Ticket to Work: Free Employment Support

1What Ticket to Work is

Ticket to Work is a Social Security program that helps people with disabilities who receive benefits move toward work, and, for many, toward earning enough to stop needing benefits. It is free and voluntary: you can join, pause or stop, and there is no penalty for not taking part. Social Security no longer mails paper tickets, and you do not need one; eligibility depends on the benefits you receive.

The idea is simple. Instead of Social Security delivering job services itself, you choose a provider, and Social Security pays that provider when you reach work and earnings milestones. That gives providers a reason to help you find work that lasts.

2Who can use it

You can take part if you are 18 through 64 and receive Social Security Disability Insurance, Supplemental Security Income, or both, because you are blind or have a disability. People who receive benefits for other reasons, such as retirement or survivor benefits, are not covered, and neither is anyone who is not currently receiving a disability payment. The Ticket to Work Help Line can confirm whether your ticket can be assigned to a provider.

If you are still waiting for a disability decision, the program is not open to you yet; our guide to deciding whether to apply for SSDI covers the application itself.

3What help you can get

• Career counseling, to work out what kind of job fits your skills, health and goals.
• Help with a résumé, job searches and interviews.
• Training or education toward a work goal, often through a state vocational rehabilitation agency.
• Help asking an employer for workplace accommodations.
• Ongoing support after you start working, so a new job lasts.
• Referrals to benefits counseling, so you know how earnings will affect your payments.

You and your provider write a plan together: an Individual Work Plan with an Employment Network, or an Individualized Plan for Employment with a vocational rehabilitation agency. It sets out your goal and the services you will receive.

4Choosing a provider

You can assign your ticket to an Employment Network, a private organization or public agency approved by Social Security, or to your state vocational rehabilitation agency. Vocational rehabilitation agencies tend to offer training and education, while Employment Networks often focus on job placement and support after hiring. You can use only one Employment Network at a time.

Call two or three providers before you decide. Ask what services they offer, whether they serve people with your kind of disability, whether they meet in person or remotely, and how often you will be in touch. If a provider does not work out, you can usually take your ticket back and assign it to another.

5Protection from medical reviews

Social Security periodically reviews whether people receiving disability benefits still have a disabling condition. While your ticket is assigned and you are making timely progress toward your work or education goal, Social Security does not start one of these medical reviews. Progress is checked every 12 months, and the expected level of work or education rises over time.

This protection does not end your duty to report work and earnings. Report every job and every change in pay to Social Security as usual; see our guide to reporting changes.

6How work affects your benefits

Ticket to Work does not change the rules for benefits, but it works alongside the work incentives that let you try work without losing everything at once.

If you receive SSDI

A trial work period lets you work for nine months, any month you earn more than $1,210 in 2026, with your full benefit continuing. A 36-month extended period of eligibility follows, during which benefits are paid for any month your earnings fall below the substantial gainful activity level of $1,690 a month, or $2,830 if you are blind. Medicare usually continues for at least 93 months after the trial work period ends. Our guide to working while on SSDI explains each step.

If you receive SSI

SSI ignores the first $65 of monthly earnings and half of the rest, so your payment falls more slowly than your pay rises. Medicaid can continue after SSI payments stop if you need it to keep working and your earnings stay below a state threshold. A Plan to Achieve Self-Support lets you set aside money for a work goal without it counting against you. Our SSI guide explains the income limits.

7If your benefits stop and you need them again

Many people worry that if work goes well and benefits stop, they will have to start over if their health gets worse. Expedited reinstatement addresses that. If your SSDI or SSI ended because of earnings, and within five years you can no longer work because of the same or a related condition, you can ask Social Security to restart benefits without a new application. You can receive up to six months of provisional payments while it reviews your request.

8How to get started

1. Call the Ticket to Work Help Line at 1-866-968-7842 to confirm that your ticket can be assigned.
2. Get a list of Employment Networks and your state vocational rehabilitation agency, from the Help Line or the program's online directory.
3. Talk with two or three providers and choose one.
4. Write your work plan with the provider; signing it assigns your ticket.
5. Ask for a referral to a benefits counselor before you accept a job offer.

9Free help beyond your provider

Work Incentives Planning and Assistance projects offer free benefits counseling. A trained counselor can look at your benefits and explain how a job, a raise or a change in hours would affect your payments and health coverage. The Help Line can refer you. If you have a problem with a provider or with your benefits while working, the Protection and Advocacy for Beneficiaries of Social Security program in each state offers free advocacy.

10Common mistakes

• Not reporting earnings because the ticket protects you from medical reviews. The two are separate.
• Accepting a job without first asking a benefits counselor what it will do to your payments and health coverage.
• Staying with a provider that is not helping, when you can usually reassign your ticket.
• Assuming that benefits that stop because of work are gone for good. Expedited reinstatement can restart them.

12What this does not tell you

Providers set their own services and locations, and not every area has the same options. Progress requirements and other details are set by Social Security.

This article does not give legal or benefits-planning advice. A free benefits counselor can explain how earnings affect your own benefits.