CAN WORKING CAUSE YOU TO LOSE SSDI BENEFITS?

Individuals who are really disabled may lose their Social Security disability benefits if they go to work. I know this is puzzling at first thought, but here is the rationale.

Working is the best way to prove that you are able to work. And Social Security has taken great pains to make sure that persons who are able to work cannot get Social Security disability benefits. Their belief is that a person is either able to work, or not able to work. SSDI benefits are only for those who cannot perform full-time work.

How do they judge what is full-time work? Not like you may think. Social Security really doesn't use the term "full time work." They use the term "substantial gainful activity" or SGA. They define SGA as gross earnings (wages, tips, commissions, salary or self-employment) of at least $1,070 per month. If you earn this amount, you are engaging in substantial gainful activity (SGA) and this disqualifies you for SSDI benefits.

An individual who feels that he is not able to work but is struggling for financial survival can be caught in the middle. On the one hand, it may take 24 months to get disability benefits started. But if he forces himself to find a job and go to work to feed his family, he will forfeit his Social Security disability benefits.

This forces some soul searching by persons who are thinking about filing a disability claim. You must choose one path or the other: work on try to get on disability. The two paths are really incompatible. If you work enough to support you family, you are proving that you are not disabled according to Social Security's rules. If you don't work at SGA levels, you may go without income for months, or even years, while you wait on Social Security to decide if you qualify for benefits.

It comes down to the fact that Social Security disability (SSDI) is a last resort, designed to be a lifeline to those whose disability is so severe that working is simply no longer an option.