The Work History Report (SSA-3369): How to Answer It

Form SSA-3369-BK, titled the Work History Report, is the form Social Security uses to document the exact physical and mental demands of your past employment. Rather than relying on formal job titles, disability examiners use this report to evaluate how much you lifted, carried, stood, and walked, determining whether you can still perform past relevant work under federal vocational regulations. Knowing how to describe your past work exertion accurately helps ensure your vocational profile is evaluated fairly.

Why SSA Cares About Demands Rather Than Job Titles

When evaluating disability claims, examiners at state Disability Determination Services (DDS) do not rely on official business titles. A title such as "manager," "sales associate," or "coordinator" reveals very little about the actual physical labor involved. A retail manager in a small shop may spend all day unloading pallets and lifting heavy crates, while an office manager at a law firm may sit at a desk all morning.

Under 20 CFR 404.1560, Social Security evaluates your ability to perform your past relevant work (PRW) across two separate standards. First, examiners consider how you actually performed the work in your specific past job. Second, they examine how that occupation is generally performed in the national economy, referencing the Department of Labor's Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT).

Form SSA-3369-BK captures your actual performance. If you fail to document that your clerical job required regularly carrying forty-pound boxes of printer paper or files, the examiner may classify the occupation strictly as sedentary work under 20 CFR 404.1567. If medical evidence shows you can still perform sedentary tasks, your claim could be denied at Step 4 of the evaluation process.

The Timeframe for Past Relevant Work

For decades, Social Security required claimants to detail every position held during the fifteen years prior to becoming disabled. That extensive historical requirement often created substantial hurdles for claimants trying to locate decades-old payroll records.

Under updated Social Security Administration rules applicable in 2026, the past relevant work window was reduced to the 5 years before your alleged disability onset date under 20 CFR 404.1565. This change substantially simplifies the Work History Report. Unless SSA specifically requests earlier employment data, your reporting focuses on work completed within that five-year timeframe.

To qualify as past relevant work under SSA regulations, an occupation must satisfy three specific criteria:

• It must have occurred within the relevant five-year evaluation window
• It must have reached the financial threshold for substantial gainful activity (SGA) under 20 CFR 404.1574
• It must have lasted long enough for you to learn the essential techniques and duties of the position, known as Specific Vocational Preparation (SVP)

Short-term jobs that lasted only two weeks, or part-time positions where your earnings never approached SGA limits, are generally classified as unsuccessful work attempts or non-relevant work.

Section-by-Section Breakdown of Job Demands

Form SSA-3369-BK provides separate pages for each individual position you held during the relevant work window. For each job, you must record basic employer details and then break down your physical and cognitive activities.

Basic Job Information

For each job entry, you provide the job title, the type of business, and the dates of employment. You also record the rate of pay and the average hours worked per week. These earnings figures allow examiners to cross-reference your answers with your official Social Security earnings record.

Daily Physical Demands

The form asks for the total number of hours you spent during a typical workday engaged in specific physical postures and movements:

• Sitting at a desk, workstation, or vehicle
• Standing in place behind a counter or assembly line
• Walking across worksites, warehouse floors, or corridors
• Climbing ladders, stairs, or scaffolding
• Stooping, kneeling, crouching, or crawling to reach low spaces
• Reaching with your arms overhead, in front of your body, or to the sides
• Handling, seizing, holding, or turning large objects
• Fingering, typing, or manipulating small tools, keyboards, and parts

Be careful when estimating daily hours. In an eight-hour workday, the total hours you list across sitting, standing, and walking should reasonably reflect your daily shift. Stating that you sat for eight hours and stood for eight hours in the same workday creates an impossible total that damages report credibility under POMS DI 25005.005.

Lifting and Carrying Requirements

Lifting requirements are central to how SSA classifies the exertion level of past work under 20 CFR 404.1567. Form SSA-3369-BK asks two specific questions:

• What was the heaviest weight you lifted in this job?
• What was the weight you frequently lifted or carried, meaning from one-third to two-thirds of your workday?

Be specific and realistic. If your job required lifting fifty-pound sacks of flour once a week, record fifty pounds as the heaviest weight lifted. If you regularly carried twenty-pound boxes across the room throughout the day, note twenty pounds under frequently lifted items.

Supervisory, Technical, and Mental Demands

Form SSA-3369-BK also gathers information regarding technical responsibilities. You must indicate whether you supervised other employees, what percentage of your working time was spent supervising, and whether you held the authority to hire or fire staff.

You must also state whether you used machines, tools, or equipment, and whether you wrote reports or completed complex calculations. DDS examiners and vocational experts rely on these answers to classify your work as unskilled, semi-skilled, or skilled, which becomes crucial if your claim reaches Step 5 of the evaluation sequence.

How SSA Uses Form SSA-3369 at Steps 4 and 5

Social Security evaluates disability claims through a five-step sequential evaluation process outlined in 20 CFR 404.1520. Form SSA-3369-BK plays a direct role at Steps 4 and 5:

At Step 4, the examiner compares your current Residual Functional Capacity (RFC) against the demands of your past relevant work. If the examiner determines that you can still perform the physical or mental duties of any job you held in the relevant period, either as you actually performed it or as generally performed nationwide, you are found not disabled.

If you cannot perform your past relevant work, the evaluation moves to Step 5. At this final step, SSA must show that you can transition to other work existing in significant numbers in the national economy, considering your age, education, and transferable skills. Your answers regarding supervisory duties and technical tasks on Form SSA-3369-BK determine whether you possess transferable skills under 20 CFR 404.1568.

Common Mistakes When Filling Out the Work History Report

Errors on Form SSA-3369-BK can inadvertently cause examiners to misjudge your past work requirements:

• Exaggerating supervisory duties: Stating that you managed coworkers when you merely showed a new employee where supplies were kept can make an unskilled job appear skilled, creating transferable skills you do not possess
• Minimizing physical labor: Recording only customer service duties while omitting that you unloaded delivery trucks daily can lead SSA to misclassify a medium-exertion job as sedentary work
• Inconsistent numbers: Entering hours for sitting, standing, and walking that exceed the actual length of your workday
• Leaving lifting weights blank: Failing to specify the heaviest object lifted prevents examiners from establishing your true past exertion level

Taking time to review old job descriptions and writing down actual daily duties ensures that Form SSA-3369-BK presents an accurate picture of your vocational background.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many years of work history do I list on Form SSA-3369? Under Social Security rules in 2026, you generally only need to list work performed within the 5 years prior to your disability onset date.

What if my job title sounded simple but required heavy lifting? Describe the actual physical duties you performed on the job, because SSA evaluates both how the job is performed generally and how you performed it personally.

Do I need to list jobs that lasted only a few days or weeks? You do not need to list short-term work that did not last long enough for you to learn the job or reach substantial gainful activity levels under 20 CFR 404.1565.

This article is general information about SSA filing procedures, not legal advice. Program rules, forms, and processing details change over time, and every situation is different. Consult a qualified representative or contact SSA directly for guidance on your specific claim.