How to Complete the Adult Function Report Without Weakening Your Claim

Key Takeaways:

• Form SSA-3373 asks how your medical conditions affect your activities and abilities.
• Describe what you can do accurately, including any help, breaks, modifications, or symptoms involved.
• Do not leave questions blank or describe only your best or worst days without explaining how often each occurs.
• A Massachusetts disability lawyer can help you complete the Adult Function Report to be consistent with the rest of your claim.

Many Social Security disability applicants in Massachusetts are asked to complete the Adult Function Report, officially designated Form SSA-3373. It asks about your daily activities — things like cooking, driving, and getting dressed. The way you complete this form can significantly affect how SSA understands and evaluates your limitations. 

Our Massachusetts Social Security disability lawyers work with clients on this form because applicants may unintentionally give incomplete answers or make their daily functioning sound less limited than it is.

What Is the Adult Function Report and Why Does It Matter?

SSA or Disability Determination Services may ask an adult applying for SSDI or SSI to complete Form SSA-3373 while the disability claim is being developed.

DDS considers the Adult Function Report with medical records and other evidence to understand how your conditions affect your activities and abilities. When an assessment of residual functional capacity is required, information about daily activities, symptoms, and other limitations may be part of that evaluation.

Medical records help DDS understand your diagnoses, symptoms, treatment, and clinical findings, while the Adult Function Report provides additional information about how your conditions affect your activities and abilities from day to day.

The form’s Privacy Act notice states that providing the information is voluntary, but failing to provide some or all of it may prevent SSA from making an accurate and timely decision. If SSA asks you to complete the report, respond by the deadline or contact the requesting office if you need help or additional time.

Section-by-Section Guidance for Form SSA-3373 

Each part of Form SSA-3373 asks about a different area of daily functioning, from personal care and household chores to concentration and social interaction. Accurate answers should explain not only whether you perform an activity, but also how often you do it, how long it takes, what assistance you need, and what symptoms occur.

Daily Activities

This section asks about your typical day from morning to night. Describe what you actually do during a typical day, while also explaining any limits, assistance, breaks, modifications, or symptoms involved. Do not omit activities, but do not make them sound easier or more sustained than they are. If getting dressed requires sitting down twice and leaves you exhausted, say that. 

Avoid phrases like "I manage fine" or "I can do most things." Instead, give an accurate explanation based on your own experience: "I can usually stand at the kitchen counter for about five minutes before I need to sit because of back pain. About three days each week, I do not prepare a meal and rely on something that requires no cooking."

Personal Care

Questions about bathing, dressing, grooming, and toileting can feel personal, and applicants may be tempted to minimize their need for help or changes in their routine. If you need help, use assistive devices, sit to shower, or have to rest between steps of your morning routine, document that. If depression or fatigue means there are days you do not bathe or get dressed at all, include that as well.

Household Tasks

When the form asks whether you do laundry, clean, or do yard work, answer with qualifiers: how often, how long, with whose help, and what symptoms follow. Saying, "I can do one load of laundry only if I break it into three steps over two hours and rest afterward," gives DDS more useful information than simply answering "yes." 

If chores you once performed — like vacuuming, shoveling, or grocery shopping — are no longer possible, note what changed and when. These details help DDS understand whether you can perform an activity independently, repeatedly, and for a sustained period.

Going Out and Transportation

If you no longer drive due to medication side effects, pain, fatigue, or cognitive difficulties, explain that explicitly. If leaving the house requires planning, assistance, or is limited to medical appointments only, describe your actual pattern. 

The form asks how often you leave home, whether you can go out alone, how you travel, and whether your conditions affect activities such as driving, shopping, or attending appointments.

Social Activities

Depression, anxiety, chronic pain, and fatigue can reduce the frequency, duration, or quality of a person’s social activities. If you have withdrawn from activities you once enjoyed, stopped visiting friends or family, or find social situations overwhelming, explain those changes in the Function Report.

Explain any changes in how often you socialize, the activities you attend, how long you participate, and whether you need support or experience symptoms during or afterward.

Concentration, Memory, and Following Instructions

This section can be particularly relevant for applicants with cognitive conditions, mental health diagnoses, or conditions involving brain fog, such as fibromyalgia, long COVID, or lupus. If you cannot follow a television program, read a book, keep track of appointments, or complete a multi-step task without losing your place, explain that here. 

These examples can help SSA understand the functional effects of symptoms that may not be fully described by medical test results alone.

Pain, Fatigue, and Medication Side Effects

Form SSA-3373 asks how your conditions affect physical and mental abilities and includes a specific question about medication side effects. You should also explain pain, fatigue, or side effects in other answers when they affect the activity being discussed.

If pain limits how long you can sit, walk, stand, or concentrate, explain that limitation wherever it is relevant to the question being answered. If medication causes drowsiness, nausea, dizziness, or cognitive impairment that limits your functioning, list that too. Leaving out this information can give DDS an incomplete picture of how your conditions and treatment affect your functioning.

Common Mistakes That Weaken Your Claim

Problems often arise when applicants give brief answers that do not fully describe their limitations or when their responses appear inconsistent with other information in the record. Reviewing these common mistakes can help you provide a more accurate and complete account of your daily functioning.

• Answering "yes" to activities without explaining limitations, duration, or consequences
• Describing only your best days or only your worst days without explaining how your functioning varies and how often each type of day occurs
• Leaving answers blank instead of writing "none," "does not apply," or another accurate explanation
• Using vague language without explaining frequency, duration, or examples when you can reasonably provide that information
• Describing what you used to be able to do without clearly stating what has changed

SSA may also ask a family member, friend, or another person familiar with your daily functioning to complete a Third-Party Function Report, Form SSA-3380. The third party should answer independently and truthfully based on personal observations. Differences between the reports are not necessarily improper, but unexplained contradictions may raise questions that require clarification.

Why Completing This Form With an Attorney Matters

The Function Report becomes part of the evidence DDS reviews and may later be considered by an administrative law judge if the claim reaches a hearing. Incomplete, vague, or inconsistent answers may make it harder for DDS to understand the full extent of your limitations. 

An experienced Boston SSDI lawyer can help you understand the questions, identify details that require explanation, and provide answers that accurately reflect your daily functioning and remain consistent with the rest of the evidence.

For applicants who have already received a denial, an attorney can review the Adult Function Report alongside the medical evidence, agency findings, and other records to determine whether incomplete or inconsistent functional information affected the decision.