Useful Compendium

     A recent addition to Social Security's Program Operations Manual Series (POMS) contains this useful summary of citations from the agency's Social Security Rulings (SSRs) on the effects of various sorts of limitations upon the ability to perform ranges of work.

1. Standing/Walking

SSR	Issue	Statement from SSR
83-10	Lifting and carrying—light work Standing/walking—sedentary and light work	“Even though the weight lifted in a particular light job may be very little, a job is in this category when it requires a good deal of walking or standing—the primary difference between sedentary and most light jobs.”
83-10	Standing/walking—light work	“Many unskilled light jobs are performed primarily in one location, with the ability to stand being more critical than the ability to walk.”
96-9p	Standing/walking—sedentary work	“If an individual can stand and walk for a total of slightly less than 2 hours per 8-hour workday, this, by itself, would not cause the occupational base to be significantly eroded.”
96-9p	Alternate sitting and standing	“An individual may need to alternate the required sitting of sedentary work by standing (and, possibly, walking) periodically. Where this need cannot be accommodated by scheduled breaks and a lunch period, the occupational base for a full range of unskilled sedentary work will be eroded.” (This suggests that if scheduled breaks and a lunch can accommodate the need to alternate positions, the full range of unskilled sedentary work is intact.)
96-9p	Medically required hand-held assistive device—sedentary work	“For example, if a medically required hand-held assistive device is needed only for prolonged ambulation, walking on uneven terrain, or ascending or descending slopes, the unskilled sedentary occupational base will not ordinarily be significantly eroded.” “Since most unskilled sedentary work requires only occasional lifting and carrying of light objects such as ledgers and files and a maximum lifting capacity for only 10 pounds, an individual who uses a medically required hand-held assistive device in one hand may still have the ability to perform the minimal lifting and carrying requirements of many sedentary unskilled occupations with the other hand.”

2. Lifting/carrying/pushing/pulling

SSR	Issue	Statement from SSR
83-10	Lifting/carrying—medium work	“Being able to do frequent lifting or carrying of objects weighing up to 25 pounds is often more critical than being able to lift up to 50 pounds at a time.”
96-9p	Lifting/carrying—sedentary work	“For example, if it can be determined that the individual has an ability to lift or carry slightly less than 10 pounds, with no other limitations or restrictions in the ability to perform the requirements of sedentary work, the unskilled sedentary occupational base would not be significantly eroded.”
96-9p	Pushing/pulling—sedentary work	“Limitations or restrictions on the ability to push or pull will generally have little effect on the unskilled sedentary occupational base.”

3. Postural limitations

SSR	Issue	Statement from SSR
83-10	Stooping—sedentary work	“By its very nature, work performed primarily in a seated position entails no significant stooping.”
83-10	Stooping—light work	“The lifting requirement for the majority of light jobs can be accomplished with occasional, rather than frequent, stooping.”
83-14	Stooping and crouching—light and sedentary work	“However, to perform substantially all of the exertional requirements of most sedentary and light jobs, a person would not need to crouch and would need to stoop only occasionally.”
83-14	Climbing, kneeling and crawling—medium work	“In jobs at the medium level of exertion, there is more likelihood than in light work that such factors as the ability to ascend or descend ladders and scaffolding, kneel, and crawl will be a part of the work requirement. However, limitations of these activities would not significantly affect the medium occupational base.”
83-14	Climbing, kneeling, and crawling—light work	“On the other hand, there are nonexertional limitations or restrictions which have very little or no effect on the unskilled light occupational base. Examples are inability to ascend or descend scaffolding, poles, and ropes, inability to crawl on hands and knees; and inability to use the fingertips to sense the temperature or texture of an object.”
85-15	Climbing and balancing	“Where a person has some limitation in climbing and balancing and it is the only limitation, it would not ordinarily have a significant impact on the broad world of work.”
85-15	Stooping and crouching— sedentary and light work	“If a person can stoop occasionally (from very little up to one-third of the time) in order to lift objects, the sedentary and light occupational base is virtually intact.” “This is also true for crouching.”
85-15	Crawling and kneeling	“However, crawling on hands and knees and feet is a relatively rare activity even in arduous work, and limitations on the ability to crawl would be of little significance in the broad world of work.” “This is also true of kneeling.”
96-9p	Postural limitations—sedentary work	“Postural limitations or restrictions related to such activities as climbing ladders, ropes, or scaffolds, balancing, kneeling, crouching, or crawling would not usually erode the occupational base for a full range of unskilled sedentary work significantly because those activities are not usually required in sedentary work.”
96-9p	Stooping—sedentary work	“A complete inability to stoop would significantly erode the unskilled sedentary occupational base and a finding that the individual is disabled would usually apply, but restriction to occasional stooping should, by itself, only minimally erode the unskilled occupational base of sedentary work.”

4. Manipulative limitations

SSR	Issue	Statement from SSR
83-10	Reaching, Handling, Fingering—light work	“They require use of arms and hands to grasp and to hold and to turn objects, and they generally do not require use of the fingers for fine activities to the extent required in much sedentary work.” (“They” refers to many unskilled light jobs.)
83-10	Reaching, Handling, Fingering—medium and sedentary work	(The quote refers to manipulative activities common in medium work as opposed to sedentary.) “Use of the arms and hands is necessary to grasp, hold, and turn objects, as opposed to the finer activities in much sedentary work, which require precision use of the fingers as well as use of the hands and arms.”
85-15	Fingering	“As a general rule, limitations of fine manual dexterity have greater adjudicative significance—in terms of relative number of jobs in which the function is required—as the person’s exertional RFC decreases.”
85-15	Feeling	“However, a VS would not ordinarily be required where a person has a loss of ability to feel the size, shape temperature, or texture of an object by the fingertips, since this is a function required in very few jobs.”
96-9p	Feeling—sedentary work	“The ability to feel the size, shape, temperature, or texture of an object by the fingertips is a function required in very few jobs and impairment of this ability would not, by itself, significantly erode the unskilled sedentary occupational base.”

5. Special senses limitations

SSR	Issue	Statement from SSR
85-15	Vision	“As a general rule, even if a person’s visual impairment(s) were to eliminate all jobs that involve very good vision (such as working with small objects or reading small print), as long as he or she retains sufficient visual acuity to be able to handle and work with rather large objects (and has the visual fields to avoid ordinary hazards in the workplace), there would be a substantial number of jobs remaining across all exertional levels.”
96-9p	Hearing and speaking	“Basic communication is all that is needed to do unskilled work. The ability to hear and understand simple oral instructions or to communicate simple information is sufficient. If the individual retains these basic communication abilities, the unskilled sedentary occupational base would not be significantly eroded in these areas.”

6. Environmental limitations

85-15	Hazards	“A person with a seizure disorder who is restricted only from being on unprotected elevations and near dangerous moving machinery is an example of someone whose environmental restriction does not have a significant effect on work that exists at all exertional levels.”
96-9p	Cold, heat, wetness, humidity, vibration, unusual hazards—sedentary work	“In general, few occupations in the unskilled sedentary occupational base require work in environments with extreme cold, extreme heat, wetness, humidity, vibration, or unusual hazards…. Even a need to avoid all exposure to these conditions would not, by itself, result in a significant erosion of the occupational base.”

7. Mental limitations

SSR	Issue	Statement from SSR
85-15	Mental	“Where there is no exertional impairment, unskilled jobs at all levels of exertion constitute the potential occupational base for persons who can meet the mental demands of unskilled work. These jobs ordinarily involve dealing primarily with objects, rather than with data or people, and they generally provide substantial vocational opportunity for persons with solely mental impairments who retain the capacity to meet the intellectual and emotional demand of such jobs on a sustained basis.”1