Social Security encourages approved claimants to try to work. As with most things Social Security related, however, the rules can get complicated. Here is what you need to know.
How Does the Trial Work Period Program Work?
First, as of the date SSA decides you are disabled, you are eligible for what is called a Trial Work Period (TWP). Under SSA law you are allowed nine (9) TWP months during which you can earn any amount of money.
Example: Tom is approved for SSDI as of May 13, 2022. He finds a consulting job and earns $10,000 in July, 2022, $20,000 in September, 2022 and $15,000 in November, 2022. Since Tom has only used up 3 of his 9 TWP months, he can keep his rather substantial earnings and he will continue to receive his monthly disability payment.
The TWP earnings limit changes every year. In 2024, for example, the TWP limit is $1,110 per month gross. In 2025 it was $1,160 and in 2026 it is $1,210. So if you earn
- $1,000 in January, 2024
- $1,100 in February, 2024
- $1,120 in March, 2024
you would only use up one TWP month (March, 2024 in this example).
SSA calculates your earnings as of the month you received payment – so if you worked in March, but got paid in April, SSA will look at your earnings in April for TWP purposes.
Your get 9 TWP months in any 5 year period of time. So if you earned $2,000 in March 2022, that TWP month would no longer count as of April, 2027.
Unfortunately SSA does not offer any real time calculation of TWP months. If you use up all 9 TWP months you may not get a letter from SSA until several years later.
What Happens if you Use Up Your TWP Months?
All is not lost. Your benefits are not affected as long as your gross monthly earnings stay below the substantial gainful activity (SGA) limit for the year in which you worked.
In 2024, SGA was equal to gross monthly earnings of $1,550 or more. In 2025, SGA was $1,620 per month gross and 2026 it is $1,690 per month gross. The SGA table is here.
If you have used up your TWP months and keep working but are below SGA – no problem.
However, if you use up your TWP months and your earnings exceed SGA, then you go into “overpay” status, which is not good. Thereafter every month that you work and exceed SGA you are “overpaid” and not eligible for SSDI.
The problem, of course, is that SSA does not tell you that you are in overpay status in real time. In fact, you may only find out that you have been overpaid 3, 4, 5 or more years later. I have spoken to disability claimants who had no idea they were in overpay status until they received a letter from SSA saying “you owe us $30,000 – an envelope is attached.”
Can You Use Your TWP Months Before You are Actually Approved for Disability?
Yes, judges have the discretion to characterize earnings received after you file but before you are approved as TWP months. They also have the option of deciding that work after onset is SGA and they may deny your claim or change your onset date.
Whether to work and how much is “too much” is a discussion you should have with your attorney. You do need to be careful not to find yourself in a situation where you earn just enough to create problems with your disability case but not enough to pay the bills.
What Can You Do if You Receive an Overpayment Notice?
You have limited options if you are overpaid. One is to ask for a waiver using form SSA-632. You can also ask for a change in the overpayment recovery rate by using form SSA-634.
The other option is to file bankruptcy on the overpayment. At the present time SSA overpayments can be discharged in bankruptcy assuming there was no fraud involved.
Another option is to appeal the overpayment assessment by filing a “non-medical reconsideration” request at https://www.ssa.gov/apply/appeal-decision-we-made/request-reconsideration. Most likely your request for reconsideration will be denied, after which you can request a hearing before an administrative law judge. You can retain a lawyer to represent you at this hearing but you will have to pay out of pocket for representation.
Arguing that you should not have to repay the overpayment because you did not know that you were in overpay status is not a valid defense. Similarly, if you argue that repaying this debt will cause a financial hardship will not carry much weight unless you can prove with documentation a severe hardship.
My advice to those facing overpayment is to ask for a waiver, and to look carefully at the bankruptcy option.
Will Working Trigger a Continuing Disability Review?
A reasonable question you might ask has to do with whether working might trigger a continuing disability review. The answer is “maybe.” When your disability case is approved, SSA codes it as being a case likely to show medical improvement, possible medical improvement or not likely to show medical improvement.
If your case is coded as likely to show medical improvement and your earnings record shows some earnings, it is likely that your case will be flagged for a continuing disability review. SSA does not make all of its criteria public but this is what I have observed.
At the same time, SSA sends out either a long form (Form 454) or a short form (Form 455) review on a somewhat random basis. So receiving a long form or short form may not mean anything other than you were randomly selected.
Finally, if you receive a long form or a short form, it does not mean that your benefits will be terminated. Someone at SSA has to look at it, possibly request updated records, send the file to a medical consultant for review and then decide to start termination procedures (which you can appeal).
Depending on the political climate, there may be more or less emphasis on reviewing more cases for termination. Several years ago, for example, Congress earmarked several million dollars in SSA’s budget solely to increase the number of reviews and terminations. In 2024, however, SSA’s Commissioner put a moratorium on reviews to address the claim processing backlog.