Ticket to Work is Social Security's free, voluntary program that connects people on SSDI or SSI with job services. If you're 18 to 64 and getting benefits, you already have a ticket. Using it gets you help finding work and, while you make timely progress, protection from medical disability reviews. Here's who qualifies, how to use it, and the year-by-year rules that keep the protection in place.
It's Social Security's free employment program for people on disability benefits. You get a "ticket" you can take to an approved provider: either an Employment Network (EN), which can be a private company, nonprofit or local agency, or your state's vocational rehabilitation (VR) agency. They help with things like job search, training, accommodations and benefits planning. You don't pay them. SSA pays the provider later, when you hit work milestones.
It's voluntary. Nothing happens to your benefits if you ignore the ticket, and assigning it doesn't commit you to anything you can't undo.
| Requirement | Rule | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Age | 18 to 64 | Eligibility ends at 65 |
| Benefits | SSDI in current pay status, or SSI that isn't suspended | Concurrent SSDI and SSI is fine |
| Not eligible while | You're getting continued benefits during a cessation appeal | You can assign it once that's resolved in your favor |
| How many tickets | One per period of disability entitlement | You can reassign it to a different provider |
Those rules come from 20 CFR 411.125. You don't need to apply for a ticket separately. If you meet them, you have one.
If a provider isn't working out, you can take the ticket back in writing and reassign it. You get up to 90 days to do that while your protection from medical reviews stays in place.
This is the benefit most people are really after. While your ticket is assigned and you're making timely progress, SSA won't start a medical continuing disability review. That's real protection if you're nervous that working, or simply being reviewed, could cost you your benefits. The CDR process itself is in what happens at an SSDI continuing disability review.
What it doesn't stop is a work review. SSA can still check whether your earnings are over the substantial gainful activity (SGA) limit, $1,690 a month in 2026, and stop checks on that basis. The ticket also doesn't change any work rules. The trial work period, the extended period of eligibility and the SGA limit work exactly as they do without one; can you work while on SSDI walks through them.
Every 12 months the program manager checks whether you're moving toward self-supporting work. You can meet each year's goal through work or through school. Here's the schedule from 20 CFR 411.180, with 2026 dollar amounts:
| Review year | Work route | Education route |
|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | 3 months earning at least $1,210 | A high school diploma or GED, or 60% of a full-time year of a degree or vocational program |
| Year 2 | 6 months earning at least $1,210 | Another 75% of a full-time year |
| Year 3 | 9 months earning more than $1,690 | Finish a 2-year degree or a vocational program, or complete another full year of a 4-year degree |
| Year 4 | 9 months earning more than $1,690 | Another full year of a 4-year degree |
| Year 5 | 6 months earning enough that no cash benefit is paid | Another full year of a 4-year degree, or finish it |
| Year 6 | 6 months earning enough that no cash benefit is paid | Finish the 4-year degree |
| Year 7 onward | 6 months earning enough that no cash benefit is paid | Work only |
The $1,210 figure is the 2026 trial work month amount, and $1,690 is the 2026 SGA amount; both change every January. You can also mix the two routes. If you do a third of the year-one work goal (one month at $1,210) and two-thirds of the school goal (40% of a full-time year), the percentages add to 100 and you've passed.
Months when your ticket isn't assigned, or is in inactive status, don't count toward these years.
Life happens: a flare-up, a hospital stay, a job that falls through. You have two options before a review goes against you:
Failing a progress review doesn't throw you out of the program. You lose the protection from medical reviews, but your provider can keep working with you. If you later show you've met the missed year's requirements, you can ask to be put back in in-use status.
If you're thinking about working at all, usually yes. The services are free, the protection from medical reviews is valuable, and benefits counseling alone can stop costly mistakes, like going over the SGA limit without realizing it. Ask your provider, or the Help Line, about a Work Incentives Planning and Assistance (WIPA) counselor, who can map out how your earnings would affect your checks month by month.
The main risk isn't the ticket. It's working without understanding the limits. Before you take a job, run your numbers: the SSDI calculator estimates your monthly benefit so you know what's at stake, the Social Security calculator shows how working years can raise your retirement benefit, and the SSDI back pay calculator helps if you're still waiting on a claim. For what the benefit itself pays, see how much does SSDI pay.
Not by itself. The ticket doesn't change your benefit amount or the work rules. Your checks are affected by what you earn, under the usual trial work period and substantial gainful activity rules, whether or not you use a ticket.
People aged 18 to 64 who get SSDI in current pay status, or SSI that isn't suspended. You aren't eligible to assign a ticket while you're receiving continued benefits during an appeal of a cessation decision.
From medical reviews, yes, as long as your ticket is assigned and you're making timely progress. It doesn't stop SSA from reviewing your earnings to see whether they're over the substantial gainful activity limit, $1,690 a month in 2026.
You become subject to medical reviews again, but you can keep working with your provider. The decision takes effect 30 days after the notice unless you ask SSA to review it, and you can ask to be reinstated once you show you've met the missed requirements.
Yes. Tell the program manager in writing that you're taking your ticket out of assignment, then sign a new plan with another provider. If you were making timely progress, you get up to 90 days to reassign it while keeping your protection from medical reviews.