I'm curious about this program. I have recently been determined eligible for SSDI. I have a heart condition however; I'm only 55 years old. I have noticed a decrease in my strength and my eyesight has gotten worse in the last few months. Nevertheless, I still think I could work part time if the job wasn't too strenuous.

My concern is this: Although SS doesn't want to come out and say it, it appears that their goal is to get you off SS benefits with this program. My impression is that their "incentive" is that they'll work with you for a period of time but your entire disability status changes the second you receive your first paycheck. They'll allow you to collect benefits up to a point, then they will re-decide your claim to determine if you're disabled enough to collect further benefits and if you've been able to hold down fairly steady employment, you run the risk of losing it all. I assume you'd need a doctor's assessment and it would go back into the process of predetermining your claim.

Is this a fair assessment?

I don't know for sure, but my hope is that you are a tad pessimistic with the view that they start re-evaluating you the second you get your first paycheck.

The way I believe (and hope) it works is that once your hours and income increase enough to be considered SGA AND you continue to be able to work at that rate for several months, THEN they SHOULD start looking at whether you are no longer totally disabled. The system is SUPPOSED to protect you while you attempt to do SGA, IF your medical condition(s) have shown an improvement, to make sure that you really can tolerate working. If you give it your best efforts and find you can't manage it and quit/get let go because of your limitations, that failed work attempt helps confirm that you do meet the standard for disability and not being able to sustain SGA.

I'm not sure what would happen if you were able to go back to work/do SGA ONLY because of extenuating circumstances with an employer who went overboard to accommadate your disability. For instance....If you went back to work for a few years because you had a boss who let you clock in for 40 hours even though he let you lay down whenever you needed to, but then that business closed and you couldn't find a similarly 'cushy' position, I would be concerned about convincing SSDI that you still really are disabled. Documentation from that employer and your doctors SHOULD help with that. If I could find an employer who could meet all of my accommadations, I'd sure give it a shot !

I would think about factors like why you had to stop working at your last job. Where you having an acute crisis then that is now a more stable, but chronic condition ? Where the hours too much for you ? Where the physical aspects of the job too much for you ? Are you qualified to do jobs that would not require physical exertion ? What are your current daily activities (meaning can you get showered,dressed, and drive/get transportation out for several hours/several times per week ?) ? Does your doctor, who may have just documentated that you cannot work AT ALL think that it is safe for you to attempt to return to work, even part time, right mow ?

If I thought I might be able to go back to work part time, I'd practice trying to do it. Maybe by volunteering regularly or possibly even just by getting out everyday and sitting in the library reading a book to see how many hours I could be attentive and confortable. When I was confident with that, THEN I would start checking the want ads to see if there was anything I thought I could do.

Remember it is possible to work part time long term on SSDI as long as the work isn't SGA. At some point I would imagine someone at SSDI would look at your record to question if you can work a cushy little part time job, why couldn't you work MORE. Remember with that that all of us are going to get reviewed every few years too. We all need to keep justifying our SSDI claims with documention about our conditions and limitations.

Keep us posted. That could be a great story of hope for many of us here to know if someone is successfully making baby steps in the working world again.

I went on the ticket to work program. My doctor said I can only work part time at this point. The ticket to work agencie I was working with pulled me off the program. I hate to be a downer but call a caseworkers and see what they have to say about part time work on this program. You can work part time so I hear but not on the ticket to work. I hope you find wonderful work to do!

wishing you well,
Fhawn

This is a concern of my own. SS Disability is programmed to always be about 2 years behind on the cost of living. It just isn't enough to live comfortably and will only get worse.

I could work very part time at certain jobs, but I'm hesitant to give SS the impression I can work more than what appears. I'm in a position now where I don't get reviewed by SS, and wouldn't want to change that.

yeah i kind of agree with you "sparky".i am not willing to chance my "ssdi".and its all i get.i dont get and pension cause im only 56.now try and live compfortably on that...i cant even touch my "401"either if they think you can work "some"...they may want to try and push it all the way

The IRS dictates that investors must be totally and permanently disabled before they can dip into their retirement plans without paying a 10 percent penalty.

The easiest way to prove disability to the IRS is by collecting disability payments from an insurance company or from Social Security.

"That is excellent proof that you are disabled, if you're getting benefits from the government and from a private insurance carrier," he says.

Read more: How to take penalty-free withdrawals from an IRA or 401k http://www.bankrate.com/finance/reti...#ixzz1wNUg0Loc

you are 100% correct kracker-jacks..social security states that the ticket to work program is there to help people who are on ssdi to return to work.however,this can work against a person in many ways and i know several people off-hand hand who lost their benefits and who regreted ever doing the ticket to work program.one must keep in mind that in order to qualify for ssdi benefits a person condition must be severe enough to keep them from working any job.testing one's ability to work for lets say a month or 2 then they stop because their health won't let them continue working isn't the issue here.it's when a person who is collecting ssdi works for maybe several month's out and beyond that social security will see this as a person not being that severly disabled to the point that it keeps them from working they will stop benefits.even if a person works lets say part-time and below the SGA guidlines social security will use any work you do against you.so the bottom line here is that i would recommend to anyone considering doing the "ticket to work program" to think twice about it or risk loosing your benefits..when you loose your benefits because of work and you appeal the decision and go before the judge,the judge has no sympothy for people who can work since there are so many people who are trying to get on ssdi and can't do any work of any kind because of their health problems.this happened to me..

Gilbert, I think it's important to remember that it's not a judge's job to be overly sympathetic when handing out government benefits. A judge isn't being a bad guy for saying that a person who can work should work. SSDI isn't a partial disability program.

That does put someone who is partially disabled in a financial bind.

thanks "mzMigraine" got enough info on both

You're most welcome!