Protecting Your SSDI Benefits
The Ticket to Work program provides a safety net of work incentives that allow SSDI recipients to explore employment without the immediate risk of losing benefits. Able Ready Employment Network helps every step of the way.
Trial Work Period (TWP)
Work without losing your SSDI check for at least 9 months.
How Benefits Are Protected:
SSDI recipients are granted 9 Trial Work Period months—within a 60-month rolling window—during which they can earn any amount of income and still receive their full SSDI payments. This allows them to test their ability to work without risking their benefits.
How Your EN Helps:
- Explains how monthly earnings are tracked and which months count as TWP.
- Provides support in reporting income accurately to SSA.
- Helps structure your work hours and wages to optimize use of the TWP.
- Offers tools to monitor when you’re nearing the end of your 9 trial months.
Extended Period of Eligibility (EPE)
Keep your SSDI safety net for 3 years after TWP ends
How Benefits Are Protected:
After TWP, participants enter a 36-month Extended Period of Eligibility. During this time, you only lose SSDI payments in months you earn above the SGA threshold (e.g., $1,550/month in 2025; $2,590 for blind individuals). If you fall below SGA in any month, SSDI is reinstated automatically.
How Your EN Helps:
- Educates you on Substantial Gainful Activity (SGA) limits and how they affect your check.
- Supports monthly income tracking and helps troubleshoot if SSA miscalculates.
- Helps advocate for you if you’re wrongfully suspended from benefits.
- Prepares you for transitions in and out of SSDI payments as income fluctuates.
Expedited Reinstatement (EXR)
Reinstate your benefits quickly if work doesn’t work out.
How Benefits Are Protected:
If your SSDI benefits end because you worked above SGA and later become unable to work due to your condition, you can request to have your benefits restarted without reapplying. This protection, called Expedited Reinstatement (EXR), is available for up to 5 years after benefits stop.
How Your EN Helps:
- Alerts you when you’re nearing the point where benefits may end, and prepares an EXR plan.
- Assists with EXR paperwork and documentation if your condition worsens.
- Helps you qualify for provisional SSDI payments while SSA reviews your EXR request.
- Provides ongoing career and benefits counseling throughout the process.
Protection from Continuing Disability Reviews (CDRs)
No CDRs while making timely progress in the Ticket to Work Program
How Benefits Are Protected:
SSA routinely conducts medical Continuing Disability Reviews (CDRs). However, if you’re participating in the Ticket to Work program with a qualified EN and making “timely progress,” SSA will defer your CDR.
How Your EN Helps:
- Works with you to define a personalized Individual Work Plan (IWP) that qualifies for CDR protection.
- Tracks and documents your progress to ensure you meet SSA’s “timely progress” standards.
- Communicates directly with SSA on your behalf to confirm CDR protection status.
- Provides ongoing support to help you meet your work or training milestones.
How to I Get Started with Ticket to Work?
Getting started with the Ticket to Work program using an Employment Network (EN) is simple and empowering. Once you’ve confirmed you’re eligible — meaning you’re between the ages of 18 and 64 and currently receiving SSDI or SSI — you can begin by completing our FREE REVIEW form.
If we confirm you are eligible, we’ll contact you to meet with us to discuss your career goals, current situation, and any barriers you face. Together, we’ll develop an Individual Work Plan (IWP), which outlines the steps and supports you’ll receive to help you achieve meaningful employment. Once your IWP is signed, your “ticket” is officially assigned to us, and we will begin guiding you through job search, benefits counseling, training opportunities, and ongoing support—all at no cost to you.
