did you just get a bunch of really long forms in the mail from Social Security take a deep breath I understand it's incredibly overwhelming on this video we are going to be walking you through these forms step by step so that you understand what these questions mean and what the Social Security Administration is looking for hey friends and welcome back to my channel for Georgia Advocate Partners if we haven't met yet my name is Jennifer Jarvis and I am a social security disability attorney and founder of Georgia Advocate partners on this channel I have made it my mission to pull back the curtain and demystify what is going on at the Social Security Administration when you apply for Social Security disability I am here to help you through the process so that you can understand what they are looking for so that you can have the best chance of having your claim approved as always of course nothing here should be construed as creating an attorney client relationship and this is not legal advice and I highly encourage you to seek out an attorney for your particular case with that said onto the video okay so you've got these forms in the mail they are thick they have many pages they are very overwhelming don't worry we're going to take it one step at a time and I'm going to guide you through these forms you should have gotten two or maybe three forms in the mail if you only got one or two then probably others are on the way the three forms that you typically are going to get are the adult function report the third-party adult function report and a work history report quick note here if you are a parent and have a child case you will get different forms I am working on creating some videos for those forms all right so let's start with the adult function report it's also known as SSA form 3373 this is a monster of a form but what Social Security is trying to get from you is information about how your disabilities and limitations affect your everyday life these forms do become part of your case and will be reviewed by your claims adjudicator and they may also be reviewed by other people internally at the Social Security Administration and if you end up at a hearing they will be reviewed by The alj Who is looking at your case so this is your chance on paper to explain what is going on with you and why it is that you are unable to work all right here's tip number one I would recommend that you consider answering these questions first on a separate sheet of paper kind of like creating a rough draft that way if you want to change something it does doesn't matter how messy it is you can make yourself some notes and then when you put it on to the actual form you'll have all of your thoughts together all right let's take a look at page one at section A at the top is just asking you for your general information they're going to be asking you about your living situation and whether or not you live with someone this part is very straightforward feel free to pause the video if you'd like to go ahead and fill that out all right section B is going to address information about your illnesses injuries and conditions all right so we're going to start here at question number five in my opinion this is a really stupid question because it's a very overwhelming and open-ended question and it says how do your illnesses injuries or conditions limit your ability to work I suspect for most of you that your disability is affecting every part of your life on a daily basis so how do you distill that down to a single paragraph so I'm going to rephrase Social Security's question and let you that what they are asking you is why can't you work every day what is it that is preventing you from being able to work and as an aside Social Security does not consider Transportation difficulties so writing down I can't drive to work is not going to be considered a limitation unless the job that you looking at is actually a driving type job if it is a simple Transportation problem that does not factor into why can't you work so to answer the question think about that why can't you work is it because you have bulging discs in your back that cause shooting pains down your legs and you spend most of your day in a recliner is it because you have migraine headaches two or three days a week that completely incapacitate you and then you'd have to call out sick for those days do you have excessive absences would you have fibromyalgia or an autoimmune disease that cause weakness and brain fog and all of these problems that prevent you from being able to work on a daily basis that is what they are asking you you and that brings me to tip number two this one's a hard truth tip number two Social Security ultimately does not care about your diagnosis not really I mean it's helpful if you can have a name for what it is that you have you going through and what your your disability is but the diagnosis is not the issue it is the symptoms from that diagnosis that are preventing you from working Social Security doesn't care that you had a heart attack what they care about is since you had that heart attack have you had a hard time working because you have fatigue you have shortness of breath you have to elevate your feet throughout the day because they swell all day long um do you have a limit in the amount of weight that you can lift because of weakness du to your heart those are the things that are going to prevent you from working it's not the heart attack it's the symptoms from that heart attack all right let's look at page number two question number six to me again not another great question um what do you do from the time that you wake up until you go to bed and and I say this is kind of a silly question because obviously the answer depends on the day like everybody I am sure that you have good days and bad days and trying to answer what you do on a daily basis is difficult um but what Social Security is looking for here is just a general outline of how you spend your day do you wake up and take pain medication do you wake up and it takes some time for you to be able to actually get out of bed if you try to take a shower is that going to take you 2 hours and be you're going to be completely exhausted by the end of that process those are the things that they are looking for in this question is generally what are you doing throughout the day do you watch TV do you run errands what are you doing all right tip number three I know these are these are coming fast this is true of this form and it is also true of many of your interactions with the Social Security Administration think about how what you say might look to some else who doesn't know you who thinks that maybe you're trying to game the system I mean first of all don't lie do not want to lie on these forms but if you say here that you wake up and you take your medications and you do three hours of house cleaning well then that sounds like you could go work for marids or open up your own business cleaning houses now if you're really doing three hours of serious house cleaning you may need to rethink about applying for disability but if your 3 hours is maybe washing a few dishes and then resting for 20 minutes and then trying to make the bed and then rest for 20 minutes or maybe just wiping down a counter and needing to rest again that is very different than cleaning for 3 hours we often want to present ourselves in the most functional way possible and I really do understand that and for many of you this entire process is going to be incredibly embarrassing to talk about why it is that you can't do things the way that you used to be able to do them but you need to be transparent and honest on this form so be sure that you think about your phrasing and how that might look to somebody else if you do laundry great but if you're laundry consists of moving two or three items to the washing machine because that's all you can pick up you need to put that on your form all right questions 7 through nine have to do with whether or not you care for others or if someone helps you care for others so this kind of goes back to that last tip that I shared with you if you're a parent there are going to be certain things that you have to push through and do yes I wake up and I make sure that my child age 14 is awake and has breakfast and gets on the bus she is independent in those activities or you know I do what I can to prepare a very small meal for my children and then I wait for my spouse to get home to help you again want to make sure that what you are putting on this form is reflective of the truth but that it is also not going to be construed as I can do more than I really really can all right question number 10 in my opinion question number 10 doesn't have enough space what were you able to do before that you cannot do now that's probably a lot of things this is where I talk about tip number one about writing a rough draft can help I would also suggest trying to distill it down to the most major things that bother you about your current limitations and keep in mind that if you really can't fit it all in this one space there is a section at the end where you can continue to write question 11 is about sleep I find that my clients who are having ongoing pain issues have the most trouble with their sleep so if you are constantly waking up in the middle of the night because of back pain or shoulder pain this is where you really want to delve into that if you have a hard time going to sleep because of racing thoughts due to your anxiety that is where you would put this down all right so at this point we are about halfway through this form if you like this video please like And subscribe I will be posting a lot of other videos that go more more in depth on topics and we'll hopefully address other questions that you might encounter as you go through each step of the disability process liking and subscribing helps me continue to make content so please stay for the remainder of the video where I've got some more tips for you about this form all right question 12 is all about your personal care this is a place where things can get embarrassing and I do understand that things I see here are those with people who have physical limitations with reaching May struggle caring for their hair or May struggle with cleaning yourself after you go to the restroom those things happen it's embarrassing I understand that but this is where you want to put that information down if those are things that you struggle with that is obviously going to be a problem in your employment situation so keep that in mind that everything about social security is why can't you work and if you have limitations and things that you do for your personal care that are going to translate into problems at work that's important to put these on these forms um ladies if you have back problems then maybe shaving is an issue for you um one important thing here is to think about whether or not You' have changed how you dress according to the issues that you are having with your physical conditions I know a lot of my clients with severe arthritis have problems with buttons and zippers um sometimes they have problems putting a putting a shirt up over their head and so maybe you've changed the slide on shoes or maybe now you wear kind of pull on dresses or maybe now you only wear button- down shirts because you can't actually get a shirt over your head so these are the things that you want to put here on this particular form are problems that you have with getting dressed problems that you have with keeping yourself clean and any other physical limitations that you have with your daily activities the next two questions are all about reminders that you may need with your personal care and with taking your medications this is one that I see a lot for my clients who are struggling with mental health it's which as depression or maybe having swings in bipolar if you are needing reminding to take a bath you know hey how long has it been since you took a shower or you seem to have worn that same shirt for three days now that is where these reminders would go similarly if you're needing reminders on your medication you're going to want to put that down here that could be setting alarms on your phones or having a spouse fill a pill container for you and your reminder is is the pill container empty or does it still have my pills in it those are the things that go in this particular question all right so now we're going to move on to the section about meals this section is a little bit more self-explanatory um so are you preparing meals what are you doing with them are you doing microwave meals are you doing sandwiches I have clients who they will make a big meal with their spouse or maybe their spouse makes the meal and then they kind of put containers of leftovers in the fridge so that all they're having to do is reheat so those are the things that you're going to want to talk about here if making a meal takes you longer because of your physical limitations put that here you know I can put something in a crock pot because then I don't have to stand over it or I might you know try to fry up something but then I've got to go sit down or maybe if you sit on a stool while you're sitting at the stove I mean those would be things and limitations that you would want to make sure that you put down that impact your ability to make yourself food all right so house and yard work this is a section where you can get tripped up a little bit and so I'm going to bring up tip number three again be sure to fully explain what you're doing for example doing laundry no matter what your limitations are you need clean clothes but maybe the way that you're having to do laundry now is different than the way that you used to do it I have a lot of clients that treat their washing machine like a laundry hamper so as they get their clothes dirty they just put it in the washing machine and then once it's full they run it and then they use their clothes out of the dryer so there's no actual loading of laundry into baskets and carrying it into the bedroom and folding and putting away and all of those things that maybe you used to do so that's again where it's very important that you completely explain how it is that you're doing these things in your daily life all right so that brings us to the next page of the form which has to do with getting around shopping and money so when we look at question 15 it asks how often do you go outside and what they're looking for there is any combination of do you go out on your porch to enjoy the sunshine do you try try to take a walk down to the end of your driveway or maybe around the block if you don't go out at all explain why and what they're looking for there is either you're having physical difficulties with getting outside or maybe you're having some agoraphobia or anxiety or panic attacks those are things that you can put on that particular question it asks when you go out how do you go out and so are you being able to drive a car if you can only drive a car for a very short distance then you want to put that here that you drive a car but maybe it's only for five minutes or maybe it's just down to the gas station and back not that you're taking you know 5H hour trips into the next state um when going out can you go out alone and again what they're looking for here is do you need assistance with going out like is somebody going to kind of help you physically get into a building or do you need somebody there because you're going to have a panic attack if you're not accompanied and then do you drive yes or no and this again would be a place where I would recommend that if you do drive you can put yes but don't just leave it at yes if there are limitations with your ability to be in a car or to go for distances in a car that would be where you would want to explain do you drive yes I drive five minutes to the convenience store and back any further than that my husband has to drive me so those would be things that you would want to address in that particular question for shopping um again are you you able to shop in stores are you shopping online do you do the um you know click it at Kroger and then you go pick up your groceries those would be things You' want to put here again it's they're looking for what are your limitations in what we call your activities of daily living um the last question on this page has to do with money and they want to know if are you able to handle your own finances you know are you able to pay your own bills are you able to count money and change and if you can't then you need to put why that is is if your ability to handle money has changed so maybe because of your conditions you've had some head trauma or you're having really bad brain fog or maybe you're having Vision issues and it's hard for you to read the numbers and line them up and and do things properly that is where all of those particular limitations go is here under money both can you handle money today and then have there been any changes with the way that you handle money all right and so then that brings us to the next page and they start start this one off with hobbies and interests and the second question after that is going to be also social activities so on this particular page what they're trying to do is again look at what is it that you do on a daily basis how has your life changed how are you functioning or how are you not functioning so question 18a asks what are your hobbies and interests and for this one this can be a combination of maybe what you used to do or maybe what you do now um and then how often and how well do you do those things a lot of people who are dealing with disabling conditions have had to change what they do and how they do it and this is what Social Security is asking here you know if your hobby used to be that you would go fishing on the weekends but now you can't do that because you've hurt your back and you can't cast the real that would be where you would put this so maybe now what you do is you watch fishing shows on television um describing any changes since your conditions began that might be one of the changes you know I used to I used to go play tennis with my friends I can't do that anymore so now I just go and you keep them company and maybe I watch them play tennis or maybe I just watch Tennis on television um for social activities what they're looking for here are issues with any depression or anxiety and whether or not you actually able to function with other people so how often do you spend time with others and how do you spend time with them are you meeting up with people in person are you only talking on the phone do you only text people because talking is very very uncomfortable for you that would be where all of that information would go question 19B talks about what are the things that you do with others do you maybe go down and see your mom once a week and have Sunday dinner with her do you sometimes go to church um do you need reminders to go places so like if you have a medical appointment is somebody going to have to remind you to be able to get there are you going to have to set up a calendar notification um and then do you need someone to accompany you this is very much like that shopping question can you go alone does somebody need to help you do you have panic attacks if somebody's not with you um do you need somebody to help you and drop you off um and then the last two questions have to do with whether or not you're able to socially interact with people and whether there have been any changes in your ability to be social and interact with others you know for a lot of people going through this disability process it's not so much that they can't do things ever but it's that their ability to do things has been greatly reduced maybe you used to go to church weekly but now because of back pain you really can't sit in the pews anymore because the pews are very uncomfortable so maybe you only go once a month or or when you feel like you can't or maybe you still go for the social aspect but you stand in the back and you stand up and you sit down and you stand up and you sit down trying to get comfortable these would be areas that you might want to put on this form because it gets to how has your life changed in terms of the social things that you used to do you because of your disabilities all right moving then now on to section D which is information about your abilities question 20 says to check any of the following items that your illnesses injuries or conditions affect and so for example if you have back pain your ability to lift may be may be reduced or maybe you have had some hearing issues or seeing issues maybe your vision has gotten really bad and you're no longer able to see um perhaps perhaps because you have arthritis you have difficulty using your hands or maybe you've had a traumatic brain injury and so now you really have a hard time understanding and following instructions so you're going to want to put a check mark on any of these areas which are affected by your disability and then the question underneath it says to please explain how each of those things are affected so and then they gave you three lines to do it this is another question that a lot of my clients struggle with because they want to talk about each one of those things and they want to get super specific about it you can absolutely do that some of that may have been addressed already in other questions you do also have the section at the end where you can add more information if you need to um again you know what you're going to want to do is highlight the things that you are not able to do and why it is that you can't do that I can't reach because I have a torn rotator cuff I can't get along with other people because I have a very short fuse because I'm in pain all the time that's what they're looking for in question 20a question 20b is very straightforward are you right-handed or left-handed all right tip number four has to do with the next question about how far can you walk before you need to stop and rest this is a very vague question and I think that we have a really hard time understanding sometimes our own limitations so I would not recommend answering this question until you actually have some data so one the things that you can do is maybe if you're a person that walks out to get the mail time how long it takes you to go out and get the mail and come back can you do that is that a three minute walk is that a five minute walk if you like to walk down to the end of your street and back and that's all the physical activity you can do for a day time that or maybe ask a relative hey can you when you drive down to the stop signning um can you tell me how far that is these are things again that we have a really really hard time judging so I think it's important you know if you go to the Dollar General look at your timer when you walk in the store and maybe doing your trip takes 5 minutes then maybe that's your walking limitation but make sure that you know what you're putting down there because if you just say I can walk a mile or I don't know I think I can walk two miles and you put that on there walking two miles is a long walk and that's going to potentially make it look like you are more functional than you actually are question D asks for how long can you pay attention this is another one where you may want to get some data um what they're looking for there is really about what is your ability to concentrate at work going to look like you know if you can pay attention to a two-hour movie and follow the plot well then you can probably pay attention for 2hour stretches which is what's needed to be able to work but if you can't even follow a 30 minute television show that might be an issue if you can't follow a conversation that people are having if you can't pay attention to even short Tik Tok videos or short Instagram videos that may be where you have issues here so maybe you can only pay attention for 10 minutes again try to gather some data before you answer this question um do you finish what you start so if you are given a task to do are you able to finish it or do you get distracted or do you give up halfway through um the next two questions f and g have to do with whether or not you can follow instructions some people do much better with written instructions because they're having problems with short-term memory if it's written down they can go back and refer to it many many times kind of like a recipe if that's you then you can say I follow written instructions well but I have to refer back to those written instructions many times I can't remember what I've read or how well do you follow spoken instructions I can't remember more than one or two steps and I need somebody to repeat the steps to me again um questions H and I have to do with whether or not you're going to be able to get along with people in the workplace so how well do you get along with authority figures so police businesses uh bosses landlords teachers in other words do you interact appropriately with supervisors and if you don't then question I talks about have you ever been fired because you can't get along with supervisors I find this one comes up in a lot of cases that have a lot of mental health components where somebody is maybe bipolar or has other difficulties with interacting appropriately with others and so then they end up getting fired that would be where you would put those kinds of limitations is there on question I all right we're getting there we're almost done moving on to the next page how well do you handle stress and I think for a lot of people going through this particular process their their stress is redlined at the moment they've got a lot of things going on they're struggling on a daily basis what Social Security is asking for here is at work there's going to be stressors you're going to have an unhappy customer you're going to have a boss that suddenly changes his mind about how he wants you to do your task how well are you going to be able to handle the stress that comes with that how well like it says in question K are you going to be able to handle changes in routine if your job has always been I do step one step two step three are you going to be able to handle suddenly step two being eliminated and now you have to go from step one to step three all right and so the next question is a little bit different it asks about whether or not you're having any unusual behaviors or fears um this entire process is overwhelming and sometimes people an people's anxiety starts to flare and you may find yourself being more afraid or concerned of things than you used to be I think what Social Security is actually looking for in this particular question is whether or not you're having issues with paranoia whether or not you're having issues with um psychological fear that maybe is not quite rooted in the real world but if you're having those issues this is a place that you would want to put those down question 21 now is asking about assisted devices you know so assisted devices crutches Walker wheelchair canes braces splints hearing aids Etc um notably which of these were prescribed by a doctor this is important because it's part of how Social Security determines whether or not something is medically necessary um I I know for a lot of my clients they are starting to have some difficulty they may have some balance problems and so they borrow a cane from a friend or they just go out and get themselves a cane because it makes them feel better but then it's never really recorded in the medical evidence and it was never prescribed by a doctor if this is you I highly suggest you talk to your doctor at your next appointment about the difficulties that you're having in Walking In balancing and that you need the cane and does the doctor think you need the cane in order to get from point A to point B and you may want to ask that doctor for a prescription for that cane um again it goes to the medical necessity of the device um of course they want to know when it was prescribed and then when do you need these AIDS um specifically you know do you need them for walking do you need them for standing um especially if you're using an assistant device like a cane if you're using it for walking put that down if you are using it while you stand because you need to balance so that you can shift weight back and forth to get your back to feel better if you have balance problems and you need the cane to stand you need to put that on this question all right question 22 we're on the last page do you currently take any medications for your illnesses injuries or your conditions Check Yes or No and then do any of them cause you side effects Check Yes or No then what it says is if you do have a side effect to explain that side effect um they do not want you to put down medications that do not cause side effects on this last page I do have an important note just because a lot of you are out there taking diuretics um you know the purpose of the diuretic is to make you go to the bathroom that's not technically a side effect because that is what the pill causes you to do but if you on a diuretic and it is causing you to have to go to the bathroom all the time you need to put that here and you need to report that to your doctor and get that in your medical records because I see repeatedly that people use diuretics and they're having to go to the bathroom all the time if you've been in the workplace you know that there are only a certain number of restroom breaks that are typically allowed and if you're having to take restroom breaks beyond that it causes a problem with your employer especially if you're in one of those jobs where you're on a manufacturing line so being on a diuretic will limit the number of jobs that you can have because you're going to be in the bathroom all the time you need to make sure that that is documented somewhere and finally we are coming into that last question and I'm going to provide you with another tip here so here we are at tip number five this is the section where you can write more information if you do not feel like the answers that you had completely captured what it is that you wanted to say this is where you can write more and then that brings me to tip number six if you are complaining about an inability to concentrate and you write the Social Security Administration a 10-page dissertation about how you are disabled that may look inconsistent with your alleged disabilities I understand that some people with anxiety feel like they have to write and write and write because they want somebody to understand what they're going through and they're afraid of leaving anything out because maybe if I don't say this one thing that will be the one thing that maybe makes them understand how disabled I am or maybe if I just say it a different way that that that will be the key but beware of turning up the volume so much because it starts to make you look a little bit not believable and here's another example of that if you tell me that you are 10 out of 10 of pain every single day for hours and hours and you can never get out of bed and you can't concentrate on anything and you have body spasms all the time I'm going to tell you that you're exaggerating I'm not saying you're lying I'm not saying that I don't believe the chur in pain but by overemphasizing what you were going through you have made yourself not believable on that 10 out of 10 Pain Scale 10 is the worst pain you have ever known in your entire life it is considered to be unspeakable pain bedridden pain someone is actively cutting off your leg without anesthesia while you're conscious type pain if you have bulging discs and shooting pains some of those pains may be high on the scale especially when you get the shooting pain but it is not 10 out of 10 for hours every single day and that is the point I'm trying to get across to you is you want to accurately reflect what you're going through you want to pull the curtain back you want to explain everything to Social Security but you want to be very careful that in your cry for help you don't OV exaggerate and make yourself not believable tip number seven if you required assistance to get this form filled out and a lot of people people do especially if you've got arthritis in your hands or difficulty putting your thoughts together put that information here in this extra block if your spouse had to fill it out or if a parent had to fill it out for a young adult put that on here about what the person did to assist and why that assistance was needed for example Jane didn't understand the questions due to traumatic brain injury so I had to walk her through the questions and I wrote down her answers you may also want to talk about how much time it took you to do the form it's long form if you had to break it up over several days due to fatigue or overwhelm then put that here this is again your opportunity to explain all of this to the Social Security Administration finally there is a related form that you may have also gotten in the mail called a third-party adult function report it looks identical to the one that we just talked about but it is supposed to be filled out by someone else other than you and this is because Social Security wants somebody else's point of view so for example if the husband is the person applying for disability benefits they will a lot of times send this form to the wife they want two perspectives on how you are functioning in your day and here's the last tip I have for today it's tip number eight you're going to need to return these forms to the Social Security Administration first make a copy yourself of your forms take a picture on your phone take a scan on your phone take them someplace and get a copy the Social Security Administration is notorious for losing things and the amount of time that you just spent on this form there is a chance that it will get lost at least if you had a copy of the form and then Social Security says oh well we never got it from you you can simply resubmit your copy if you have sent it in and have not retained anything and then Social Security says oh well we lost it well now you're in a world of hurt because you're having to do it again the second part of tip number eight is to document how you returned the form did you mail the form when did you mail it did you drop it by the Social Security local field office when did you do that who did you give it to what was their name you need to document all of that information so that if there is ever a question about what happened to your forms or you didn't turn them in you have proof that you did in fact turn in your forms and then the third part of tip number eight is you should probably follow up with the Social Security Administration about a week after you turned them in to make sure that they were actually received and processed all right we have reached the end of this very long adult function report I hope this information was helpful again if it was please like And subscribe and tell other people if you are in the Georgia area and would like representation on your case please feel free to check out my website Georgia advocat partners.com and send in a representation inquiry I have a lot of information there and I'm constantly adding downloadable guides and blog posts we're also in the process of revamping our website as well so there's a lot more content to come you can also follow me on Facebook and Instagram if you have a specific question that you would like answered please feel free to fill out and submit a question form and if I can get that question a couple of times I will definitely make a video and try to help everyone out so until next time take a deep breath and just know that this is a very long process and you'll make it through my name is Jennifer Jarvis with Georgia Advocate partners and thank you so much and have a great rest of your day