If I recieve disability and go back to work

Question

do I need to contact the s.s. office or will they automatically know to stop my benefits?

Answer 1

Contact them upon returning to work if not sooner.  There  is no guarantee that they will link the incoming Social Security taxes you will pay with your disability, and thus they may continue to send your disability checks.  Since you, as you point out, will really not be entitled to the checks, Social Security will eventually come after you to repay the amount.  It would be safer to stop the checks up front (it may be argued that it is also your legal obligation and that if you were to cash any of the checks, you would be committing fraud).