In order to receive Social Security or SSI disability benefits you must prove that you are not able to work at a regular full time job; however, you can still work and earn wages but the work that you do must be limited both in the demands of the work and the wages that you are paid. If the demands of your work are substantial, either physically or mentally or both, and you are able to meet those demands without difficulty, that could trigger a review of your disability status by Social Security. But most often it is the amount of money that you are earning that creates problems and that is what is discussed here.
If you are receiving Social Security disability benefits and at the same time you are employed you must be aware that the wages that you receive can result in a suspension of benefits and possibly the loss of eligibility. If you receive gross wages in any one month of $1,1101 or more that will be counted as a “trial work period month.” You are allowed a total of 9 “trial work period months” (they do not have to be consecutive) and in those months your earnings will not have any effect on your disability benefits. However, after you have used up your “trial work period months” if you continue to work you will lose your benefits for any month that you receive gross wages that exceed the “substantial gainful activity” amount of $1,550.2
More important still, after you use up your “trial work period” a 3-year period begins and that is called the “re-entitlement period.” That begins with the first month after you use up your “trial work period” and once that 3-year period is over if you continue to work your eligibility for disability benefits will end with the first month that you receive wages in excess of the “substantial gainful activity” amount of $1,550. If that happens you will need to reapply for disability and again prove that you are disabled.
If you are receiving SSI disability benefits and at the same time you are employed, slightly less than one-half of the gross wages that you receive in any one month will be considered “countable income” and that will be deducted from your SSI benefit; that reduction will happen two months later. But if your “countable income” in any one month exceeds the “Federal Benefit Rate” of $9433 you will likely be ineligible for a payment for that month. And if you are ineligible for a payment for a continuous period of 12 months your eligibility ends and to get back on SSI you will need to file a new application and again prove that you are disabled.
Whether you are receiving Social Security Disability or SSI Disability, or both, it is important that you report your wages in a timely fashion and that you maintain proof of that reporting. Delayed reporting or non-reporting can result in a declaration of an overpayment and/or termination of eligibility and Social Security will eventually discover unreported wages, although it may take a very long time for that to happen which can then result in a very large overpayment.
