The End Of SSDI

At the time I returned to work in November of last year, I was receiving both Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits and employer-provided long term disability insurance benefits. The latter stopped instantly upon my return to work, but the former continued during my "trial work period" of nine months, through July of this year. Had I discovered that I really wasn't up to the job of doing my job during that time, I could simply have dropped back into my original disabled status, and SSDI benefits would have continued without missing a beat. At the end of the trial period, the Social Security Administration (SSA) notified me that my case was now under review, the object of which review was to determine just how disabled I was at that point. Benefits would in any case continue during the three-month review period, that is through the end of October of this year.

The SSA has completed its review of my case, and has concluded that I am indeed no longer disabled -- sort of, at least. Benefits will terminate at the end of October, but there is an additional 36-month period (starting from the end of the trial period, thus running through July 2014) during which I can revert to disabled status without too much ado. After July 2014, I will revert to my original virginal non-disabled status, just as if nothing had happened in June 2009; if I become disabled again, I will have to begin the SSDI application process all over again, from Ground Zero, regardless of whether or not the cause of my disability has anything to do with the cause of any past disability.