The Trial Work Period Before Being found Disabled
Posted February 18, 2024 by Premier Disability Services, LLC®In the process of your case for disability, you may think that your impairments have improved. You may feel like you can go back to work, but you are scared to do so. After all, your case for Social Security benefits has lasted this long and you don’t want to go through it all again, so you may find it risky to return to work at all.
The good news is that the Social Security Administration has a rule that allows you to test your ability to return to work.[1] A “Trial Work Period” is a time in which you can test your ability to work and still be found disabled.[2] This test can happen before you get benefits or after you receive benefits.
There are some limitations with attempting to go back to work. The first is that you cannot work for more than 9 months in a 5-year period.[3] The months that you do not work do not have to be consecutive, so you could work for 3 months, 4, months, then 2 months and the work would still be considered a “Trial Work Period”.
Another requirement is that you cannot test your ability to perform work within 1 year of the day you became disabled, or your “Alleged Onset Date”.[4] The reason for this requirement is that the Social Security Administration wants to make sure that your impairments really did last for a full 12 months, as injuries that can heal that quickly are not considered when determining disability. Lastly, you must be eligible to receive ongoing benefits before returning to work.[5] This requirement means that there is enough medical evidence in the file to prove that you were disabled prior to returning to work. We at Premier Disability Services, LLC will work diligently to make sure this requirement is met, from requesting medical records to writing letters to judges to point out why the medical records show you are disabled. So contact us today if you are interested in having us represent you in your claim for Social Security Disa
[1] 20 CFR § 404.1592
[2] 20 CFR § 404.1592(a)
[3] 20 CFR § 404.1592(e)(2)
[4] 20 CFR § 404.1592(d)(2)(iii)
[5] 20 CFR § 404.1592(d)(2)(i)
