Why Being Really Clear About Your Past Jobs Matters for SSDI

Being clear about your past jobs is important when you’re applying for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). The Social Security Administration (SSA) uses your job history to decide whether you can do your previous work, or something similar, despite your health issues.

The Work History Report (Form SSA-3369) is where you provide information about your past jobs. Completing this form can feel overwhelming, especially if you're not sure how to describe what you did or how much detail is needed.

Don’t worry. The SSA isn’t looking for perfection. The agency needs an honest picture of the tasks you did, their demands, and how your medical condition limits your ability to do these tasks now. The SSA can better understand your limitations if you give details. This form may not reflect how hard it is for you to do your previous work if your answers are too general.

In this article, we’ll explain the SSA-3369 step by step and share example answers to help you complete the form with confidence.

What Is the SSA-3369 Work History Report?

The SSA uses the Work History Report to understand your past jobs and duties. It’s 14 pages long but not all of them need to be completed.

The form asks about:

• Job titles
• Employers and their type of business
• Dates you worked for them
• Your pay rate
• Hours you worked daily
• How many days a week you worked
• Daily duties and the tools and equipment used
• How much time you spent sitting, standing, walking, and lifting
• Whether you supervised others

A key part of the form focuses on the physical demands of your past jobs. The SSA and Disability Determination Services (DDS) use your answers to decide whether you could still do past work. They used to review jobs the past 15 years of work, but now only look at the past five years.

How the SSA Uses Your Work History Report to Decide Your Case

The SSA uses your Work History Report to decide if you qualify for disability benefits. It’s part of a five-step process used to review every case.

• Step 4 asks: Can you still do any of your past relevant work?‍
• Step 5 asks: If not, can you do any other kind of work, based on your age, education, and skills?

Your answers help SSA answer these questions. They evaluate this form, the Adult Disability Report (Form SSA-3368), the Adult Function Report (Form SSA-3373) and your medical records.

The SSA compares your job information to your medical file and sometimes to employer statements. If you say you never lifted more than five pounds, but your records show you were a warehouse worker moving heavy boxes, the SSA will see inaccuracies.

If you describe your job as sitting at a desk all day, the SSA may assume you can still do that work unless you explain that pain, memory issues, or trouble using your hands prevent it.

Your age also matters. If you’re younger than 50, the SSA is more likely to say you could switch to another type of work. If you’re 50 or older, it may deem you less likely to have the skills to switch jobs.

Before You Start: A Quick Checklist for SSA-3369

Get these details together before you start the Work History Report:

• List of jobs from the last five years, including employer names and locations
• Job titles and a short summary of what you did
• Start and end dates (month and year) for each job
• Average hours worked per day and days per week
• Pay rate and how you were paid (hourly, salary, etc.)
• Anything that can help you remember your daily duties like old schedules, pay stubs, W-2s, or emails
• Notes about how often you lifted, stood, walked, bent, reached, or used your hands
• Whether you supervised others or used special tools or equipment

It’s okay if you don’t remember every date or detail perfectly. Just do your best and keep your answers consistent with the rest of your forms.

How to Fill Out SSA-3369

About You

This section asks for your basic information. Make sure your information matches other forms like SSA-16 and SSA-3368. If someone else is doing the form for you, note that later in the Remarks section.

Jobs You’ve Had in the Last Five Years

This section asks about jobs you’ve had in the past five years that were substantial enough to count as work under SSA rules. Short jobs, like something you did for less than a month, usually don’t count as past relevant work.

Don’t list older jobs just to fill space. Focus on jobs you did long enough to learn them.

If you’ve had several short or part-time jobs, group them together. For example: “I had several temporary warehouse jobs through different employers with similar duties.” Use the remarks section at the end to add more details if needed and explain why you left those jobs.

Details for Each Job (Duties, Lifting, Skills)

When you complete this form, remember that the SSA wants to understand what you did at each job. Describe your daily tasks, the tools you used, and the mental or physical demands. Next, we’ll discuss how to fill out each part.

Job Title and Type of Business

Use the job title your employer gave you and explain your duties. If your title was “assistant manager” but you mostly did physical labor, don’t oversell the title. Just clearly explain the work you did.

Dates, Hours, and Pay

It’s okay to estimate to months and years if you don’t remember the exact dates of jobs. Make sure your answers match what you wrote on other SSA forms.

Describe This Job

Give two or three clear statements that explain what you did in an average day. For example, say “stocked shelves daily,” or “answered 20-30 calls per shift.”

Avoid vague answers like “helped customers.” A stronger version would be “answered questions about products and processed returns at the register four to five hours a day.”

Machines, Tools, and Equipment

List anything you used that shows a specific skill or responsibility. That includes forklifts, commercial ovens, patient lifts, cash registers, spreadsheet software, or any specialized equipment. This helps the SSA understand which skills might transfer to other work.

Physical Demands

Give examples of what the job required physically. How much time were you on your feet? How long did you sit? What was the heaviest thing you lifted and what was it? Instead of saying you lifted 50 pounds, say “I lifted five-gallon buckets that weighed about 50 pounds.”

It’s also important to explain how your symptoms affected your ability to do these things. You might say, “I could only stand 20 minutes at a time due to back pain,” or “I needed frequent breaks to catch my breath while stocking shelves.”

Mental and Emotional Demands

This is your chance to explain mental and emotional challenges like memory issues, trouble focusing, panic attacks, or difficulty handling customer conflicts. Use the remarks section if you need more space.

Supervisory Duties and Special Skills

When you say that you supervised others, the SSA believes you have supervisor skills. Only say yes if you regularly managed other workers, handling things like scheduling, assigning work, or hiring. Don’t mark it if you helped train someone once.

Remarks (Extra Space to Explain Things)

Use this section to explain anything that didn’t fit elsewhere on the form. It’s the place to mention short job stints, gaps in your work history, or that someone helped you complete the form.

Example statements:

• “My spouse helped me fill out this form because of my memory problems.”
• “At my last job I had moved from stocking shelves to sitting at the service desk most of the day because I couldn’t stand or lift anymore.”

Sample SSA-3369 Work History Examples

Below are two fictional examples to show the level of detail the SSA expects. Use them as a model for how specific to be in your answers.

Example: Physically Demanding Job (Warehouse Worker)

• Job title: Warehouse Associate
• Type of business: Shipping and logistics
• Dates: About June 2019 to March 2022
• Hours: 40 hours per week, 8-hour shifts
• Describe this job: Unloaded boxes from delivery trucks. Sorted and stacked inventory on shelves. Used a pallet jack and sometimes a forklift. Cleaned warehouse floors. Prepared outgoing shipments. Repeated same tasks daily.
• Lifting: Lifted boxes like dog food bags and paint buckets that weighed up to 65 pounds. Most boxes I lifted were 25 to 40 pounds.
• Physical demands: On my feet most of the shift. Walked and carried items across a large warehouse. Was bending and lifting constantly. I used my hands a lot for scanning and labeling.
  This example shows ongoing physical strain, including heavy lifting and repetitive movement, which could cause or worsen injuries over time.

Example: Sedentary/Office Job (Call Center Representative)

• Job title: Customer Service Representative
• Type of business: Cell phone provider
• Dates: About February 2020 to October 2022
• Hours: 35-40 hours per week, alternating shifts
• Describe this job: Answered customer calls about billing and service issues. Used a headset and computer. Took 60 to 100 calls per day. Logged notes during and after each call. Escalated complex issues to supervisor.
• Lifting: Very light. Occasionally lifted binders or supplies under 10 pounds. Physical demands: Sat for most of shift. Minimal walking. Hands used for typing and mouse during entire shift.
• Mental and emotional demands: Needed to stay focused and calm during long calls. Worked with frustrated customers. Had trouble concentrating and staying on pace when symptoms were worse. Took frequent breaks due to anxiety and fatigue.

Even though this job was mostly sitting, the example shows how pain, anxiety, or cognitive limitations affected the person’s ability to keep up with job demands.

It’s worth noting that the SSA has higher expectations that you can adjust to other types of work if you’re younger than 50.

Common SSA-3369 Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Use these examples to avoid common mistakes on this form.

• Listing every job from the last 15 years. That was a previous requirement. Now, the SSA only needs the past five years of work.
• Calling yourself a supervisor when you weren’t. Checking the supervision box can make the SSA think you can do other supervisor work. Only check that box if you hired, fired, scheduled, or managed others regularly.
• Saying you never lifted anything when you clearly did. The SSA checks your duties with the typical duties of that job. Be honest and specific in your answers.
• Leaving out mental health or brain-related limitations. If fatigue, anxiety, memory issues, or slow pace were part of why you stopped working, SSA needs to know that. Include mental limitations in the physical demands section or use the remarks section to explain them clearly.
• Copy-pasting job descriptions from the Internet. Generic language doesn’t help the SSA understand how your health limited your job tasks. Use your own words to explain what you did daily.

Before you send your Work History Report, double-check that you:

• Focused on jobs from roughly the last five years
• Described what you actually did daily
• Included lifting, standing, and sitting details
• Mentioned mental or cognitive demands and limitations
• Used the remarks section when you needed more space

Special Situations

If Your Main Problems Are Mental Health or Brain-Related

If your main limitations are mental health or cognitive, describe how they limited your ability to work daily. That might include struggling to follow instructions, stay on task, be around other people, or handle stress.

Explain how these issues affected your work. For example, you may have made more mistakes, needed reminders, received warnings, needed extra help, or had your hours reduced.

If Your Jobs Changed a Lot or Were Short-Term

If you worked temp jobs, gig work, or jobs that only lasted a few weeks, that’s normal. Use the remarks section to group them together and explain why they ended

If Someone Else Is Helping You Fill Out the Form

It’s okay for a spouse, caregiver, or friend to help you complete the form. Ask them to use your wording. Use the remarks section to describe your help such as “my daughter helped me write this because I have trouble remembering dates and details.”

How Advocate Can Help with SSA-3369 and the Rest of Your SSDI Claim

Advocate’s disability specialists regularly help people organize their work history and complete forms like SSA-3369. You don’t have to figure it out alone.

We can help you:

• Gather medical records and work history notes
• Fill out the SSA forms correctly
• Respond if the SSA needs more information

If this form feels overwhelming, we can walk you through it.