Wow! Then what is the point of the ticket to work program? If your correct then the SSDI work program is BS!

The point of Ticket to Work is to help the disabled go back to work to get off the disability rolls. But if you are using the Ticket and trying to work and your CDR is scheduled to begin, it is deferred. But you could be ceased later.

It is not true that everyone who ever works gets medically ceased. A person who has a spinal cord injury or who is deaf (two obvious types) who goes to work does not have medical improvement so they are not medically ceased. But for some people, being able to go back to work and sustain a job does show medical improvement for some types of disabilities, especially mental problems. That is also obvious to me. Not saying that it may be a struggle to go to work for people with disabilities, but people can get better with appropriate medical care. Holding a job may not show sufficient medical improvement to be ceased, but maybe it will. There are no definitive answers, no crystal ball that will tell you in advance what will happen.

Hoosier Daddy's lawyer gave him anecdotal evidence and lawyers' clients are the ones who are dissatisfied with SSA's decisions. So his view is skewed. It may be correct though for a group of people. The SSDI recipients who do go to work and are not ceased wouldn't retain a lawyer. Same with most posters here.

you are 100% correct hoosier daddy.as i mentioned in a previous post,social security's definition of being disabled according to their website is that your disabling condition must be severe enough to keep you from working any job or to result in your death.if they see that you are able to hold any kind of job regardless of whether you have mental issues or other wise for any length of time they will stop benefits as soon as possible.and according to the lawyer that my brother spoke with over the phone to try to get some help with his appeal,the lawyer told him that when he gets in front of the judge and the judge see's that he's been able to hold a job for almost a year that the judge will laugh him out of the courtroom.he says it's pointless to appeal it when he will almost certainly loose the appeal.the lawyer went on to say that their are to many people who are trying to get disibility benefits now who's conditions are so severe that they can't work at all period and that's what the judge will be looking at.

Have you attempted to research "Subsidies" and "Special Conditions" for him?

Attorney's will have no incentive to take his case on. Remember how they're paid (a percentage of backpay). He needs to find a non-profit advocacy group that can help him if neither of you are capable of filing the appeal. If you can't locate one, I'll try to if you provide me with your city and state (by pm is fine).

Have your brother contact his congress person for help. Make sure he
request constituent help with a Government agency. That is different than writing a letter. If the brother is close to the congress person office, he could go in person. In my opinion it looks like Social Security violated there own rules. They can't violate there own rules. This discourage people from working at all.

Gilbert-any update? Did he file an appeal? He can request his benefits to continue you through the first 2 stages, Reconsideration and the ALJ hearing level.

http://ssa.gov/pubs/10090.html

yeys lit love,he has requested from social security that his benefits continue during the appeals process.however,because of the back-log of disibility hearings by the time he gets in front of a judge it could take a year or possibly longer and there is also a possibility that he was told by his attorney that if he looses his appeal that he might have to pay back the benefits he recieved during the appeals process.something he is not looking forward to but he like most people in this economy are desperate right now and he'll take his chances in the court-room..thanks,gilbert.....

Good luck to your brother Gilbert.

It is a sticky situation to be sure.

I believe the Ticket To Work is a needed program. It helps people keep their benefits while they try to figure out IF they are indeed capable of working or not. I always thought the $1000/month was somewhat arbitrary. How can ANYONE know that someone who makes $999 a month is totally disabled and someone who makes $1001 is not ? Obviously it has to tie into total disablity. Many people with disabilities that are not total ARE able to work. It is more difficult for them to do then it would have been if they were not disabled, but the CAN do it. With a total disability, you CAN"T do it. I think the TTW is supposed to give us time to figure out whether we can or can't work. I don't think it was meant to have people work consistently and deliberately keep the income under $1000 just to keep their SSDI.....like if you (not you in particular, but any of us) refused an extra shift or two, not because you weren't physically able to do it, but because you wanted to stay under a certain limit.

I don't think it's a specific number that they say, for instance, "okay...you can make $1001 a month therefore you are not disabled AT ALL." I think it's more of a case of, "if you can make that much, why can't you work more ? It's starting to look like you aren't TOTALLY disabled." Losing benefits doesn't mean you aren't disabled, it means SSA no longer finds you to be TOTALLY disabled.

Where and how they draw that line is beyond me

Unfortunately it does depend on your disability. Of course, they won't tell you that. I've had no problem with TTW after I won my disability case 7 years ago over mental health issues. Sure, I had tons of other medical problems but not enough evidence for them. I did have years of mental health evidence, and that's what they ended up basing it on. I tried to get off of SS right after that because it wasn't enough to live on, and I hated even being on it in the first place. However, I ended up being diagnosed with something else a year later - Multiple Sclerosis.

I remember once when I called Medicare about getting a new pair of glasses, and they said that they don't cover it. That ended up being bull since they will if you have a disability that causes you to go blind. Which was what happened to me in one eye. Like I said above - they just won't tell you that.