a plant manager was not actually the duties of the plant manager as defined in the DOT. Rather, his previous job was as a maintenance mechanic. Once I established his current previous occupation, I won the case.