SSA is known for its acronyms – SGA, TWP, OHO, UWA, HALLEX, POMS, etc., etc. But even more confusing are the different tables of numbers that disability applicants need to understand and apply. Here is a brief explanation:
Earnings Credits
Table of earnings required for a Social Security earnings credit. As you may know, when you work and pay taxes, you generate “earnings credits” which are used to determine whether you qualify for SSDI and retirement Social Security. Regardless of your total income you can earn no more than four (4) credits per year.
In 2025, you earn one earnings credit when you earn $1,810 of gross (before taxes) income in a calendar year. Once you earn $7,240 (which is $1,810 x 4) your account will show four credits for calendar year 2025. In 2025, you will earn one credit with $1,890 of gross earnings (4 credits = $7,560 to earn all 4 credits for 2026). Earnings credits only count towards your eligibility. So a person who earns $7,300 in 2025 and a person who earns $73,000 in 2025 will both get four credits. The amount each of these workers would get will be different but the earnings credit calculation is only used to determine eligibility. You need a total of 40 credits lifetime to qualify for Social Security retirement. The number of credits you need for Social Security disability changes based on your age but for claimants in their 50’s, you would need 20 credits within the past 40 quarters (five years of work within the most recent 10 years ending the year you become disabled).
Further, your earnings don’t need to be spread out over the year. So if you earning $1,890 on January 3, 2026, you get all four possible credits for 2026. Your “MySocialSecurity” statement, which you can download at https:/ssa.gov/myaccount, will tell you if you have enough credits to qualify for SSDI or Social Security retirement. Your statement will also tell you how much you would get each month.
Here is a link to SSA’s table showing earnings required for a quarter of coverage (this table is updated every year):
Substantial Gainful Activity
Social Security uses a different set of numbers to determine whether your earnings count as “substantial gainful activity.” When you are pursuing disability you have to prove to SSA that your medical issues prevent you from engaging in what they call “substantial gainful activity” or SGA. SGA does not only arise from earnings – it can be found if you are doing volunteer work, or going to school – anything that is roughly equivalent to simple, entry level work or more.
SGA is presumed if your gross earnings exceed $1,620 per month (in 2025). In 2026, SGA will be presumed if you earn $1,690 per month. This amount changes every year as well. So if you are working part time and earning $1,000 per month gross, you could, in theory file for disability since your earnings are not at SGA level. If you are working part time and occasionally exceed SGA for a particular month you don’t have to give up and start over – there are arguments you and your lawyer could make to get past an occasional month of “more than SGA” earnings.
Generally speaking, however, when you apply for disability, your earnings record should show zero (no earnings) or less than SGA earnings. Note as well that SGA only refers to earnings that arise from work. Passive income from investments or accrued vacation does not count as SGA. Severance pay does not count either.
The current SGA table can be found here.
Trial Work Period
SSA uses an entirely different table of numbers when evaluating a trial work period. Once you have been found disabled, SSA wants to encourage you to try to return to work. One of these return to work programs is call the “Trial Work Period” program, which is abbreviated at TWP.
Under the TWP law, if you return to work after been found disabled, you can work at or above the TWP earnings limit for up to 9 months in any five year period of time and still receive your disability payment. In 2025, the TWP earnings limit is $1,160 per month. In 2026 the TWP earnings limit is $1,210.
So if you were found disabled in May, 2025 and you returned to work in September and earned $20,000, then $30,000 in October and $30,000 in November you would continue to receive your disability benefit because you have nine total TWP months available to you.
The trap with TWP months is that many approved disability claimants don’t keep good records of earnings and it is easy to get into overpay status. Going back to our example of a person who was found disabled in May, 2025. This person’s earnings in October, November and December, 2025 are clearly over TWP limits so he would have used 3 of his TWP months. Let’s say that this person had to stop work after December and did not work for the next 18 months. Fast forward to May, 2026 and this person returns to work and earns $400 in May , 2026 – not a TWP month. But he earns $7,000 in July, 2026 and $9,000 in October, 2026. Then he doesn’t work again until late 2027 when he earnings $2,000 in October, 2027, $1,500 in November, 2027 and $2,000 in December, 2027. This person could use up his trial work period months without realizing this has happened.
The current TWP table is here.
You can see how keeping track of TWP numbers can get very confusing. Worse, if you exceed your 9 months of trial work and you continue to work at over SGA (substantial gainful activity) level, you go into “overpay” status and benefits paid to you thereafter would have to be repaid to SSA. The problem is that SSA might not catch the overpay for two or three years, sometimes longer. I have seen many cases where a claimant who is still medically disabled (and earning less than SGA) goes into overpay status and gets a letter from SSA four years after the fact demanding $30,000 immediately.
A blog I follow reported on a study that concluded that 82% of claimants who tried to return to work under the TWP program ended up in overpay status. This obviously suggests that SSA’s TWP program is broken and that trying to work after being found disabled can be very risky – exactly the opposite result that SSA should want.
There are ways to ask for an overpayment waiver but, as you might imaging, these procedures are complicated, expensive, stressful and overwhelming.
SSA’s system that uses different tables of earnings for different purposes is confusing and frustrating and a perfect example of bureaucratic dysfunction.