When you apply for Social Security disability or SSI benefits, the Social Security Administration will send you a number of forms in the course of developing your file. The forms that you will often be sent are Work History Report (Form SSA-3369-BK) and Form SSA Function Report Adult (Form SSA-3373-BK). It is vitally important that disability claimants take time and care in answering the questions in these forms. I have found that some clients view them as a chore that must be breezed through as quickly as possible. Doing that is a bad idea. The answers in these forms can come back and haunt you. It is important that when completing these forms you are honest and complete.
Honesty: It goes without saying that you cannot lie to the Social Security Administration. You must be honest in answering these forms. Do not exaggerate your symptoms or try to make yourself sound worse off than you really are. If you do, you are not only committing Social Security fraud but you are undermining your credibility. When you end up in front of a judge at a hearing, the judge will have access to the actual handwritten forms that you have completed and will see how you have overstated your case. The state agency that makes the initial disability determinations also will not be fooled by any exaggerations. The agency’s examiners will look for objective medical evidence supporting the descriptions that you offer. If the medical evidence doesn’t document the pain or symptoms of which you complain in the function report, you can expect the state agency to disregard your complaints and find that you lack credibility or are only “partially credible.”
Completeness: Most of the forms that I read are entirely honest; however, many of them are problematic because they don’t tell the whole story. A person may list their daily activities, such as “wake up, drink coffee, eat breakfast, watch TV, walk the dog, eat lunch, watch more TV, make dinner, go to bed,” without taking any opportunity to describe how each of those activities is affected by their physical or medical limitations. Far too often, the bland, plain vanilla answers that are given by disability claimants are interpreted by the state agency as an indication that there are no limitations in these activities of daily living (ADLs). Even if it seems like a lot of work, it is worthwhile to take the time to explain point-by-point how your physical or mental limitations affect your daily functioning. If you don’t tell Social Security about these problems, Social Security will assume that there are none. One example that I see frequently is the failure to differentiate between activity on a “good day” and a “bad day.” Many individuals suffer from physical problems (e.g., fibromyalgia) or mental illness which is subject to flare-ups or bouts of worsening that may completely incapacitate a person. For instance, I often hear of cases of depression where people have good days and are relatively functional and may not seem disabled at all, but those good days are interrupted by bouts of severe exacerbations, in which the person cannot get out of bed much less leave the home. It is important when completing the forms that Social Security sends that a complete picture is provided, not just a snap shot of your functioning on a good day.
