A person may understand a simple task yet struggle to stay focused, maintain a reliable pace, or complete it throughout a workday. In Varga v. Colvin, the Seventh Circuit examined whether an SSDI decision accounted for those distinct mental limitations. On July 24, 2015, the court reversed the district court’s affirmance of the denial and returned the case for further administrative proceedings.
What the assessment showed
Melissa Varga’s record included physical and mental impairments. A state agency psychological consultant identified moderate difficulties in several areas, including maintaining attention for extended periods and completing a normal workweek without interruption from psychologically based symptoms. The consultant also identified difficulty performing at a consistent pace without an unreasonable number or length of rest periods.
The administrative law judge (ALJ) found moderate difficulties in concentration, persistence, or pace. The judge then assessed Varga’s residual functional capacity, or RFC: what a person can still do despite medically determinable impairments. The hypothetical question to a vocational expert described, among other things, simple, routine or repetitive tasks and work free of fast-paced production requirements.
Learning a task and sustaining it are different
The Seventh Circuit explained that the ability to learn simple work does not by itself answer whether a person can maintain concentration, persistence, and pace while performing it. On Varga’s record, the ALJ’s question did not adequately account for all the supported limitations. The court also found the phrase “fast-paced production” problematic because it was not defined for the expert.
The court did not require a particular set of words in every hypothetical. Its concern was whether the expert had a sufficiently complete picture of the limitations supported by the evidence. The consultant referred to an electronic worksheet that the agency lost, so any narrative assessment was not in the record before the court. The court could not treat that missing assessment as an answer to the worksheet findings.
Connecting evidence to the workday
A useful mental health record can describe what happens when concentration fades: how often instructions must be repeated, whether tasks are left unfinished, how long attention can be maintained, and whether symptoms interrupt a normal schedule. When supported by the record, the frequency and duration of needed breaks or time away from a task can be significant as well.
The point is to connect medical observations and the person’s experience to actual work functions, with enough detail for the decision and any vocational testimony to address the limitations. Varga is a Seventh Circuit decision based on its own evidence; it does not mean a diagnosis, a moderate rating, or a request for extra breaks automatically establishes disability.
Source: Varga v. Colvin, 794 F.3d 809 (7th Cir. 2015).
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