Can You Work While On Disability?

Answering the question, can you work while on disability, is more complicated than you might think because there are many different programs you may receive disability benefits from.

In some cases, it is possible to work while still getting benefits. However, your benefits may be reduced, paused or stopped altogether once your income exceeds a certain level. It is very important to understand the rules for working with your specific type of benefits so you don’t lose out on income that you are counting on.

An experienced disability benefits lawyer can help you to understand when you can work, what the limits are on earning income while getting benefits and how you can try to resume working without putting your household income in jeopardy.

SSDI benefits are available through the Social Security Administration. SSDI stands for Social Security Disability Insurance and these benefits are earned benefits. When you pay Social Security taxes, you essentially buy into this insurance program that pays you a portion of your average wages if you become too disabled to hold a job.

There are several rules that could affect whether you can work while collecting SSDI. First and foremost, you cannot get these benefits if you are engaged in “substantial gainful activity.” This is defined as earning more than a set amount each month. In 2023, you’re deemed to be engaged in SGA if you earn at least $2,460 if you are blind or $1,470 if you are not blind.

The Social Security Administration does provide the option for current beneficiaries to attempt to return to work without risking the loss of their benefits. This is done through a Trial Work Period. Under the rules of the Trial Work Period:

• You are allowed to work while collecting benefits and earn as much as you want for a total of nine months in any rolling 60 month period. The months don’t have to be consecutive.
• A month counts as one of your nine months for purposes of the trial work period if you earn above a certain income amount. In 2023, it’s $1,050.
• Once you have worked more than nine months out of 60, you enter into an Extended Eligibility Period that lasts for 36 months. During that time, you will get your full benefits as long as your earnings don’t exceed the SGA level (which, remember, is $1,470 for non-blind individuals in 2023). You can subtract certain costs from your earnings, such as expenses you must pay to be able to work with your disabling condition
• If your earnings exceed the SGA level during your extended eligibility period, your benefits cease and you receive full payment for that month and two additional months before benefits are discontinued.
• If your earnings fall below the SGA level during that 36 months, you can contact Social Security to restart your benefits. If you remain disabled and don’t exceed SGA again, benefits will continue indefinitely as long as you remain disabled.
• If the 36 month period is over and your earnings exceed SGA, benefits stop—but if it’s within five years of the extended eligibility period, you will be eligible for expedited re-statement of benefits.

These rules can seem very complicated, but the bottom line is, the trial work period is designed to help you go back to work. An experienced disability benefits lawyer can help you to work within the guidelines set by the Social Security Administration to ensure you don’t cause your benefits to stop when you didn’t intend to.

SSI stands for Supplemental Security Income. These benefits are also available to disabled individuals but unlike SSDI, they are not an earned benefit and they are means-tested benefits so higher earners or individuals with more than $2,000 in countable financial resources are not eligible for them.

To qualify for SSI, you are not allowed to be engaged in Substantial Gainful Activity. This is the same basic rule that applies to SSDI benefits, although the SGA rules don’t apply to blind people for purposes of SSI eligibility. If you earn above $1,470 if you are not blind, the SSA determines you are engaged in SGA and you won’t be able to get SSI benefits.

Once you have been approved for benefits, SGA no longer is the key test of eligibility though. Instead, if you begin working, your benefits can be reduced based on how much you earn.

In 2023, the maximum federal SSI benefit is $914 per month. This doesn’t include any supplementary state income, which may be available in a limited number of states. But, your benefit can be reduced once you have countable income.

Countable income is defined to include both earned and unearned income. Earned income is wages from a job, while unearned income is any other money or items that can be used to obtain food and shelter including support from family and friends, free food or shelter provided to you or certain other benefits such as unemployment benefits.

You are allowed to subtract—or exclude—some of both your earned and unearned income, though. For example, you can exclude the first $20 per month in unearned income. You can also exclude income being used towards a plan to become self-supporting, state-funded needs-based assistance, certain HUD housing subsidies and the first $60 of irregular income.

You can also exclude the first $65 per month in earned income, plus any of the $20 unearned income exemption if you didn’t use it to exclude unearned income. And only half your remaining earned income counts above the $65 or $85 amount.

So, for example, if you make $1,085 per month and don’t have any other income, you’d subtract $85 and take half the remaining amount so you would have $500 in countable income. This would be subtracted from your $914 monthly benefit, leaving you with around $414.00.

Based on these rules, you start to lose some of your SSI benefits once you make more than $65 (or $85 if you don’t have unearned income). But you can earn around $1,913 per month before you lose your SSi benefits entirely (assuming you have no other income besides your earnings from work).

Workers’ comp provides disability benefits if you are unable to work due to an on the job injury or illness.

If you return to work full time, you cannot continue to collect these benefits. In some cases, however, you may be able to work part-time or still do some type of work while disabled. If that’s the case, you may be entitled to partial disability benefits if you were earning less than you did before you suffered your injury.

State rules can differ on how partial disability benefits work and when you are entitled to them, so you should speak with a workers’ comp attorney in your state to better understand the rules for working while collecting this type of benefit.

As you can see, you can’t just ask ‘can you work while on disability’ and expect a simple answer. You do not want to lose benefits you need, so talk with an experienced workers’ comp disability benefits lawyer before you get a job so you don’t jeopardize the income you and your loved ones may have been counting on.