CHAPTER
9

Applying for Disability Benefits

In This Chapter

What is the Social Security Disability program? It’s a government-run plan that offers financial help to people who are unable to work for at least a year because of severe mental or physical impairments or disabilities.

According to the Social Security Administration (SSA), in December 2013 there were a total of almost 9 million disabled American workers—4,600,000 males and 4,300,000 females—with an average monthly benefit of $1,146.43. At the same time, there were an additional 2 million spouses and children of disabled workers receiving on average $338.86 in monthly disability benefits.

How likely is it that you or someone you depend on could become disabled and unable to work for at least a year or longer? The SSA notes that one in every four American workers will probably become disabled before they reach age 67.

Just like retirement benefits, disability payments are administered by the SSA, but there are two different programs:

  • Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI)
  • Supplemental Security Income (SSI), which is for people with limited income and resources

The SSA will decide if you are eligible for disability payments under one of these two programs, depending on whether you meet certain requirements it has established. Each program has its own requirements, and we’ll discuss what those requirements are in this chapter.

Three Ways to Apply

There are three ways you can apply for both of these disability benefits:

An interview by phone or in person will last about one hour. If you’re deaf or hard of hearing, you can call a special TTY number—1-800-325-0778—between 7 A.M. and 7 P.M. on business days to schedule an appointment.

Once you schedule an appointment, the SSA will send you a Disability Starter Kit, which is also available online at socialsecurity.gov/disability/disability_starter_kits.htm#sb=.

WORTH NOTING

If you become disabled, apply for benefits as soon as possible because it usually takes from three to five months just to process your claim.

Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI)

Because most people receiving disability do so under the Social Security Disability Insurance program (SSDI), we’ll examine that first.

Under SSDI, in order to receive disability payments you had to have made contributions to Social Security by paying those FICA taxes if you were employed, or Self-Employed Contributions Act (SECA) taxes if you were self-employed.

Just as with retirement benefits, SSDI may also be available to spouses and dependent children, but first you have to meet certain qualifications.

WORTH NOTING

One of the main differences between Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is that you can get SSI without having paid Social Security taxes, but you can’t with SSDI.

Depending on your age, you should have worked in jobs where you contributed to Social Security through FICA or have a self-employed business that contributes through the SECA tax. You also should have worked enough years to earn the necessary number of work credits for your particular age group.

For example, if you were disabled between ages 31 and 42, you would need 20 credits, which means you worked at least five years. (You receive 4 credits per year.) The number of credits needed goes up from there, until age 62 when you would need 40 work credits.

After you determine that you have enough work credits to qualify, you have to have a mental or physical condition that meets the SSA’s definition of a disability. To qualify, this condition typically would have to prevent you from working for at least one year.

Benefits can be retroactive and, once approved, you’ll receive them for as long as necessary until you’re able to return to work. There are even special work incentives that will offer continued benefits and health-care coverage to help you in your transition back to the workforce.

If your disability lasts until you reach your full retirement age (FRA), your disability benefits automatically switch over to retirement benefits at the same amount you had been receiving for disability.

Definition and Duration of Disability

The SSA has its own definition of disability. SSA considers you disabled if:

  • Your condition prevents you from doing the work you used to do.
  • You can’t adjust to any other work because of your condition.
  • Your disability will last at least one year and/or will result in death.

That definition doesn’t leave much wiggle room. In other words, you have to pretty much be totally disabled to qualify. Short-term problems won’t cut it. Even if you seem to have a condition that fits their criteria, the SSA makes very sure you meet their definition of disabled before approving your claim.

Here are five questions SSA will ask you immediately:

  1. Are you still working? This is a biggie. If you’re still working and earning more than $1,070 monthly, you probably will not qualify as disabled. If you’re not working, your application then goes to the Disability Determination Services (DDS) office, which will make a decision based on your mental or physical condition.
  2. Is your condition severe enough that it interferes with your ability to work? Your condition must be so severe that it prevents you from continuing your job daily.
  3. Is this condition found in the list of disabled conditions? In the next section, we list the 14 categories of potential disabilities that include some 200 possible medical problems that could qualify for disability.
  4. Can you perform the work you did before you were disabled? If your condition isn’t on this list, you’ll be asked if you can do the work you did before becoming impaired. If your condition is severe enough to prevent you from doing your job, an examiner will review your condition, and you might still qualify for disability even if your illness isn’t among the conditions listed.
  5. Can you do any other kind of work? If you can’t perform your previous job, the examiner may ask if you could do something else, or if you can possibly adjust to a different, possibly less physically or mentally taxing job. In this case, they’ll look at your medical condition and your age, education, and past work experience for any transferable skills. If you can’t adjust to any other work, they’ll probably approve your claim. If you can, they probably won’t.



The Blue Book’s List of Impairments

Now let’s look at what medical conditions the SSA considers when determining a disability claim. Sometimes referred to as the “Blue Book” list of impairments, the SSA has 14 different categories of illnesses that apply to adults 18 and over, in addition to those that apply to some children under 18. Here are the 14 illness categories:

  1. Musculoskeletal system conditions: Includes any loss of function due to bone or joint disorders (such as amputations, fractures, disorders of the spine), and soft-tissue injuries (such as burns).
  2. Special sense and speech disorders: Includes visual disorders (such as blindness and loss of visual efficiency), loss of speech, and loss of hearing.
  3. Respiratory system illnesses and impairments: Includes chronic pulmonary insufficiency, asthma, cystic fibrosis, pneumoconiosis, bronchiectasis, lung infections, sleep-related breathing disorders (such as apnea), and lung transplants.
  4. Cardiovascular system illnesses or impairments to your heart and circulatory system: Includes chronic heart failure, heart disease, recurrent arrhythmias, symptomatic congenital heart disease, heart transplants, aneurysm of the aorta or its major branches, chronic venous insufficiency, or peripheral arterial disease.
  5. Digestive system disorders: Includes gastrointestinal hemorrhages, liver disease, inflammatory bowel disease, short bowel syndrome, and malnutrition.
  6. Genitourinary impairments: Includes impairments to renal function (such as chronic renal disease, diabetic nephropathy, or glomerular disease), kidney failure, and osteoporosis, to name a few.
  7. Hematological disorders: Includes blood disorders such as anemia, sickle cell disease, coagulation defects, and hereditary telangiectasia, or hemorrhages requiring transfusions at least three times during a five-month period.
  8. Skin disorders: Includes extensive skin lesions, skin tumors, or infections caused by autoimmune disorders such as lupus or HIV infection, burns, or any type of skin disorder the SSA considers severe enough to prevent you from working.
  9. Endocrine disorders causing hormonal imbalances: Including pituitary gland disorders that can disrupt and affect your endocrine glands, as well as water and electrolyte balance in your kidneys possibly leading to adult onset diabetes. It also includes thyroid gland disorders, which impact your blood pressure and heart rate; parathyroid gland disorders, which can cause osteoporosis, cataracts, and kidney failure; and adrenal gland disorders, which impact your blood pressure, your body’s metabolism, and your mental status.
  10. Congenital disorders: Includes disorders that affect different systems of your body, with the most common being Down syndrome.
  11. Neurological disorders: Including epilepsy, trauma to the central nervous system, brain tumors, Parkinson’s disease, cerebral palsy, spinal cord or nerve root lesions, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, Huntington’s disease, and any disorder related to the brain and nervous system.
  12. Mental disorders: Includes such psychotic disorders as schizophrenia and paranoia, intellectual disabilities, anxiety-related disorders (such as post-traumatic stress syndrome [PTSD]), autism, personality disorders, substance addiction disorders, and other pervasive developmental disorders.
  13. Malignant neoplastic diseases: Includes soft tissue tumors; lymphoma; Kaposi’s sarcoma; HIV; leukemia; myeloma; cancers of the breast, lung, bone, nervous system, stomach, esophagus, small and large intestines, pancreas, liver, gallbladder, ovaries, testicles, marrow, or any other type of cancer that would prevent work or lead to death.
  14. Immune system disorders: Includes disorders such as lupus, sclerosis, HIV, AIDS, and severe inflammatory arthritis, to name a few.

TIP

The SSA has special rules if you are legally blind, which means your vision can’t be corrected to better than 20/200 in your better eye, or if your visual field is 20 degrees less than in your better eye. If this is the case, and if you don’t have enough work credits based on your own earnings, you may be able to get disability benefits based on your parents’ or spouse’s earnings.

When deciding on a claim based on one of these illnesses or impairments, the SSA considers your medical and legal issues. SSA officials review your claim to make sure you legally qualify for the benefits by having earned the prerequisite work credits and contributed to FICA. Then they’ll review your medical records regarding your impairment to make sure it prevents you from doing your job or transferring your skills to another job.

Earning the Required Credits

To qualify for Social Security disability payments, you need to earn a certain number of work credits. Similar to the credit rules for retirement benefits, you can earn up to four credits annually. Because you can become disabled at any time during your working career, the number of work credits required for disability payments will depend on how old you are when you become disabled. That means the younger you are, the fewer work credits you’ll need to qualify for disability.

For example:

  • If you become disabled before the age of 24, you only need to have earned six credits over a three-year period prior to when you became disabled to qualify.
  • If you become disabled between the ages of 24 and 31, you would only need credits for working half the time between age 21 and the year you became disabled. For example, if you became disabled at age 27, you would only need credit for half of those six years worked, which is three years or 12 credits.
  • If you become disabled between the ages of 31 and 42, you will need at least 20 credits, and those credits could have been earned anytime in the 10 years prior to your becoming disabled.
  • If you become disabled between the ages of 44 and 66, the credits will start accumulating at 22 and grow at 2 credits every two years until age 62, when they cap at 40. Ages 62 to 66 still only need 40 credits to qualify.

Qualifying for Disability as a Family Member

Some family members of an eligible worker may also qualify for Social Security disability benefits. They include the following persons:

  • Your spouse, if he or she is 62 or older.
  • Your spouse if he or she is caring for your child age 16 or younger; or if the child is also disabled, your spouse is eligible at any age.
  • Your unmarried child, including any adopted child or in some cases stepchildren or grandchildren, if the child is 18 years or younger and in elementary or secondary school full time.
  • Your unmarried child who is 18 or older and has a disability that began before age 22. (The child’s disability must meet the requirements of a disability for an adult.)

In certain circumstances, a divorced spouse may also qualify for benefits based on your earnings, if he or she was married to you for at least 10 years, is currently unmarried, and is at least 62 years old.

There are also benefits for the parents of a worker if:

  • Your child was an insured worker who died.
  • You are at least 62 years old.
  • You are divorced, widowed, or unmarried, and have not married since the death of your child.
  • You were receiving at least one half of your support from your child at the time of his or her death and you can provide evidence of that support.

Citizenship or Residency Requirements

There are specific citizenship or residency requirements in order to qualify for Social Security disability benefits. You must be a U.S. citizen or a permanent legal resident living in the United States or abroad.

However, even if you aren’t a citizen or permanent legal resident, you may still qualify if you can show that you are lawfully present in the United States and meet certain other requirements, which we discuss later in this chapter in the section “Citizenship and Residency Requirements.”

Income or Resource Limits

Just as with retirement benefits, your disability benefits will be based on your average lifetime earnings. It isn’t, as some people think, based on how bad your disability is or how much income you have.

There are reasons you may receive a reduction in disability payments, such as if you’re receiving payments from some other disability program like workers compensation.

When the SSA calculates your average lifetime earnings, it will exclude any periods when your income dropped because of your disability.

As usual, the formula the SSA uses to calculate disability benefits is just as complicated as the one they use for retirement. First, they determine your average indexed monthly earnings (AIME). Your AIME is then used to calculate your primary insurance amount (PIA), which becomes the number the SSA uses to determine the actual amount of your monthly benefit.

Here’s where it gets tricky. Your PIA is made up of fixed percentages of predetermined amounts of your AIME. Those dollar amounts go up each year; however, the percentages do not.

In 2014, the monthly PIA benefit for a disabled worker looks like this:

90% of $0 to $816

32% of $817 to $4,917

15% of anything above $4,917

Let’s say your AIME is $8,000. This means your PIA comes out to …

90% of $816 is $734.40

32% of $4101 is $1,312.32

15% of $8,000 - $4,917 or $3,083 is $462.45

Which totals $2,509.20 when rounded to the nearest .10.

Eligibility for Supplemental Security Income (SSI)

The SSI program makes monthly payments to people who have low income and few resources, who are age 65 or older, or who are blind or disabled. Children who are disabled or blind may also receive SSI if they meet certain criteria. The primary requirements here are limited income and resources and being disabled. Simply put, if you make more than a certain amount of money, you will not receive SSI even if you are disabled.

In 2014, the basic monthly SSI payments are $721 for one person or $1,082 for a couple. As noted in the government booklet “You May Be Able to Get Supplemental Security Income (SSI),” if you receive SSI, you’re also expected to apply for any other cash benefits available to you, including Medicaid to pay doctor and hospital bills and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which assists in paying for food. You can download this free booklet at ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-11069.pdf.

What Is the Definition of Being Disabled?

Under SSI, being disabled means you can’t participate in any gainful employment due to a physical or mental impairment as an adult. For children, being disabled means a child’s physical or mental impairments result in extreme limitations.

Duration of Disability Requirements

The duration of disability means the impairment had to have lasted, or is expected to last, for at least one year or result in your death, such as having terminal cancer. The 12-month period doesn’t necessarily mean you have to have been severely ill or impaired for a year before applying for benefits. You only have to expect the impairment to last at least one year to be able to apply.

The SSA will deem a qualified impairment eligible if it hasn’t improved after three months. Sometimes it can be awarded sooner in situations where it’s obvious you are going to be impaired or unable to work because of a condition for a protracted period of time (if you broke your back or lost the use of your legs, for example). In those cases, the SSA can make an immediate ruling.

Income Limits

There are strict income limitations for receiving SSI. For nonblind people, couples cannot earn more than $1,082 a month in 2014 (around $12,984 annually). If you’re single and not blind, the amount drops to $721 a month (around $8,652 annually). This is known as the Federal Benefit Rate (FBR).

The FBR also sets the maximum amount you can receive in an SSI payment. These payments are typically supplemented by state funds in all but a few states. The states not providing additional financial support are Arizona, Arkansas, Mississippi, North Dakota, Oregon, Tennessee, and West Virginia. All other states allow higher SSI payments than the federal maximums.

Resource Limits

Income isn’t the only thing being considered to qualify for SSI. Your assets must also not exceed a certain level. Assets are considered anything that can be converted into cash. This means if you own property that you don’t live on, it can be considered a sellable resource.

Resources are categorized as either liquid or nonliquid. Liquid assets are cash or anything that can be converted into cash within 20 working days, which includes savings and checking accounts, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, promissory notes, and some kinds of life insurance. Nonliquid assets would include property such as land or a house or co-op you don’t live in; and personal property, such as cars, clothing, jewelry, silverware, musical instruments, etc. In 2014, you would not be eligible for SSI if your assets exceeded $2,000 for a single person or $3,000 for a couple.

The SSA will exclude certain assets, such as your primary residence, some restricted Indian land, household goods, and personal effects up to $2,000. Also excluded are wedding and engagement rings of any value; necessary health aids such as wheelchairs or prosthetic devices; one car; grants, fellowships or scholarships used to pay tuition; life insurance with a face value of $1,500 or less; burial plots worth up to $1,500; disaster relief; and housing assistance you receive under the U.S. Housing Act, the National Housing Act, or the Housing and Urban Development Act.

Citizenship and Residency Requirements

Unlike SSDI, SSI disability payments are usually only given to U.S. citizens. But there are a few exceptions under which a noncitizen would qualify, such as:

  • During the first seven years after you entered the United States, you became a legal resident as a refugee, have been granted asylum, or under certain conditions you entered as an Amerasian immigrant, or have been granted status as a Cuban or Haitian entrant.
  • You legally entered the United States.
  • You were honorably discharged from the U.S. military or are on active duty in the U.S. military; or are the spouse of a veteran or person on active duty, the unmarried dependent child of a veteran or person on active duty, or the surviving spouse of a deceased veteran or person who died on active duty and you are still unmarried.
  • You were lawfully residing in the United States and receiving SSI benefits on August 22, 1996.
  • You were lawfully residing in the United States on August 22, 1996, and you are blind or became disabled.
  • You are lawfully residing in the United States and are a Native American who was born in Canada.
  • You have been battered or subjected to cruelty by a family member while in the United States.

The Application Process

There are three ways you can apply for disability benefits: online, by scheduling an appointment to apply at the local SSA office, or by speaking over the phone with an SSA employee.

But before you contact SSA and begin your application, you should do your homework to ensure your claim is presented accurately so it can be processed properly and in the shortest amount of time. It is extremely important to keep detailed records and documents related to your impairment in order to show how it impacts your ability to work.

Documenting Your Symptoms

One of the first things you should do is keep a daily record of your symptoms—of how you feel, both physically and emotionally—and keep track of anything you’re no longer able to do. Keep in mind, however, a Social Security Administration fact sheet notes, “The medical condition(s) must be shown to exist by means of medically acceptable clinical and laboratory findings. Under the law, symptoms alone cannot be the basis for a finding of disability, although the effects of symptoms may be an important factor in our decision whether a person is disabled.”

Necessary Information and Documents

Gather together all your pertinent medical records from doctors, therapists, hospitals, clinics, and any laboratory results (both positive and negative) to support your claim of being disabled. (If you are applying for disability for an adult child who is unable to work, have all the notes and any other records from all doctors’ visits.) You’ll also need the following:

  • A summary of where you worked and the kind of work you performed for the past 15 years.
  • A copy of your most recent W-2 Form, or if you are self-employed, your federal tax return from the previous year.
  • Your Social Security number.
  • Your birth certificate or some other proof of age, such as a driver’s license, state ID, or passport.

Field Office Observations

If you decide to apply in person at a local Social Security field office, a field office representative will be observing you while you’re there. That means she will be watching as you fill out the application form(s), and will keep notes on how you do in terms of reading, writing, answering questions, hearing, sitting, using your hands, breathing, seeing, walking, and anything else that might bear upon your claim.

There won’t be any medical exams because the person taking your application isn’t a doctor or nurse. But she will keep a record of what she observed.

The SSA examiners will read these observations and consider them, along with all the other data you provided, in deciding for or against your claim. For example, if the field officer wrote that you had no problem walking, but your claim indicates you do, it could raise some questions. It doesn’t automatically mean your claim will be denied, only that the examiner will be looking more closely at your ability to walk.

Processing Your Application

The agency that determines whether your impairment is bad enough to keep you from working and qualify you for benefits is called the Disability Determination Service (DDS). This is a state agency funded either by the federal government or the state, and the SSA will send your claim there once it determines that you meet all the nonmedical requirements for eligibility.

Most claims for disability benefits are handled through a network of state DDS offices. The DDS office informs the SSA of their decision. If the DDS reaches a favorable decision, SSA administers sending out the disability benefits.

The DDS will go over your medical records and may even contact your doctor(s) for more information. They may also contact your employer or visit your business if you are self-employed to verify your work activities.

If more information is needed, they will also contact you and may request further medical examinations or lab tests. If they do, the SSA pays for it. This is called a consultative examination and it can be performed by your regular doctor, or the SSA can arrange for an independent doctor to perform it. SSA pays for it no matter who performs the exam.

The Impact of Other Disability Payments on Social Security Benefits

If you receive workers compensation or benefits from a different publicly funded disability program, it could impact your Social Security benefits. Examples of these would be civil service disability benefits, state temporary disability benefits or state or local government retirement benefits that are based on disability.

If you receive workers compensation or any other public disability benefits the total amount of these benefits cannot exceed 80 percent of your average current earnings before you became disabled. If the total amount of these benefits exceeds 80 percent of your average current earnings, the excess amount is deducted from your Social Security benefit.

For example, for a family of four, if before you became disabled your average earnings were $4,000 a month, you, your spouse, and two children would be eligible to receive $2,200 a month in Social Security disability benefits. Then, if you also receive $2,000 a month from workers’ compensation, your family’s Social Security benefits would be reduced by $1,000 because the total amount from both benefits, $4,200, is $1,000 more than 80 percent of your average earnings of $3,200.

Fortunately, the SSA will deduct legal, medical, and rehabilitation expenses from any workers compensation award before decreasing your Social Security disability benefit.

Some payments have no impact on your Social Security disability payment. These include:

  • Veteran’s Administration (VA) benefits
  • Federal benefits (if the work you did to earn them was covered by Social Security)
  • State and local government benefits (if the work was covered by Social Security)
  • Private pension plans or insurance benefits
  • Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments

How the SSA Makes Its Decision

There are a number of factors that go into determining whether the SSA approves your disability claim or rejects it. First, if you’re currently working and earning income, the SSA may consider you gainfully employed, or in their terms, engaged in substantial gainful activity (SGA). If that’s the case, your claim will be denied.

Second, if you are not engaged in SGA, the SSA looks at the severity of your illness or impairment. Again, if your problem is not deemed bad enough to significantly limit your ability to work, they will deny your claim.

This means that even if you have one of the medical problems listed in the Blue Book list of impairments, it may not be enough. Your impairment has to be so severe that you are unable to work in your job or any other job where your skills are transferrable.

Furthermore, if your impairment is deemed severe enough, the SSA then determines whether the impairment is expected to last at least one year or lead to death. If the answer is no, your claim will be denied. If the answer is yes and you have all the previous requirements, your claim probably will be approved.

In 2006, the SSA initiated what’s called the Quick Disability Determination (QDD). QDD is used with claimants who meet both the legal and medical eligibility requirements and are definitely disabled, including those who are blind, suffering from metastatic cancer, have kidney failure to the point they need dialysis, or are no longer able to walk. In these cases, your claim could be approved within two to three weeks.

Receiving Benefits

Now that you’ve been approved, you’ll receive a certificate of award that spells out what you’ll be receiving in terms of disability benefits. Unfortunately, these payments won’t start immediately. In fact, you won’t begin receiving disability payments for five months after the date you’re declared disabled, which is called the “established onset date” (EOD).

On the positive side, you’ll be paid retroactively back to your EOD even if you didn’t apply for disability until a few weeks or months after you became disabled. There is, however, a maximum of 12 months of retroactive benefits.

Disability Benefit Payments

Once approved, SSA will first notify you to tell you how much you will be receiving each month in disability benefits as well as when your payments will begin. If any family members are eligible for benefits based on your work credits, they will receive a separate notice and booklet. Your payments will usually begin in your sixth month of disability.

Payments will continue for as long as your medical condition prevents you from working. But don’t expect your benefits to last forever. Science and medicine are constantly working to come up with new techniques that improve and hasten rehabilitation, allowing more and more people to recover from disabilities caused by accidents or illnesses. You should expect the SSA to review your case every so often just to make sure you still qualify for disability benefits.

Currently, monthly payments are made electronically using your bank’s routing number and the checking account number you provided when you applied.

If you didn’t provide this information, you should contact the SSA and provide it as soon as possible to receive payments electronically. Otherwise, the Treasury Department may send your payments through what’s called the Direct Express card program. With Direct Express, payments are made directly to a debit card account, which can be used like a regular bank debit card. You can sign up for the Direct Express card by calling the U.S. Treasury’s electronic payment solution contact center at 1-800-333-1795. You can also sign up online at GoDirect.org.

There’s also a third option to receive the funds called an Electronic Transfer Account. This is a low-cost, federally insured account that allows you to receive automatic payments. You can contact the SSA or go online at eta-find.gov for more information about the Electronic Transfer Account.

Receiving Medicare Benefits After 24 Months

After receiving disability benefits for 24 months, you become eligible to receive both Part A (Hospital Insurance) and Part B (Medical Insurance) from Medicare. Sometimes you might even qualify for Medicare before then. For example, if you have permanent kidney failure requiring dialysis on a regular basis or a transplant, or you have amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease), you could qualify for Medicare almost immediately.

Returning to Work

If you return to work, take a job, or become self-employed, you need to notify the SSA. They’ll want to know how many hours you expect to work and when your work starts and stops. You need to do this no matter how little you’re paid.

However, just because you’re working again doesn’t automatically mean your disability payments will stop. In fact, if you’re still disabled, you’ll be eligible for a Trial Work Period (TWP), and you can continue receiving benefits for up to nine months.

TIP

Some work will not count toward the nine-month period also known as the Trial Work Period (TWP). For example, if you earn less than $780 per month (in 2015) no matter how many hours you worked, it will not be counted.

You also need to tell the SSA if you have any distinct work expenses because of your disability, such as specialized equipment like a wheelchair, or whether you have to continue taking prescription drugs.

Ticket to Work Program

The SSA has what’s called the Ticket to Work Program. It’s designed so you can use it to obtain services to help you go back to work or to earn more money. It’s open to anyone from age 18 to 64 who is getting Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI). Through this program, SSA offers free employment services including career counseling, job placement, job training, and vocational rehabilitation.

You used to get a ticket in the mail and you would take that physical ticket to your state’s vocational rehabilitation agency or to an employment network that has agreed to work with Social Security to provide employment services to people with disabilities. But Social Security discontinued sending out paper tickets through the mail. Instead, whatever service you choose to work with, such as job placement and training, vocational rehabilitation, or career counseling, will confirm that you are eligible to participate in the program.

This program is purely voluntary and participation is free. For more information, ask the SSA for Publication No. 05-10061, “Your Ticket to Work,” or you can download the free booklet at ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10061.pdf. You’ll find more information on Ticket to Work at ssa.gov/work.

Ticket to Hire Program

The Ticket to Hire program provides services to employers, employment networks, and state vocational rehabilitation agencies. It’s an outreach referral service that links employers with people receiving disability benefits who want to work or earn money.

The Ticket to Hire program helps increase the opportunities for disability recipients by ensuring successful job placements through employer participation. The program provides resources and solutions within the full range of disability employment issues, and it reduces barriers to employment. It also serves as a one-stop place for employers to recruit, hire, and retain qualified workers with disabilities.

The Least You Need to Know

  • A disability is a severe mental or physical impairment that prevents you from working for at least a year.
  • There are two disability benefits programs available: Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI).
  • You need to provide your Social Security number and birth certificate, medical records, and employment information when applying for disability.
  • To be eligible for disability, you must have worked long enough to earn a certain number of work credits based on your age.
  • Ticket to Work is a free and voluntary program that provides those receiving disability benefits who are eligible with employment services such as career counseling, job placement, vocational rehabilitation, and job training.