Will I Lose My Disability Insurance if I Work Part Time? How to Keep SSDI Benefits

In case you’ve already certified for Social Safety Incapacity Insurance coverage (SSDI), you’ll be able to earn as much as $1,050 a month with out triggering the revenue packages that would have an effect on your advantages. In case you’re nonetheless making use of for advantages, you typically received’t qualify for incapacity for those who make greater than $1,470 a month ($2,460 for those who’re blind)^[0]

The Social Safety Administration (SSA) has a number of work incentive packages to assist incapacity recipients proceed working. These embrace a trial work interval (TWP), the place there’s no earnings restrict for 9 months, an prolonged interval of eligibility (EPE), which lets you earn below the SSA’s restrict for 36 extra months, and a Ticket to Work program, which provides free employment companies.

Listed below are the principles for SSDI and the right way to work half time with out dropping your incapacity advantages.

Guidelines for receiving incapacity advantages

• You’ll be able to nonetheless work half time and obtain SSDI advantages for those who don’t meet the SSA’s necessities for “gainful” employment, in response to Aleyda Toruno, a Work Incentives Planning and Help (WIPA) coordinator with Incapacity Rights California.

• The SSA makes use of earnings pointers known as substantial gainful exercise (SGA) to find out whether or not somebody’s incapacity qualifies them as needing extra advantages.

• The SGA for 2023 is $1,470 per 30 days ($2,460 for those who’re blind), that means that for those who earn greater than that, you seemingly received’t qualify for advantages.

• “The principles for part-time work or return to work differ for an individual who continues to be making an attempt to show incapacity versus an individual who has already been deemed disabled below Social Safety’s packages,” says Jennifer Cronenberg, senior counsel and director of authorized info on the Nationwide Group of Social Safety Claimants’ Representatives (NOSSCR).

• “Anybody who’s already receiving SSDI advantages who returns to any kind of labor ought to report their earnings to SSA instantly,” Cronenberg says. That is to keep away from overpayment; they need to additionally report a lower or stop in work to keep away from underpayment.

The SSA has three packages known as work incentives to help incapacity recipients in returning to work. These will be “pathways for incapacity advantages recipients to check their skill to return to work with out instantly dropping their advantages,” Cronenberg says.

A trial work interval permits a disabled individual to check their skill to earn an revenue on their very own for a set period of time^[0]

• You’ll set off a TWP routinely for those who begin incomes over $1,050 per 30 days whereas already receiving SSDI.

• A TWP permits you 9 months, not essentially consecutive, in a rolling 60-month interval in which you’ll earn any amount of cash and nonetheless obtain your full SSDI advantages.

• It’s essential to nonetheless meet the definition of a incapacity and report your earnings to the SSA to qualify for a TWP.

• “Incomes properly above SGA throughout a TWP may set off a unbroken incapacity evaluate (CDR) with SSA, whereby they might decide that you just’re now not disabled and terminate your advantages,” Cronenberg says.

When the 9 months of a TWP finish, an prolonged interval of eligibility offers you 36 extra months to proceed working and accumulating SSDI.

• Your revenue should keep under the SGA restrict for the 12 months ($1,470 for 2023, $2,460 for those who’re blind) throughout an EPE.

• Your advantages will likely be suspended for those who earn above SGA through the 36-month interval, however they are often reinstated in case your earnings dip under SGA once more.

• In case you earn above SGA however produce other work incentives that apply, you’ll be able to proceed receiving advantages, Toruno says. For instance, any work bills that an individual incurs due to their incapacity — corresponding to transportation to and from work or specialised work tools — are deducted from their earnings^[0]

The SSA’s Ticket to Work program connects SSDI recipients with free employment companies corresponding to profession counseling and job placement to assist them return to work^[0]

• Ticket to Work supplies companies as an alternative of putting earnings limits. It’s “one thing that an individual who’s receiving SSDI can take part in if they want assist returning to the workforce, with the aim of lowering their want for SSDI,” Cronenberg says.

• The SSA received’t conduct a CDR (and doubtlessly droop your advantages) when you’re collaborating in Ticket to Work.

• Anybody receiving SSDI and keen on working qualifies so long as they’re nonetheless disabled.