In this walkthrough, we’ll guide you through each section of the SSA 3369 – Work History Report, provide tips to help you complete it effectively and provide an example on how I would complete this form if I were applying for disability. Whenever I go through this guide, I give different advice for people who are below 50 and for people who are over 50, let’s just start that out!
If you are below 45 years old to be absolutely safe, and you’re applying for social security disability, it really does not matter how you fill this form out, regardless of how you fill it out, you’re going to have to show the Social Security Administration that there are no jobs that you can complete in order for you to qualify for Social Security Disability benefits, this form just really doesn’t matter for you.
If you are 45 and up, particularly if you’re over 50, it really starts to matter. Once you’re over 50, it becomes a lot easier to get disability benefits, and you no longer have to show that you can’t perform every job, you just have to show that you can’t perform jobs at the light level, meaning that you don’t have to show that you can’t perform sedentary jobs, and you would still be able to get Social Security Disability benefits. And here’s the catch- so long as you cannot perform your past work.
And so it becomes really important to fill this form out in a way that’s going to be favorable for your Social Security Disability claim. Because whether or not you get disability benefits could depend largely on whether or not from your past work and the SSA gets that information from you using this form.
The first section of the form asks for basic personal information such as your name, Social Security number, and your daytime telephone number. If you want to reach me about your Social Security Disability case, I can be reached at 972-863-2367
Next section talks about the Job History
List the Job title, we’ll say – warehouse worker. Type of business – construction. Dates worked – 2005 through 2010. This job would barely be relevant because it’s 2023 as of writing and please note that the only jobs you need to include here are the jobs that you’ve had in the last 15 years. So really only be important from 2008 onward. Also, this is going to be a heavy job.
We”ll include a second job – barista. Type of business – coffee shop, work there from 2011 through 2015. You’re on your feet all day for this job, but you’re gonna have to do the heavy lifting of the warehouse worker job.
And then lastly, we’re going to be a – secretary, type of business – insurance. And we work this job from 2016 through 2020 – when we hypothetically stopped working. And this will give you an idea of how to favorably fill out a warehouse worker job, barista job or a light job, and then the sedentary job with Secretary.
The first job or warehouse worker earns $15/hour, 8hours/day, 5days/week.
Describe this job. Whenever you’re filling out your job information you need to be as detailed as you can possibly be so we’re gonna say:
Lifted and carried materials around the warehouse. Sorted and stored materials in their location. Drove forklift to transport materials. Drafted, received and copied data from packing slips. Made sure warehouse floor was clear of debris.
Seriously every time for all jobs, you want to include as much detail as possible in these three lines. If you take longer than three lines, attach an additional page. Essentially, your case comes down to whether or not you can perform your past work if you can’t do part of what a job entailed that might prevent you from being able to return to that past job which might win or lose is your case. So this part’s really important.
Did you use machines tools or equipment? Yes.
Technical knowledge or skills? Yes.
Did you complete any reports? Yes.
I’m saying this for this job because it fits our hypothetical job that we’re talking about. But preferably you want the answers to these questions to be no. The more physically demanding a job is, the better it is for you. The more skilled the job is, the worse it is for you as a general principle.
In this job, how many hours total each day did you walk stand, sit, climb, stoop, kneel, crouch, crawl, handle, reach, right? So you’re walking, standing and sitting need to add up to 8hours. Walk for 5hours, standing for 2hours, sitting for 1hour – and this adds up to 8hours a day. And the rest of these don’t need to add up to , let’s say we did reaching for 30minutses, handling small objects for 4hours, the rest of these matter less. It’s really about the walking, standing and sitting. Any of these could make a difference for any one particular case. But both cases are going to depend on the walking, sitting and standing. Reaching & handling objects big or small is kind of second place. Manipulative limitations are very strong in disability cases. The higher the handling, reaching and writing, the better. The higher the walking and standing, the better the lower the sitting, the better.
And of course, always be honest, whenever you completing these forms, you can’t have like a job title warehouse worker where you’re sitting for 6hours in the day, it’s gonna affect your credibility, but just understanding the general guideposts of what’s favorable is important in completing these forms.
Lifting and carrying, explain what you lifted, carried How far you carried it? How often did this lifted heavy machine parts for at least half today? Let’s say, Lifted heavy machine parts for half a day.
Lifting and carrying is important whenever you’re over 50. If your doctor or you have a problem with your back, you can no longer lift or carry heavy weights that you used to in your old job. That can be anything that wins your case for you. So think deep and think about the heaviest thing that you ever lifted in your job and talk about it here and talk about everything you ever have to lift, but most importantly, is the frequency that you had to lift and the heaviest weight you ever lifted, because those are the things that are outer limits that you can show that okay, well, I can’t lift that frequently anymore. So I should be considered disabled, I can’t do that past job. Or I can’t lift that heavy of a weight anymore. So I therefore can’t do that past job and should be disabled check the heaviest weight lifted.
Heaviest weight lifted,100 pounds here. This is a warehouse job. This is very heavy work for us. But you most frequently lifted 50 pounds or more for the heavier weight. Of course, the better for you. Regardless of job type.
Did you supervise other people in this job? You want the answer that question to be No, of course we’re not going to lie. We did supervise people in this job and we will do supervise fewer the better. How much time you spent supervising people, the less the better. We’ll say two hours. Did you hire and fire? you want no for this question but we’ll say yes here. Are your lead worker you want the answer to be no. I mean, it’s just it’s just better for you but the truth is the most important thing.
Barista. Rate of pay $15 an hour, 8hours a day, 5days a week.
Describe this job. Made coffee drinks. Used an espresso machine. Serve pastries to customers. Worked a cash register. Receive boxes of goods to be served and sold. Washed dishes in back. Mopped floor at store close. Took out trash. Put clean dishes in the areas to be used..
I’m just trying to show you just got to fill up all the space with as much stuff as possible focusing primarily on this so much I had to lift and so much I had to reach that kind of stuff.
Did you use machines? Yes, the Espresso machine. Technical knowledge or skills? I’m gonna say not technical knowledge. Did you do any writing? No.
We had to walk for maybe 1hour, walked & stand all day. We didn’t do any sitting. We didn’t do any climbing. Half an hour of stooping, half an hour for kneeling, crouching and crawling. Grasping objects for two hours a day, reaching nearly all day. And we’re handling small objects all day.
Lifting and carrying. Lifted heavy boxes in the back of store that contain food to be sold to customers. Emptied trash. Moved mop bucket.
The heaviest weight lifted. I’m going to say 50 pounds. Most frequently, less than 10.
Did you supervise other people. No. Skip to the last question if the answer’s no. Were you lead worker, No. We’ve emphasized that we did a lot of heavy lifting.
Job title 3. This is if you remember our secretary job, working in insurance.
Rate of pay, we’re doing $15 an hour again, eight hours a day, five days a week
For the secretary job. Writing letters. Transcribing. dictations. Filing documents. Receive phone calls from clients. Make phone calls inside office and to other businesses. Update clients regarding status of claims. Draft and reply to emails on behalf of bsiness owner.
Machines, tools or equipment, no. Technical knowledge or skills, Yes. Performed writing, complete reports. Yes.
And this is going to be a sedentary job because it requires you to sit for most of the day. Handle big objects maybe occasionally, reached nearly all day, write, type or handle small objects, nearly all day.
Lifting and carrying. Boxes of paper.
Lifting up to 50 pounds, but usually lifting less than that, and not supervising or being a lead worker. And so that’s how I would complete the form.
One thing that you should know about are composite jobs. Composite jobs are jobs that have the basic elements of two or more jobs that have been combined into one job so that it doesn’t have a counterpart in what’s called the Dictionary of Occupational Titles, which is the big list of jobs that the SSA uses to categorize jobs that disability claimants have the composite job rules important because if you are over 50, and your case comes down to whether or not you can perform your past work, if you can show that your job is a composite job. That is it’s two jobs in one, and that you can’t do one of those two jobs anymore that were combined in your past job. You don’t have to show that you can’t perform that other job that you could still do.
For example, let’s say you are a school bus monitor monitors conduct of children on school bus to maintain discipline and safety is the basic description of it. The L means this is a light job, which requires standing for six hours, sitting for two hours in an eight hour work day, lifting no more than 20 pounds at a time and only 10 pounds frequently. If you’re a school bus monitor and want to show that you can no longer perform this job, you could combine it with a child care attendant, which is a job that attends to personal needs of handicapped children while in school to receive specialized academic and physical training wheels, handicapped children to classes, it goes on and on. But importantly, this is a medium job, which requires lifting up to 50 pounds, and lifting up to 25 pounds frequently at a job if you are working on a school bus. But there are children with wheelchairs on that school bus that you have to help then you could win your disability case if you can show that this job that you did in the past was a combination of two jobs and that you can no longer perform one of them and therefore you don’t have to show that you can no longer perform the job as a school bus monitor which if you’re over 50 is just super duper important I would contact an attorney if you have questions about whether or not you might be able to apply the composite jobs rule to win your case. .
If you’re interested in applying for disability or looking for information I have a free guide to applying for disability on my website:
Scroll about halfway down the page, enter your email, get a copy of the guide sent to you at least got some good stuff in there. I spent a lot of time on it and I hope it’s some benefit to you.