Disability Benefits Guide
Completing the Work History Report, Form SSA-3369
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A job title rarely explains everything a person did at work. “Store associate” could mean running a register, unloading deliveries, stocking high shelves, or several of those tasks in one shift. Form SSA-3369 gives SSA the details it needs to evaluate your work history and the demands of your jobs.
Use this guide to prepare accurate answers before completing the official report. It is not a replacement form, and this website does not send your answers to SSA.
Start With the Time Period on Your Form
The July 2026 Work History Report asks for jobs in the five years before you became unable to work because of your medical conditions. It says to list the most recent job first, include different job titles even at the same employer, include self-employment and work in another country, and leave out jobs held for fewer than 30 calendar days.
Thirty calendar days is not the same as 30 shifts. If a job involved irregular assignments or self-employment and you are unsure how to describe its duration, ask the office that requested the report. Do not silently combine different roles or omit work because you were not an employee.
The form’s requested period and SSA’s legal evaluation of past relevant work are related but distinct. That evaluation also considers earnings, how long you did the job, and the applicable five-year period. Follow the actual request you received; a general rule about past work is not a reason to disregard a specific follow-up question.
Build a Job Timeline Before Writing
Make a private working list with each job title, type of business, start and end month and year, pay rate and pay unit, hours per day, and days per week. Old pay statements, tax records, calendars, or employment records may help you check dates. Use them to support your memory rather than guessing with false precision.
The form allows estimates for certain details. If you cannot remember an answer, its instructions say to indicate that you do not know; use “none” or “not applicable” where those answers fit. Explain uncertain dates or unusual arrangements in the remarks. Do not turn an estimate into an exact fact merely to fill a box.
Describe What You Actually Did
For each job, describe a typical workday in concrete tasks. The report asks about duties, reports or paperwork and the time spent on them, supervision, tools and equipment, and interactions with other people. For interactions, explain whom you dealt with, the purpose, how you communicated, and how much time it took.
For example, a hypothetical inventory clerk might explain that she counted items, entered discrepancies in a computer, moved cartons to a packing table, and answered drivers’ questions. “Inventory work” alone would leave out the physical and communication demands. The example is illustrative; use your own tasks and do not borrow details from another person’s job.
If your duties changed after a promotion, reduction in hours, or other change, explain the difference. A broad title should not erase a period when you performed different work.
Check Time, Movement, and Lifting Answers
The form asks for time spent standing and walking combined and time spent sitting. Its instructions say those amounts should add up to the hours worked in the day. Review the totals so an ordinary eight-hour day does not accidentally become twelve hours of sitting, standing, and walking.
Other activities can occur during that time. You may handle small objects while seated or reach while standing. Describe the requested activities separately instead of assuming every activity must occupy its own block of the day.
Distinguish the heaviest weight lifted from the weight lifted frequently. Explain what you carried, how far, and how often. Address reaching, use of fingers and hands, bending, kneeling, climbing, and environmental exposures as the questions request. Describe the work you actually performed, not what you think the job normally requires elsewhere.
Explain Health Effects Without Rewriting the Job
The report asks how your medical conditions would affect your ability to do each job. Connect a limitation to a task when you can: difficulty using your hands may affect repeated scanner use, for example. Keep the account of the job’s duties separate from your explanation of what you can now do.
SSA evaluates whether a person can perform past relevant work as actually done or as generally performed in the national economy. Being unable to return to one former position does not, by itself, establish eligibility for disability benefits. Accurate details are more useful than trying to make every answer sound as severe as possible.
Finish, Identify Any Helper, and Return It Correctly
Use the remarks section to explain answers and identify the relevant job number or question. The current report provides instructions for additional job information when its detailed job sections are not enough. If someone helps complete it, the claimant’s information still belongs in the claimant section; the report separately asks about the person completing it.
Before returning it, check unanswered questions, dates, units of pay, and contact details. Keep a copy and use the return instructions from the requesting office. The form specifically warns against sending the completed report to the Baltimore address used for comments about paperwork burden. If you need help or an interpreter, contact the office that requested it.
Keep Reading
Official Next Step
Use Official Work History Report, Form SSA-3369 for the official form, contact route, or process. Follow the instructions for your own case. Reading this guide does not submit a request to SSA.
Official Sources
- Official Form SSA-3369, July 2026
- 20 CFR 404.1565: Work Experience
- SSR 24-2p: Evaluating Past Relevant Work
Educational content. Sources checked October 17, 2026. Disability Benefit Guide USA is not affiliated with the Social Security Administration. This guide provides general information, not an individual eligibility decision or legal advice.