I have a learning dissabilty and I recieve Social Securety. How long can I work and still not effect my Social Securety income? Is it based salary our on an hourly basis?

Any information you can provide will be greatly appreciated,

thanks in advance,

The disability board can answer any additional questions you have and does in fact cover this topic.

There are two numbers that factor into disability Substantial gainful employment and the Trial Work period. Each independant of themselves and of different numbers.

SGA is $810.00 or more per month but you can be considered to be engaged in SGA while making less than $810.00 per month. This means that you will no longer be eligible for disability or at a reduced amount.


A Trial Work Period (TWP) is $580.00. When you reach $580 per month you are put on a trial work period in which you can work 9 months total in a 5 year period with full benifets before your benefits are stopped. This means that if you worked 3 months this year, 3 months next year and 3 months 3 years from now you have reached your 9 month TWP and are no longer eligible unless you have medical needs.

Furthermore during your TWP you can quit your job if your disability prevents you from working or becomes work and your benifits are reinstated without having to file, no questions asked, I believe you have up to 2 years on this. You may be required to do an evaluation and you must always fill out any paperwork they send. If you fail to do so you will be terminated and you must completely refile for benefits should you ever need them.

After that you have an additional 2-3 years where you can ask to have benifits reinstated without filing but you will be required to have a medical evaluation.

Any money you earn is before taxes.

Any money you earn regardless of amount must be reported to Social Security. Should you perform work you should call your case manager or the 1-800 number and let them know you are working in case there is any paperwork you or your employer may need to fill out as well as they can explain your min and max amounts and any reductions that will occur in your monthly payment

I hope that clears it up some. It is really confusing and a double edged sword because you can earn up to 810 but really if you make more than 580 it will trigger a trial work period.

Kissa -

Does this mean that if you work part-time and earn say $500 per month, you don't have to worry about triggering any new re-avaluations or questions into your disabilty ?

Thanks
Ken

Kissa, that was an excellent post and a good summary of SSA law. I would just point out that there is no "reduced amount" if you are found to be engaged in SGA.

As to Ken's question, yes, you may have to worry about your disability benefits if you are working part time at $500.00 per month or even less. While the SGA level is currently defined as $810.00 or more per month, even part time work is evidence of some level of functionality. So even though you may be working under the SGA levels and not automatically terminated from benefits, the fact that you are able to work part time can be used against you when you are reevaluated along with any other evidence that may show improvement.