Guidelines For Answering A Social Security Function Report
Our firm has been helping claimants receive Social Security Disability benefits for over 25 years. In our experience, there are details that can help or hurt you when completing paperwork during the process. Here is a video and some guidelines for you to use when answering questions contained in a Social Security Function report.
What Is Considered Past
The SSA will determine your residual functional capacity level and declare whether you are able to do heavy work, medium work, light work, sedentary work, or less than sedentary work. If it has been decided that you can only do less than sedentary work, you will likely qualify for benefits.
However, if you have been assigned any of the other levels of work, the SSA will then decide what type of work you can still perform.
In order to be approved for a medical-vocational allowance , you will need to prove that you can no longer work in your most recent field of employment and that you cant succeed in any other job either.
You will be required to complete form SSA-3369, which is a work history report form. This form will help the SSA to understand how your condition might affect your ability to do the work that you are qualified to do.
The information that you provide will include the types of jobs youve performed, the skills required to do those jobs, and the physical and mental requirements of each job.
The SSA evaluates only those jobs performed in the last fifteen years of your life. Therefore, if you were an accountant right out of school, but left that career more than fifteen years ago to become a landscape designer, that job will not be considered as past-relevant work .
Older workers over the age of 50 may be able to qualify based on their ability to work and the severity of their condition, you can find more information about that here:Qualifying Over Age 50
Can You Obtain Your Work History From The Ssa
by Guadalupe Ovalle | Oct 12, 2020 | SSD Application Process
Your work history is essential to be awarded Social Security Disability Insurance benefits from the Social Security Administration . If you are wondering, Can I get my work history from Social Security? the answer is yes, you can.
SSA can provide a statement of your employment history by completing a Request for Social Security Earnings Information form and paying a fee. However, you do not need to obtain your work history from the SSA before applying for SSDI benefits.
If you are unsure if you have enough work credits to apply for SSDI, contact a Crest SSD representative to assist you. We are knowledgeable and experienced with relevant work history requirements and can help ensure that your application is handled appropriately.
Complete this free evaluation form to find immediate assistance! You pay no upfront fees for our service. We only receive a contingency fee if you win!
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The Best Legal Team For Your Disability Case
You need a social security disability attorney to help you with your case. Our disability lawyers can represent you in Utah, Idaho, Nevada, and California. If you want to find out more about your legal team, you can read about our advocates on this website. Dianna Cannon has been representing disability clients for over 30 years. She is licensed to practice law in Utah, Nevada, and California. Brett Bunkall has won hundreds of cases in Utah. He is also licensed to practice in Idaho. Andria Summers has over 20 years of experience helping Cannon Disabilitys clients win disability benefits. The SSA has lawyers on their side. You need a legal team on your side.
Hire the best legal team with no money up front. We won over $100 million in disability benefits for our clients. Contact us today to hire a disability attorney with experience. You have nothing to lose by hiring us. Because, we only get paid an attorney fee if you win your case. You read that correctly. We only charge an attorney fee if we win your case. Contact us today.
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This team has a strong work ethic and a deep commitment to helping people with disabilities get the benefits they deserve. They have years of experience with disability law and helped my brother win his case. I highly recommend them.
Will I Need Help Proving I Can’t Work
If you are unable to work due to your current condition, it is imperative that you hire an experienced disability attorney or advocate to assist you with your claim. An experienced attorney is well-versed in the requirements of past-relevant work, and can help to ensure that your individual application is handled appropriately. A complete and accurate work-history form can make the difference in winning your claim.
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How To Complete Any Form Ssa 3373
PDF editor permits you to help make changes to your Form SSA 3373-BK from the internet connected gadget, personalize it based on your requirements, indicator this in electronic format and also disperse differently.
What Happens If I Am Denied Benefits And I Do Not Appeal Within 60 Days
Youll have to start over with a new application. Starting over is different from an appeal. It means that you will lose any back benefits you would have been entitled to receive under the first application. There is a financial cost to missing deadlines, as well as the loss of the time put into the first claim your new claim will start at the very beginning. Additionally, the evidence used to deny your claim the first time will still be considered on your second claim, so your odds of winning on the second claim are actually worse. It is very important to appeal all denials within 60 days. Its better if you appeal right away there is no advantage to waiting sixty days to do something that can be done right away. The more you delay, the slower your case will be processed in a system that is already a fairly slow bureaucracy. The faster you get your appeals filed, the quicker you can get to the hearing stage, which is where the best chances of success are.
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Before You Start The Adult Disability Report
The Adult Disability Report can be completed in paper format or online . Whichever you prefer, there are a few things you should do before you begin.
Read the attached instructions carefully. The instructions contain the following useful bits of information among others:
- You may ask for help from a friend or family member to complete the form. Social Security representatives are also available to assist you if necessary.
- Answer every question on the form, and write “don’t know,” “none,” or “does not apply” where appropriate. Leaving questions blank could delay the processing of your application.
- If you need more space for your response to a question, use Section 11 – Remarks. Be sure to write the number of the question you’re answering.
- You do not need to request your own medical records. Social Security will obtain your records using the treatment information you provide on the ADR.
Gather documents related to your medical and vocational history. Many of the questions on the ADR ask for specific information you probably won’t know off the top of your head, like dates, addresses, phone numbers, and medications. Collecting your important records before you begin will save you lots of time and headache.
Section : Medical Conditions
Here you’ll list all the physical andmental limitations that keep you from working. Even if you haven’t received much or any treatment for a particular condition, it’s a good idea to include it. Social Security will consider all your impairments, both severe and non-severe, in determining whether you’re disabled, so be sure to list even conditions such as high blood pressure that might not prevent you from working by themselves. If you need more space to list your medical conditions, continue your answer in Section 11 – Remarks.
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The Function Report: Your Best Friend
When you apply for Social Security, and found you either have paid enough into the system to meet the non-medical requirements for SSDI benefits or have the requisite few assets to met the technical requirements, your case then gets moved on to your states respective Disability Determination Services. It is a very rare occasion that a claimant gets direct contact with a DDS examiner who is handling their claim. This portion in the process affords very little chance for a claimant to directly explain how their conditions truly affect their day to day life. This is where the function report comes in.
Most claimants will receive in the mail a questionnaire that asks very pointed questions to how their conditions affect them in their day to day activities. This report is several pages long, and many claimants may find it very intimidating. Dont be afraid, and embrace the opportunity. For most people, it will take 45-60 minutes to complete. This report calls to many aspects of most peoples daily lives: from hobbies, to cleaning, to cooking to shopping. This is because how you are in your daily life outside of working is indicative of your ability to work.
Often times, claimants feel like at the end, they need to clarify a few points. This is where the ending Remarks section comes in. If a claimant thinks a specific point should be noted, that they didnt mention already, he/she should put it in the remarks.
SSDI & SSI Information
What If You Get Confused Or Do Not Know How To Answer
If you get stuck on a question when filling out a disability form, you are better off consulting with a lawyer than trying to guess how you should answer. One erroneous or insufficient answer may be all it takes to sink an otherwise solid application. They can give you proper legal advice. It is their job to guide an applicant through the process and increase their chances of approval.
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How To Fill Out Ssas Work History Form
How do you fill out SSAs Work History form? If you are asking yourself this question, that is good! You should worry about what you write on the forms that you send to Social Security. Most people fill out the work history report incorrectly. Subsequently, the form is used against them to prove they can return to their old job. You want to make sure you fill out this form correctly, so you dont damage your disability case. For information about other SSA forms, go to Client Application & Appeal Forms on this website.
Job Title No 1 Section
For the Job Title No. 1 section, you describe the job. What did you do all day? How did you do it? Then it lists machines, tools, equipment, and thats pretty straightforward. Again, if you were actually out there in the trenches, you really want to underscore the fact that you were in the trenches, that you were not sitting behind some fancy desk pushing papers, because thats not how you did the job.
Where it says, In this job, how many total hours each day did you: walk, stand, etc. Again, the more physically demanding your job was, the easier it is to win. But again, consistent with the truth. Some days you may have only stood for a couple hours, and other days, you may have stood for six hours. Work with the most demanding of days. You can put a range that I walked anywhere from two to six hours, but put the six hours in. Dont minimize it because it really translates into a whole different series of questions that Social Security then has to address.
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How Does This Affect Completing My Work History Report Form
When completing your work history report form you should be thinking about each job and which aspects of that job would be impossible for you do perform in your current condition.
Some questions that you will want to consider are:
- Did each job listed occur within the last 15 years?
- Did I work at this job long enough to learn the skills required for the job?
- If I was at a job for less than six months, did I leave because the physical or mental requirements were too difficult for me to handle?
- Did any of these jobs require that I stay overtime to complete the tasks of the job? Was there a mandatory overtime component to any of these jobs?
- What is the maximum requirement of the job? For example, if you worked in retail you may mostly work at the cash register. However, occasionally you might be required to lift a heavy box. Be certain to include the most difficult aspects of your past jobs
- What level of mental capacity did it take to perform at your past jobs?
- Were you able to work to the same capacity as others in the company, or were special considerations made for you due to your condition?
While you want to be honest and clear about your limitations and past-work history, you will also want to display that you are a hard-worker.
Illustrating that you have a stable, long work history will add credibility to your case.
Since Medical Evidence Is So Important Should I Have My Doctor Write A Letter To The Social Security Administration And Should I Gather Medical Records And Send Them To Ssa
SSA will gather the medical records, so you dont have to do that. Whether you should ask your doctor to write a letter is a hard question. A few people win their cases by having their doctors write letters. You can try this if you want to. The problem is that the medical-legal issues are so complicated in most disability cases that a doctor may inadvertently give the wrong impression. Thus, obtaining medical reports may be something best left for a lawyer to do.
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Be Clear About The Requirements Of Your Past Work
As part of your claim for Social Security disability benefits, you’ll be required to fill out a work history questionnaire. This form asks you to describe the skill level and physical demands required by each type of work that you’ve performed during the 15 years prior to becoming disabled.
When answering questions about your past work, don’t overestimate your role or responsibilities. For example, don’t describe yourself as a manager or supervisor unless you had the ability to hire, fire, or discipline employees. This is the case regardless of your job title. Describe exactly what you did in your jobdon’t talk yourself up or down. It’s as simple as that.
How To Fill Out A Work History Report
When you apply for benefits, you will have to fill one of these reports out. This does not look like a very important form, but it is. Social Security is not using it to check to see if it matches their payroll information or anything like that. Rather, it will be used to determine what kind of work you have done in the past. That is a critical factor at Steps 4 and 5.
Remember, you can fill it out yourself or have someone else fill it out for you. You can do it by hand as well. If you do not understand a question, get some help.
Social Security only cares about the work you have done in the past 15 years. Nothing before that is relevant at Step 4 and Step 5.
Section 3:
- This is where you explain what you did not get a chance to do earlier because you ran out of space.
- If you had more than six jobs listed, use Section 3 to finish Section 2.
- If you worked for one temp agency, but the work you did varied from week to week, Section 3 is the place to explain it.
Final tips:
1. Use scratch paper to help you formulate your answers. Especially for Section 2, try to put your jobs in order.
If your handwriting is poor, you can always type out your responses using this pdf.
2. Think about your answers ahead of time and think about why you cannot do your old jobs. For each job, make sure that requirement is in that description. If you leave it out, DDSD will determine that you can go back to that old job.
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