Because Social Security's definition of disability includes an inability to work due to medical impairments, working while receiving disability can raise red flags with Social Security.
Individuals receiving SSDI are allowed one nine-month trial work period (TWP) to experiment with working while still drawing their full monthly benefits. In 2024, monthly earnings over $1,110 will trigger a trial work period month. The nine months occur over a 60-month period, but the months need not be consecutive. Once you've exhausted the nine months of your TWP, you will no longer receive disability benefits for any month you earn over the Substantial Gainful Activity threshold ($1,550 in 2024). (Be sure you're clear on the details regarding trial work periods before you begin working.)
Recipients of SSI will lose benefits if their income or assets exceed the SSI eligibility thresholds. In 2024, the limit is $943 per month for countable income, while the limit for assets is $2,000. Not all income from work counts toward the income limit, however (in fact, the SSA ignores more than half of your wages when counting your income). But some "in-kind" income, like free housing or food, does count against the limit, and keep in mind that some portion of spousal income and resources will be "deemed" to the SSI beneficiary. (Learn more about income limits and SSI.)
If you experience medical improvement that would allow you to go back to work, Social Security may decide to terminate your disability benefits. The SSA makes this determination through a process known as a Continuing Disability Review (CDR).
If you're selected to undergo a CDR, you'll receive a notice in the mail from Social Security stating that your claim is being reviewed. You will be asked to provide information about your recent medical treatment and your daily activities. A disability claims examiner will review your medical records to decide whether medical improvement has occurred since your "comparison point of decision," or the date you were last found to be disabled. If the claims examiner does not find medical improvement, the CDR is closed and your benefits continue. If the claims examiner finds that your condition has improved and that you're able to work, you will no longer be considered disabled.
You have 60 days to request an appeal, which consists of a relatively informal hearing before a Hearing Officer. At this hearing, you can present additional evidence, call witnesses, and testify about your condition. If the Hearing Officer finds that your disability has ended, you have 60 days to ask for a hearing in front of an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ). Note that you have only ten days from the Hearing Officer's decision to ask that your benefits continue while your ALJ hearing is pending.
While it's impossible to predict with any certainty whether or when a CDR will occur, CDRs are usually scheduled every three years or seven years, depending on the severity of your condition and your prospects for experiencing medical improvement. Generally, the younger the disabled individual, the more likely he or she will experience a CDR. Significant earnings can also trigger a CDR, although earnings that occur during a TWP will rarely cause a review.
Sometimes when an Administrative Law Judge awards benefits, the judge will recommend a review of a case after a certain length of time (often 12 months) because medical improvement is expected. While this doesn't always guarantee a CDR will take place, you should certainly be prepared for it by continuing to seek medical care, taking prescribed medications, and following your doctor's treatment recommendations.
Social Security will automatically review the cases of children receiving SSI when they turn 18. Benefits will be discontinued when the beneficiary fails to meet the adult standards of disability, although this decision may be appealed.
Once you reach the full Social Security retirement age, your disability benefits are automatically converted into Social Security retirement payments. Any earnings during or after the month you reach full retirement age will not reduce your Social Security retirement benefit.
The death of a disability recipient ("beneficiary") will terminate both SSI and SSDI benefits. However, if an individual was receiving SSDI and left a surviving spouse, children, or even dependent parents, survivors benefits may be available. (For more information, read Social Security Survivors Benefits After Death of a Disabled Worker.)
Entering a nursing home, assisted living facility, or hospital may affect your eligibility for SSI, but it depends on the kind of facility and how long you're staying. If you can demonstrate to Social Security that you will be institutionalized for 90 days or less, your SSI benefits may continue. Notify Social Security of your changed living situation as soon as possible.
Disability benefits will also be stopped for as long as a person is incarcerated, and occasionally for a felony conviction, even one that does not result in jail time. SSI recipients who are incarcerated for at least 12 months in a row will need to re-apply for benefits once they're released.
If you receive notice from Social Security that your case is being reviewed, contact an experienced disability attorney immediately. While a CDR can be a frightening prospect for a disability recipient, having a knowledgeable representative on your side will increase your chances of retaining your much-needed benefits.
Updated December 20, 2023
]]>I applied for SSDI in January of 2016 and, although I have been disabled since a major surgery on 01/20/14, SSDI chose 01/20/15 as my effective disability start date. This decision means I cannot receive Medicare benefits until January 2017. This is not a correct decision by SSDI and I cannot find any info on how to appeal the decision. I am hoping you will be able to assist me.
Unfortunately, I don't think Social Security has made a mistake. You may well have met Social Security's definition of disability in January 2014, but Social Security will pay retroactive benefits going back only so far. In turn, Social Security will assign an "established onset date" going back only so far.
The rule is that Social Security will pay retroactive benefits going back only 12 months before the date you apply. Since you applied in January 2016, you can only receive benefits dating back to January 2015 (your "entitlement date"). You become eligible for Medicare 24 months after your entitlement date, which in your case means January 2017.
Just to clear up a little confusion, your disability onset date is not the same as the day you become entitled to disability payments. There is a five-month waiting period in between your established disability onset date and when you are entitled to be paid benefits, meaning Social Security will set your disability onset date to be five months before your entitlement date. What this means is that your disability onset date can be no earlier than 17 months before the date you apply for Social Security benefits. In your case, your effective disability onset date should be in August 2014.
I'm sorry that wasn't the answer you wanted to hear. You may be able to qualify for Medicaid until January 2017, if your medical expenses are very high, and your income and assets aren’t.
]]>SSDI is the benefit paid to disabled workers who have paid taxes into the Social Security for multiple years. To receive SSDI, you have to fit the Social Security Administration’s (SSA’s) definition of disability, but you can be unmarried or married. Getting married won’t ever effect SSDI benefits that you collect based on your own disability and your own earnings record.
However, certain dependents of a disabled worker can receive SSDI auxiliary or survivor benefits based on the disabled worker’s earning record. Some of these dependents’ benefits are given only to family members who are unmarried.
Children who receive SSDI benefits on the record of a parent will lose these benefits if they get married. Here are the specifics:
The unmarried child or stepchild of a disabled worker can receive benefits until age 18, or age 19 if a full-time high-school student, or until getting married, whichever occurs earlier.
The unmarried disabled adult child of a disabled worker can receive benefits (assuming his or her disability occurred before age 22) until he or she recovers from the disability or gets married. In some circumstances, a disabled adult child may be able to marry another disabled adult child without either person losing benefits.
For more information on children's SSDI benefits, see our article on benefits for children of disabled parents.
Widows and widowers lose their SSDI benefits if they get remarried. (A surviving spouse who is 60 years old or older, or at least 50 years old and disabled, can receive benefits until death unless he or she remarries.) For more information, see our article on SSDI benefits for the spouse of a disabled worker.
An ex-spouse who is receiving benefits based on her ex-husband or wife’s record will lose these benefits if she or he gets married. (A divorced spouse who was married at least ten years to the disabled worker and who is 62 years old or older can receive benefits until death unless he or she remarries.)
An ex-spouse who is receiving benefits based on her deceased ex-husband or wife’s record will lose these benefits if she or he gets married before a certain age. (The ex-spouse of a deceased disabled worker who is 60 years old or older, or at least 50 years old and disabled, can receive benefits until death unless he or she remarries.) If the surviving divorced spouse remarries after age 60 (or after age 50 if disabled), the SSA will ignore the marriage.
For more information on SSDI benefits for ex-spouses, see our article on getting disability as the divorced spouse of a disabled person.
For SSI (disability benefits for low-income disabled people who did not pay enough into the Social Security system for SSDI), eligibility for benefits is never terminated simply by marriage. SSI benefits are available to unmarried and married disabled people alike. SSI eligibility is dependent on meeting the definition of disability and financial income and resource limits.
When a disabled person gets married (and lives with his or her new spouse), the problem is that the SSA will count some of the new husband or wife’s income as available to the disabled spouse. This is called “deeming income,” and the nondisabled spouse’s income that counts as available to the disabled spouse is called “deemed income.” If the nondisabled spouse makes a good or even fair income, the disabled spouse will likely lose his or her SSI benefits.
If the nondisabled spouse earns more than $367 per month in countable income (in 2015), the nondisabled spouse’s income will be deemed. The SSA has a very complicated formula for deeming spousal income. In a nutshell, if the spouses’ combined countable income (after certain sizeable deductions) is more than $1,100 per month (in 2015), the disabled spouse will be ineligible for SSI.
If both you and your fiancé (or fiancée) are receiving SSI benefits, the amount you receive will be reduced after marriage to match the couple's SSI monthly benefit amount – that is, assuming you and your spouse are still eligible for benefits. When both spouses are disabled, they must both meet the financial eligibility requirements for a couple. Their income is counted together, without using the deeming formula. If they make under the required amount, they would get the couples rate for SSI ($1,100 in 2015).
Call the SSA at (800) 772-1213 for help determining whether your fiancé or fianceé's deemed income is likely to make you ineligible for SSI.
]]>Social Security prefers to choose someone who lives with the disabled person and knows what their needs are, such as a parent or other family member. If there isn’t a qualified person living with you, Social Security will likely appoint one of the following people to serve as your payee:
This article will explain what a Social Security payee does, what’s required of a payee, and how to change your representative payee if needed.
Anyone receiving Social Security disability benefits who needs help managing their money could have a representative payee. But the following disability recipients are required to have a Social Security representative payee:
Your representative payee receives your disability payments and manages how that money is spent. Your Social Security payee must:
But being appointed as your representative payee doesn't grant the payee any power to control your other assets.
Your representative payee must deposit your benefits in a checking or savings account created for that purpose (not a joint account). Your payee must use the money to pay for your:
If there’s money left over, it can be used to pay for your other expenses, such as:
After that, any remaining money (for example, from a large backpay payment from Social Security) should be saved in an interest-bearing account.
For more information, see our article on what a representative payee can and can't buy.
Your representative payee must keep track of how all your money is spent. And most payees will need to file an annual accounting with the Social Security Administration. The payee should keep track of income and spending details, including:
At the end of the year, Social Security will send your payee the Representative Payee Report (Form SSA-623, SSA-6230, or SSA-6233). Your payee can complete and return the form or use the information on the form to submit the report online.
Due to changes in the law, some representative payees who live in the same house as the person receiving disability benefits are no longer required to file the annual payee report, including:
But these representative payees must still keep records of all spending and savings and be ready to share this information with Social Security if it’s requested.
Your representative payee must keep Social Security informed about changes in your life or living arrangements. Your Social Security payee must report it if you do any of the following:
Finally, if your representative payee realizes that you’ve mistakenly received too much money from Social Security, the payee should contact the SSA and return the excess money or face fines and penalties.
For more information, see Social Security's Guide for Representative Payees.
Representative payees can be individuals or organizations. The rules regarding payment are different depending on which type of payee you have.
An individual representative payee generally can’t collect a fee for payee services provided to you. The exception is if your payee is also your legal guardian. In that case, your payee might be able to collect a guardian fee if the court has authorized it.
Sometimes an organizational payee, such as a social service agency, serves as representative payee for several people receiving Social Security disability benefits. Those types of payees can collect a fee, but a couple of things must happen first:
If you don’t want the person or organization Social Security has chosen as your representative payee to serve in that role, you can appeal the appointment of the payee. You’ll need to send a letter to Social Security within 60 days after you’re notified of the appointment.
If you’re already receiving Social Security disability benefits through a representative payee but want a different person to be your payee, you can request a change. Unfortunately, Social Security doesn’t offer a payee change form online that you can use. Instead, the person you want to take over as your representative payee will need to go to a local Social Security office to fill out an application and provide proof of identification.
The process required for someone to become your Social Security representative payee is the same whether you want that person to be chosen as your first payee or to replace your existing payee. It starts with the application—Form SSA-11, Request to Be Selected as a Payee. Note that even if someone has power of attorney over your finances, that person still has to apply and be approved by Social Security to serve as your representative payee. The person you want to be your payee will usually complete the application in a face-to-face interview at your local SSA field office.
If you’re already getting disability payments and a family member feels you can’t manage your own finances—for instance, if your health has declined—that person can apply to be your Social Security payee without you requesting it.
When that happens, Social Security will need to know why the payee applicant believes you can’t manage your income. Social Security will investigate, but the SSA will continue to pay your benefits directly to you until the investigation is finished and a decision is made.
If Social Security appoints a representative payee that you feel you don’t need or that isn’t someone you trust to manage your money, you’ll have 60 days to file an appeal.
Learn more about the Social Security appeals process.
Updated March 31, 2023
]]>The SSDI program provides payments to disabled or blind people who have worked a certain length of time in qualifying jobs requiring the payment of FICA taxes. Your SSDI benefits amount will stay the same no matter which state you live in.
The SSI program provides payments to aged, blind, and disabled people who have limited income and resources. While SSI is provided through the federal government, some states pay certain people who receive SSI an additional amount that is called a “state supplement.” All states except for the following pay a state supplement for people receiving SSI:
However, some states that are not on this list may pay a state supplement only to those living in nursing homes.
If you currently live in a state that provides a state supplement, you will no longer receive that state’s supplement if you move to a different state. You may receive a supplement from the state you move to if that state provides a supplement. Whether a state has a supplement, and the amount of the supplement, can also affect eligibility.
In addition, your benefit amount may be adjusted if your living situation changes. For example, if you were living alone and paying for food and shelter yourself in a certain state, but are moving to a different state and are going to be living with others who will be paying for your food and shelter, your SSI benefits may be reduced.
Before you move, you should contact the SSA to ask what your benefits would be in the state you are considering moving to.
Regardless of whether you are receiving SSI or SSDI, you must report a change in address immediately to the SSA. And if you are receiving SSI, you must report a change in living arrangements within 10 days after the months the change occurs. If you do not report the change in time, you might not receive your full benefit amount, or on the contrary, you might receive too much (called an overpayment) and have to pay some back.
The SSA can also penalize you for not reporting a change in time and this penalty will be taken out of your monthly payments. If you are receiving state supplements in a state in which the SSA does not administer the state supplement, you must also notify the appropriate state agency of your move as well. Some states that have supplemental payments also have penalties similar to those of the SSA if you do not report certain changes right away to the state agency.
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