Work rules permit a person with a disability to earn additional income by working while receiving disability benefits. The Social Security Administration has rules that allow people to work while receiving disability benefits through the Supplemental Security Income and Social Security Disability Insurance programs.
The disability lawyers at Sackett and Associates want you to understand how working to earn extra money or simply to test your ability to work need not put your disability benefits, including Medicare or Medicaid coverage, at risk. As you read through this explanation of the work rules, including Social Security disability income limits, for people receiving SSDI and SSI, feel free to contact Sackett Law for advice and guidance.
Working While Receiving SSDI Benefits
If a person can do substantial gainful activity, they would not be disabled according to the definition of disability used by the Social Security Administration. The SSA uses a person’s monthly earnings from working to determine their ability to engage in substantial gainful activity. A person earning more than $1,620 per month is capable of engaging in substantial gainful activity in 2025. The monthly income amount changes annually.
If you want to try working without the money you earn affecting your ability to continue receiving SSDI benefits, the SSA has work incentives in the form of a trial work period.
A trial work period lets you earn as much money as you can each month without it affecting your SSDI benefits, even if the earnings exceed the monthly substantial gainful activity amount.
Once you notify the SSA that you want to work during a trial work period, you have nine trial work months to work while receiving SSDI, regardless of how much you earn. Yes, you get to keep the money you make and still receive your SSDI monthly benefit payment.
A month during which you earn more than $1,160, the SSDI work earnings limit for a trial work month, counts as one of the nine months. The trial work months do not have to be used consecutively. You have 60 months to use the nine trial months without an SSDI work earnings limit.
When the trial work period ends, either because you used the nine months or you reached the 60-month limit for using them, you can continue to work in an extended period of eligibility. For the next 36 months, you will retain the money earned from working and your monthly SSDI benefits, as long as you do not earn more than the substantial gainful activity amount.
You will not receive SSDI benefits for any month that your earnings from work are “substantial.”
If the benefits end during an extended period of eligibility, they can be reinstated without filing a new claim for SSDI, provided you are unable to work due to the disabling medical condition. The request for reinstatement of benefits must be made within five years of the stoppage.
Working While Receiving SSI Benefits
If you want to work while receiving disability benefits through SSI, you can do so as long as you comply with SSI income rules. The income you receive from working, known as “earned income,” is used to reduce your monthly disability benefits amount. However, not all of the earned income you receive counts.
For example, the maximum monthly SSI federal benefit in 2025 for an individual is $967, and $1,450 for couples. If an individual approved to receive the full federal benefit of $967 works and earns $365 during a month, they are entitled to exclude the first $65 of earnings. Of the remaining $300 in earnings, only one-half of it counts as income. The result is that the person’s SSI benefits for the month will be reduced by $150 to $817.
A $20 exclusion for earned and unearned income may be available to reduce the countable earned income. The availability of the $20 exclusion depends on whether it was used to exclude other income during the month.
Students who receive SSI benefits can exclude as much as $2,350 of their monthly earnings from working, up to a maximum of $9,460 annually. These are the figures for 2025, but they change each year. Students must meet the following conditions:
- Be under age 22.
- Attend school regularly by taking one or more courses of study.
- School includes grades 7 through 12, college or university, and attendance at a vocational or job-training program.
Excluded earnings will not count toward reducing a student’s monthly disability benefits amount.
Contact Sackett Law For Assistance
Working while receiving disability benefits through the SSDI and SSI programs provides a person with additional income while helping to boost self-esteem. Letting the SSA know that you want to work and keeping it informed about your earnings is as essential as understanding the SSDI work and SSI income rules. Contacting the disability lawyers at Sackett Law for a free consultation provides you with the advice and representation you need to protect your disability benefits.
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