There are two sets of critieria for two different programs while receiving SSDI.

Ticket to Work (TTW) and your Trial Work Period (TWP) Months are separate entities and critieria to judge your work; they can be ongoing at the same time or separate, depending on if you still qualify for TTW but your Trial Work period months will always be there whether you are on Ticket to Work or not.

Ticket to Work wants you to meet certain goals EACH YEAR for average hours of school attended or hours worked, and not based on income. They want to see a certain amount of progress each year, not monthly. It is very specific. The review should have come with a sheet indicating what those goals are each year. If not, you can request this from TTW.

You also have your Trial Work Period (TWP) Months though at the same time as being with TTW, 9 months, and they are not necessarily consecutive that you have to earn over a certain amount EACH MONTH before it counts as one month, and include any months you worked previously earning above the allowed amount. If you never go over that income allowed amount and therefore do not use your trial work period months, you will just have continuing medical reviews if you are not with Ticket to Work and exempt it you are with Ticket to Work, but either way you will still receive SSDI benefits whether with Ticket to Work, or not.

While on Ticket to work you are exempt from medical reviews but will still have progress/work/school reviews from TTW. If OFF of Ticket to Work, you will have continuing medical reviews. The advantage of Ticket to Work is that it does relieve you from medical reviews and provides access to resources such as Vocational Rehab/Employer Assistance programs, retraining, education, and coaching. They want to make sure you are making progress,, hence the work/school reviews, while providing you with the resources to make sure your are benefiting, or why should they continue them? If you don't meet the critieria/goals, TTW just stops but you do not lose your SSDI benefits.

Hope this helps.