Collecting Benefits in Addition to Social Security Disability

You may qualify for state benefits. A few states offer disability benefits as part of their unemployment insurance programs. Call your local unemployment insurance and workers’ compensation insurance offices to determine whether your state maintains this kind of coverage. 

Earned Income

If you earn regular income, you might not be considered disabled any longer, and you could lose your disability eligibility altogether. You are only officially disabled if you are unable to perform any substantial gainful work.

However, Social Security usually permits you to earn up to about $1,010 a month (or more if you are blind) before you will be considered to be performing "substantial gainful work," which will make you ineligible for disability benefits. But this income limit is not an absolute rule; other facts will be considered, including your work duties, the number of hours you work, and, if you are self-employed, the extent to which you run or manage your own business. In deciding how much you are earning, the Social Security office can deduct from your income the amounts of any disability-related work expenses, such as medical devices or equipment—a wheelchair, for example— attendant care, drugs, or services you require to be able to work.

Other Social Security Benefits

You are not permitted to collect more than one Social Security benefit at a time. If you are eligible for more than one monthly benefit—disability and retirement, for example, or disability based on your own work record and also as the disabled spouse of a retired worker—you may receive the higher of the two benefit amounts, but not both.

For the purposes of this rule, though, Supplemental Security Income (SSI)—a program jointly run by federal and state governments to guarantee a minimum income to elderly, blind, and disabled people—is not considered a Social Security benefit. You may collect SSI in addition to a Social Security benefit.

Other Disability Benefits

You are permitted to collect Social Security disability payments and, at the same time, private disability payments from an insurance policy or coverage from your employer. You may also receive Department of Veterans Affairs disability benefits at the same time as Social Security disability benefits. And you may collect workers’ compensation benefits at the same time as Social Security disability benefits.

However, the total of your disability and workers’ compensation payments cannot be greater than 80% of what your average wages were before you became disabled. If they are, your Social Security disability benefits will be reduced to the point where the total of both benefits is 80% of your earnings before you became disabled. If you are still receiving Social Security disability benefits when your workers’ compensation benefits run out, you can again start receiving the full amount of your Social Security benefits.

EXAMPLE: Minnie became disabled while working for the telephone company in the computer analysis department. At that time, she was making $1,400 a month. Her Social Security disability benefits were $560 a month; she also applied for and began receiving workers’ compensation benefits of $625 a month. Because the total of the two benefits was more than 80% of her prior salary (80% of $1,400 is $1,120, and she would be getting $1,185), her disability benefits were reduced by the extra $65 down to $560 per month.

If Minnie is still disabled when her workers’ compensation benefits ran out, her Social Security disability benefits would go back up to $560 a month, plus whatever cost of living increases had been granted in the meantime. If Minnie also had private insurance that paid disability benefits, she could receive those benefits as well as all of her Social Security.

Medicare

After you have been entitled to disability benefits for 24 months—not necessarily consecutive months—you become eligible for Medicare coverage, even if you are not old enough to be covered by Medicare under the regular rules of the program. (In general, the two-year waiting period is calculated from the date your disability began plus five months -- due to the five-month waiting period for Social Security disability.) 

Medicare Part A hospitalization coverage is free after you pay a deductible. Like everyone else, though, you must pay a monthly premium if you want to be covered by Medicare Part B medical insurance that partially covers doctor bills, lab work, outpatient clinic care, and some drugs and medical supplies.

For more information on Medicare, contact the Medicare information line: 800-952-8627. Or go to the Medicare website at www.medicare.gov.