After filing your application for Social Security disability benefits, Social Security may send you a Work History Report (SSA-3369-BK).

The form provides a summary of your day-to-day job requirements for all jobs within the past 15 years. Your disability examiner will use the information to evaluate your ability to do your past work or adjust to any other work.

When using the form in the disability review process, examiners will typically look for specific details. But the challenge is that the form itself doesn’t tell you what exactly they’re looking for.

5 Tips to Help Complete Your Work History Report

Follow these five tips below so that you can complete the form successfully. You may even prevent additional delays in your case.

1. Include descriptions of tools, skills, special knowledge used in each job

For each job title, the first section asks you to describe your day-to-day job requirements. It’s common for applicants to leave out tools, skills, and special knowledge in descriptions, which may leave your examiner without necessary details.

2. Be mindful of the hours you write for walking, standing, and sitting

Many disability examiners want to see the hours spent walking, standing, and sitting add up to the total hours worked in one day (found in the top right corner). 

For example, for a standard 8-hour work day, you could write 3 hours standing, 3 hours walking, and 2 hours sitting, or any other combination that would add up to a total of 8 hours.

Although this detail isn’t explained on the form itself, it’s common for examiners to send it back for corrections

3. Use numbers when describing lifting and carrying 

    Examiners want to see numbers in your descriptions about lifting and carrying. 

You may not know the exact numbers, but it’s okay to give your best guess. Doing the best you can to provide accurate numbers will help your examiner classify your work more appropriately.

Here’s a simple formula you can use as a guide:

“I lifted [objects] weighing [#] lbs and carried them for [#] ft.”

4. Be careful when listing your experience as a manager or supervisor

It’s common for applicants to list that they were a manager or a supervisor for a job when the majority of time was not spent doing those activities. If your examiner finds that you have managerial or supervisory experience, it could indicate that you have transferable skills to other kinds of work.

While this will not lead directly to a denial, it could cause the examiner to classify your work improperly. And, if there are any details about your experience left out, he/she may send the form back to you for revisions.

5. Combine similar job titles into one entry

You may have had the same job titles and duties for different employers. If this applies

to you, you don’t need to list a separate title for each employer. 

Instead, you can combine your jobs into one entry and increase the time frame. Make sure to only do this if the job requirements are essentially the same and explain any differences.  If there are any significant differences, you may want to consider adding a separate job title or provide an additional explanation in the “remarks” section. 

Following this practice will save you a great deal of time filling out this form and will avoid listing the same things multiple times, which could cause confusion. 

Don’t Let Disability Paperwork Hold You Back

Keeping these 5 tips in mind will help you complete your Work History Report accurately and may even prevent additional delays in your case.

If you need assistance applying for Social Security disability benefits, our team of Disability Attorneys are here to help throughout the process. Our legal professionals will help you complete your paperwork in a timely manner. Contact our office today for a free case evaluation!