SSDI and Earned Income

Paid employment and Social Security disability benefits are not mutually exclusive.

After you have been awarded SSDI or SSI benefits, the SSA encourages you to work!

SSDI is an all-or-nothing payment based upon your ability to perform Substantial Gainful Activity (SGA). Following a 9 month trial work period and up to a 36-month extended period of eligibility (more information on these safety nets is covered in Section 3), if you earn more than $1,470 gross per month ($2,460 if you are an individual who is statutorily blind and meets the Social Security definition of blindness) of countable earnings, your SSDI benefit is terminated. If, on the other hand, your disability prevents you from earning more than $1,470 ($2,460 for Blindness) in or after your trial work period, you will receive all of your SSDI benefits.

2023 Substantial Gainful Activity (SGA)

The SGA is updated every year. For 2023, if you earn more than $1,470 gross per month ($2,460 if you are an individual who is statutorily blind and meets the Social Security definition of blindness) of countable earnings, your SSDI benefit is terminated.

SSI, on the other hand, is a needs-based program where SSA adjusts your monthly payment based on the amount of your Countable Income.

When you go to work as an SSI recipient, the SSA will decrease your cash benefit as your earnings go up, but you still end up with more money by working than by not working.

SSA uses your monthly gross earnings received in a particular month to determine how much to reduce your SSI payment after they take certain deductions and then divide your remaining earnings in half. That means they count only a portion of your income in the SSI benefit calculation.

We will review a simplification of this calculation later in this section.

SSDI Examples

Let’s take a look at some examples showing how your total income may look after starting to work. Each of these examples highlights how your monthly income (available to spend) increases when you start working.

Example 1

Alice, a non-blind individual, lives alone and receives SSDI benefits of $1,200 each month. She takes a part-time job earning $1,250 gross each month. She successfully completes her 9 month Trial Work Period (TWP) and has now continued to successfully work 3 more months through her grace period*. In this example, her gross earned income is LESS than $1,470, which is Social Security’s benchmark for Substantial Gainful Activity for 2023. Alice is STILL eligible for her SSDI cash benefit of $1,200/month.

Were Alice to receive a raise or asked to work more hours, she should explore work incentives with the help of one of the Work Incentives Planning Assistance services in Kentucky (Goodwill Services or the Center for Accessible Living) to see if she could earn more money and still be eligible for the SSDI cash payment.

Before Working	After Working
$1,200 SSDI Only	$1,200 SSDI
+ $0 Earnings	+ $1,250 Earnings
= $1,200 Total before working	= $2,450 Total after working

The amount that Alice earns affects whether or not she qualifies for an SSDI cash payment based on the Substantial Gainful Activity rule.

* More information on these incentives is provided in Lesson 3.

In this SSDI example, notice Alice’s earnings while working is always more than when she’s not working. Wouldn’t it be nice to have additional income available to spend each month?

SSI and Earned Income

James’ Example

James lives alone and receives SSI benefits of $914 each month. He takes a part-time job earning $1,000 before taxes. He reports his earnings to Social Security and his benefit is adjusted. SSI will now be $383.50 per month. Let’s compare his income:

Before Working	After Working
$914 SSI Only	$383.50 Adjusted SSI
+ $0 Earnings	+ $1,000 Earnings
——————-	——————-
$914	$1,383.50

As you can see, James’ monthly SSI payment decreases once he starts working, but because SSA does not count every dollar earned against his SSI rate, he will bring home more money each month by working part-time.

Working pays!