Can the claimant meet the demands of his past work?

The Regulations provide that a vocational expert may offer expert opinions in response to hypothetical questions about whether a person with the physical and mental limitations of the claimant’s medical impairment can meet the demands of the claimant’s previous work, either as the claimant performed it or as it’s performed in the national economy.  If your client can still perform his previous job, he is not entitled to disability benefits.

Is the claimant capable of performing other work? Do jobs exist in significant numbers within the claimant’s residual functional capacity given his age, education, and work experience?

This issue emerges in every case where the Medical-Vocational Guidelines do not direct a conclusion that the claimant is or is not disabled. For the Medical-Vocational Guidelines to be used, a claimant’s RFC, education and work experience must coincide with the criteria of one of the rules in the Guidelines. Where there is no close fit between a claimant’s abilities and the Medical-Vocational Guidelines, the Guidelines are still a framework used to determine how the claimant’s remaining occupational base with the other factors affecting your client’s ability to perform sustained employment for any job available in the national economy. See Section 348.