Anybody have experience getting back on SSD after working for a time?

[funklab]

I remember it was a slog to get on disability when I was first injured in the mid 2000s. I've been off disability since 2017 or so when my trial work period ended after I started working in 2016. I'm T8ish complete, so there's no question I would qualify.

I'm currently employed, but I'm thinking about taking some time off of work. I have a noncompete, but even if the FTC blesses me by voiding that part of my contract, I'd like to take some time off to relax and travel before starting the business, which will probably make a loss for the first 3-6 months. It would be super nice to have some disability income during my time off and to help me through getting this business up and running.

Anyone have any experience with getting back on disability for a period of time?

How quickly do they reinstate you after a period of working?

Any pitfalls I should consider if I'm probably only going to be on disability for more than a year or so before making enough money from my business to no longer qualify?

Less importantly, does anybody know if I can stay on Medicare indefinitely? If I start my own business I'll have to provide my own healthcare and we all know how incredibly costly that can be.

[Joe-MN]

It has been a few years, but I was on SS while in college, got a job and worked for some years, and then had to go on SSDI. The response of the local Social Security Admin office was basically, "ok, no problem". It seemed that they figured that SCI's don't get better, so if you qualified in the past, you are still qualified. I forget how long it took to start again, but the whole process was simple. I think I did go into the local SSA office, but only once at most. Again, this was a few years ago.

I do not know about the health insurance, but one time I looked a the Affordable Care Act website for my state, and there were a lot of options at what I thought were reasonable prices. Looked at NY, and no options???? This was few years ago.

[Oddity]

I don’t know about using SSDI intermittently, but I do know that qualifying for Medicare has being on SSDI for 24 months as the first prerequisite. You can also keep it for up to 8.5 years after returning to work, and dropping SSDI, if the qualifying disability has not changed, but not the other way around.

The biggest hurdle will be that you probably won’t qualify for Medicare until you’ve been on SSDI for 2 years (unless you did that before.)

So, you’ll likely be paying for COBRA to maintain your previous employer group plan, trying to qualify for Medicaid in your state, or buying your own a Marketplace/Exchange ACA plan (probably with subsidies, depending on how much your SSDI draw is. ~$3,300/mo. is max right now based on previous 10 years annual income average.)

[triumph]

Just some thoughts.......
Let's say you leave your job as you need to have your own daily schedule, meeting your disability-related needs. Let's say you apply for and get SSDI, and figure out a health care plan to get you through the wait for Medicare. (Not sure it's still 2 years).
Then you work on starting the business. (Hate to be negative but lots of them fail).
Just suggest looking at what this might do to your future Social Security retirement amount - it's based on the level of your income when you retire. Higher income=Higher S.S. retirement amount.
If your self-employment produces higher income than working for a company then maybe your S.S. retirement income will be higher.

You may want to check this out even if you are far from retirement - I'm not up to date on current rules.

Will also mention that both my husband and I qualified for SSDI when we took early retirement option from work. Once we got to 65 (or thereabouts) it switched to regular S.S.

[funklab]

I know the business might fail, but I’m in a position where even if it does I should be okay financially and able to return to employment very easily. I haven’t looked up the current rules, but I suspect the SSD calculations are based on the maximum social security earnings amount, which I will likely remain above whether the business is successful or I go back to working for an employer.

[triumph]

Yes, sounds right.

[rdf]

I think if you work less than five years, it's pretty much automatic to jump back on SSDI and Medicare.

[funklab]

I think if you work less than five years, it's pretty much automatic to jump back on SSDI and Medicare.

It’s been more than that already for me.

[Joe-MN]

It’s been more than that already for me.

I had been working for quite a few more than five years when I went back on SSDI.

[rdf]

It’s been more than that already for me.

I believe if it's less than five years, all it takes is a phone call to SS to reinstate your payments. If it's over five years, it might take longer and involve more documentation. It may not, I can't recall the specifics. I wouldn't worry either way, good luck with your business.