To qualify for benefits, there’s a good chance you will have to prove that you can no longer do jobs you held in the past (known as “past relevant work”). This can be a big hurdle in some cases because the Social Security Administration’s rules are not easy to satisfy. Here are the rules in a nutshell. Past Relevant Work If you do not qualify for disability benefits on the basis of your medical findings (i.e., your impairment does not meet or equal a listed impairment), you will need to prove you are not capable of doing any “past relevant work.” If you can still do past relevant work, your claim will be denied. The three requirements of past relevant work A job is past relevant work if: You did it within 15 years before your claim is decided. It was “substantial gainful activity.” You did it long enough to learn to do it as well as the average worker. The rules are tough on claimants If you can still do a job that qualifies as past relevant work, it does not matter that: Your employer will not take you back, or There are no job openings in your vicinity, or The only available jobs pay too little to live on, or The job no longer exists anywhere. The “job as it is ordinarily done” rule If you can do the job as it is “ordinarily done,” you are not disabled even though your actual past job was harder and you are now unable to do it. Unfortunately, this rule is not applied the other way around in your favor. If your past job was easier than the way the job is ordinarily done, the SSA will look at the job as you actually performed it to determine whether you can still do it. To succeed in obtaining disability benefits, you will probably need to identify your easiest full or part time past relevant job and then figure out why you cannot still do it. For help with this assessment and an evaluation of your case, contact .