What is the Ticket to Work program?
Ticket to Work is a free, voluntary SSA program (created by the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999) for SSDI and SSI disability beneficiaries roughly ages 18-64 who want to try working.
Ticket to Work is a free, voluntary SSA program (created by the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999) for SSDI and SSI disability beneficiaries roughly ages 18-64 who want to try working. Beneficiaries can assign their ticket to an approved Employment Network or state vocational rehabilitation agency, which provides career counseling, training, and job placement help at no charge. While you use your ticket and make timely progress, SSA will not initiate a medical continuing disability review, and your cash and health benefits continue under the normal work-incentive rules while you test work. Program rules are stable year to year, though the earnings milestones tied to EN payments adjust annually.
What the government has said, on the record
"Congress established the Ticket program in 1999 to expand the universe of service providers and to provide beneficiaries with choices beyond the State VR agencies. ... Beneficiaries, ENs, One-Stop Career Centers, and State VR agencies voluntarily participate in the Ticket program. ... Once a beneficiary assigns a Ticket to an EN, the EN provides employment support services to assist the beneficiary in obtaining self-supporting employment. The beneficiary receives these services at no charge."
— Robert W. Williams, Associate Commissioner, Office of Employment Support Programs, Social Security Administration. Statement before the House Committee on Ways and Means, Subcommittee on Social Security and Subcommittee on Human Resources (joint hearing on SSA efforts to help beneficiaries with disabilities return to work), September 23, 2011.
- Robert W. Williams — Associate Commissioner, Office of Employment Support Programs, Social Security Administration
- ssa.gov
Editor's note: Ellipses join three verified passages from different sections of the same testimony; document order preserved. The no-medical-CDR-while-using-a-ticket protection in the answer is supported by a separately verified quote from Susan Suter, SSA Associate Commissioner, 2009-05-19.
Sourced from ssa.gov — see citations below.
Ticket to Work is a free, voluntary SSA program (created by the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999) for SSDI and SSI disability beneficiaries roughly ages 18-64 who want to try working.
What is the Ticket to Work program?
Beneficiaries can assign their ticket to an approved Employment Network or state vocational rehabilitation agency, which provides career counseling, training, and job placement help at no charge. While you use your ticket and make timely progress, SSA will not initiate a medical continuing disability review, and your cash and health benefits continue under the normal work-incentive rules while you test work. Program rules are stable year to year, though the earnings milestones tied to EN payments adjust annually.
Where to verify
See the official source cited in the quote block above, and SSA's own program pages at ssa.gov/disability. Program dollar amounts change annually with the cost-of-living adjustment.
Sources
Every figure and rule on this page is drawn from official SSA publications. Verify at the links below.