No you don't. Many people thinking about applying for social security disability or SSI benefits wonder how disabled you actually have to be. The answer to how disabled you have to be depends on a number of factors. The older you are the less disabled you have to be. Likewise, the more unskilled and heavy your jobs have been the less disabled have to be to win.

Any applicant for social security disability or SSI Supplemental Security Income benefits must show that they cannot do their past work. An applicant’s past work is defined as work that they have done in the last 15 years. For instance a 51 year old construction laborer who has one bad knee that prevents him from standing most of the day will win where an office worker with the same disability will not lose as the office worker can still do sit-down office work.

There are different age thresholds at which your disability will be considered. Workers over 50 and, even more so, workers over 55 usually win if they cannot do their past work or any jobs that are closely related to their past jobs (jobs to which they have transferable skills). Workers under age 50 have a harder time getting their applications for social security disability approved as they must prove that with retraining they cannot do any typically available job. A 48 year old truck driver, for instance, will not win just because he cannot do his past work as a truck driver, judges will look to see if such a truck driver, given his disability, could work as a dispatcher after some training.