If you receive SSI or SSDI, you've likely avoided job opportunities because trying to work feels like gambling with your healthcare and income stability. Losing Medicare or Medicaid coverage while testing whether you can sustain employment is a risk most people can't afford.

The Ticket to Work program exists to change that equation. It's a federal program that provides free employment services to SSI and SSDI recipients while protecting your benefits during work attempts. You get job training, career counseling, and placement support from approved service providers. Your healthcare coverage continues. Medical disability reviews pause while you're making progress toward employment. If work doesn't work out, you can restart benefits without reapplying from scratch.

That's the actual value proposition. Not "free career services" as a standalone offer, but a structured pathway to test employment without dismantling the supports that keep you stable.

Who Qualifies for Ticket to Work

Anyone age 18 through 64 who receives Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits qualifies. You're eligible whether you receive SSDI alone, SSI alone, or both simultaneously.

The program is voluntary. If you're not interested or unable to work, you don't have to participate. Declining doesn't affect your current benefits. The Ticket exists for people who want to explore employment but need support and protection to try it.

You don't need prior work experience. You don't need a specific job goal already identified. Career exploration and vocational assessment are part of what Employment Networks provide.

What Employment Networks Do

An Employment Network is a public or private organization authorized by Social Security to deliver Ticket to Work services. They're not job placement agencies in the conventional sense. They coordinate the full range of support you might need to identify, prepare for, and sustain employment.

Services include career counseling, vocational rehabilitation, skills training, job search assistance, resume development, interview preparation, workplace accommodations consultation, and ongoing support after you're hired. Some ENs specialize in specific industries or disability populations. Others offer general employment services.

State Vocational Rehabilitation agencies also participate in Ticket to Work. You can assign your Ticket to either an EN or your state VR agency. You work with one provider at a time, but you can switch if the fit isn't working.

The key difference from other job services: ENs work within the federal benefits framework. They understand Trial Work Periods, Substantial Gainful Activity thresholds, and Medicaid continuation rules. They're not advising you to "just get a job." They're helping you navigate employment in a way that doesn't accidentally terminate supports you rely on.

How to Assign Your Ticket

Call the Ticket to Work Help Line at 1-866-968-7842 (or 1-866-833-2967 TTY) to verify your eligibility. They'll confirm you're receiving qualifying benefits and explain next steps.

Use the Find Help tool at choosework.ssa.gov to search for Employment Networks in your area. You can filter by location, services offered, and specialization. Review provider descriptions, then contact the ones that match what you're looking for.

Meet with potential ENs before assigning your Ticket. Ask what services they provide, how often you'll meet, what their process looks like, and what they expect from you. If an EN isn't delivering what you need, you can unassign your Ticket and choose a different provider.

Assigning your Ticket means that EN becomes responsible for coordinating your employment plan. You're not locked in forever. You control the assignment.

Benefits Protection While You Work

The program's value isn't just the services. It's the structural protections that allow you to attempt employment without immediate consequences if your earnings cross a threshold.

Trial Work Period

If you receive SSDI, you get a nine-month Trial Work Period. During those nine months, you receive your full SSDI payment regardless of earnings. A month only counts toward the trial period if you earn more than $1,210 (2026 limit). You can spread those nine months across five years. They don't have to be consecutive.

This lets you test whether you can sustain work before your benefit amount is affected.

Extended Period of Eligibility

After your Trial Work Period ends, you enter a 36-month Extended Period of Eligibility. During this window, you receive your regular SSDI benefits in any month your earnings fall below Substantial Gainful Activity ($1,690 in 2026 for non-blind individuals). Months where earnings exceed SGA, your benefit is withheld. If earnings drop again, the benefit restarts automatically. You're not reapplying. You're not waiting for a new determination. The benefit turns back on.

Healthcare Continuation

If you receive SSDI and Medicare, your Medicare coverage continues for at least 93 months after your Trial Work Period ends. That's nearly eight years of guaranteed healthcare coverage while you're testing employment viability.

If you receive SSI and Medicaid, you might qualify to continue Medicaid even after SSI payments stop due to work. Medicaid work incentive programs vary by state, but the structure exists to prevent immediate coverage loss the moment your income increases.

Medical Review Protection

While you're participating in Ticket to Work and making timely progress on your employment plan, Social Security won't conduct medical continuing disability reviews. That removes one of the primary anxieties about attempting work: you won't lose benefits because SSA decides your condition improved simply because you're trying to work.

This protection lasts as long as you're actively working with your EN and meeting the milestones in your plan.

Getting Started Without Commitment

You don't have to assign your Ticket immediately. You can call the Help Line, verify eligibility, research Employment Networks, and decide later. Eligibility verification doesn't obligate you to participate.

If you're uncertain whether employment is realistic given your current health and circumstances, that's a conversation to have with an EN during the intake process. Vocational assessment is part of what they provide. You're not expected to arrive with a fully formed plan.

The program exists because federal disability policy recognizes that some people receiving benefits want to work but face barriers beyond their disability itself: lack of recent work history, gaps in skills, employer bias, and fear of losing supports. Ticket to Work addresses those barriers structurally rather than telling you to solve them on your own.

If you've been weighing whether employment is possible, this is the mechanism designed to let you find out without betting everything on the attempt.