Work History Report: What is it and Why it is Important

Shortly after an individual applies for Social Security Disability benefits, an individual will be asked to fill out several forms and other paperwork. While it is easy to rush through these forms and paperwork, filling out the work history report is very important in many cases. Once filled out, a work history report is reviewed by Social Security Administration at all levels of application – initial, reconsideration, and hearing level. Social Security Administration indicates that the information they ask for on the work history report helps them understand how an individual’s illnesses, injuries, or conditions might affect their ability to do work for which they are qualified. Overall, a work history report will ask an individual to list all jobs they have done in the past 15 years before they stopped working. After listing the jobs, an individual is required to be more specific about each individual job. The individual will have to list each specific job title, rate of pay, how many days they worked in a week, and how many hours they worked each shift on average. Additionally, the individual will be asked to describe the physical requirements of each job such as time spent sitting, standing, and walking in an 8 hour day. An individual will also be asked how much weight they were required to lift on the job. It is important to be very detailed and list all things you were required to lift even if it was not on a repetitive daily basis. For example, as an office manager an individual may have had to empty all garbage cans in the office once a week. Moreover, it is important to be thorough and detailed on these reports because it helps the social security and the judges determine why you could not go back to the past work you once did.