Yes, you can work part-time while on disability. Both Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) allow it, but the two programs handle your earnings very differently. SSDI gives you a structured trial period and then applies a monthly earnings ceiling; SSI reduces your check gradually as your wages rise, without any hard cutoff. Knowing which set of rules applies to you — and reporting your work on time — is what keeps a paycheck from turning into an overpayment bill.
How Much You Can Earn on SSDI
SSDI is designed around the idea that you should be able to test whether work is sustainable. That test happens in three stages.
The Trial Work Period
During your Trial Work Period, you keep your full SSDI check no matter how much you earn, as long as you report the work. A month counts toward the trial only when your pre-tax earnings reach $1,210 or more in 2026. You get nine such months, and they don’t have to run back-to-back. They only have to fall inside a rolling five-year window.1Social Security Administration. Try Returning to Work Without Losing Disability So you could work three months, take a year off, and still have six trial months left to use.
The Extended Period of Eligibility
After you’ve used all nine trial months, a 36-month Extended Period of Eligibility (EPE) begins. In any month during this window where your earnings stay at or below the Substantial Gainful Activity (SGA) limit, you get your full SSDI payment. For 2026, SGA is $1,690 a month for most recipients and $2,830 for people who receive benefits because of blindness.2Social Security Administration. Substantial Gainful Activity In any month you go over SGA, your check is suspended for that month, but it starts back up automatically for any later month during the EPE when you drop below the limit.3Social Security Administration. POMS DI 13010.210 – Extended Period of Eligibility (EPE) Overview
SGA is measured on countable earnings, not gross pay. Disability-related work expenses and employer supports like paid rest breaks or a lighter workload can bring your countable earnings below what your paycheck shows.1Social Security Administration. Try Returning to Work Without Losing Disability
After the EPE
If you keep earning above SGA after the 36-month EPE ends, your SSDI benefit will generally terminate. There’s a safety net if that happens: if you stop working or drop back under SGA within five years, you can request Expedited Reinstatement without filing a whole new disability claim, as long as your impairment is the same as or related to the original one.4Social Security Administration. POMS DI 13050.001 – Expedited Reinstatement (EXR) Overview
How Much You Can Earn on SSI
SSI works nothing like SSDI. There’s no trial work period and no monthly cutoff. Instead, your SSI check shrinks gradually as your earnings go up, and you always end up with more total money by working than by not.
The math: the SSA ignores the first $65 of your monthly earned income, plus a $20 general income exclusion if you don’t have other unearned income. After those exclusions, only half of what’s left counts against your check. Every two dollars you earn above the exclusions reduces your SSI by one dollar.5Social Security Administration. SSI Income – 2025 Edition
Here’s how that plays out at the 2026 federal benefit rate of $994.6Social Security Administration. SSI Federal Payment Amounts for 2026 Say you earn $885 in a month. Subtract $85 ($20 + $65), leaving $800. Half of that, $400, is your countable income. Your SSI drops by $400, so you receive $594 from SSI plus $885 from your job — $1,479 total. That’s $485 more than the $994 you’d get by not working.7Social Security Administration. Income Exclusions for SSI Program
If you earn enough to zero out your SSI check, the cash stops but your Medicaid may continue (see below).
Keeping Medicare or Medicaid When You Work
For many people, health coverage matters more than the cash benefit. Both programs protect it.
SSDI recipients keep premium-free Medicare Part A for at least 93 months after the Trial Work Period ends, even when earnings above SGA have stopped the cash benefit. Medicare Part B continues too, but once your cash benefit is suspended, you’ll be billed for the Part B premium every three months instead of having it withheld from your check.8Social Security Administration. POMS HI 28055.001 – Extended Period of Eligibility (EPE) and Related Medicare Provisions – General9Social Security Administration. Questions and Answers on Extended Medicare Coverage for Working People with Disabilities If you ignore those bills, Part B lapses.
SSI recipients whose earnings zero out the cash payment can keep Medicaid under Section 1619(b) of the Social Security Act. You qualify as long as you still meet the disability criteria, need Medicaid to continue working, and your earnings aren’t high enough to replace the combined value of SSI and Medicaid. The income threshold varies by state.10Social Security Administration. Continued Medicaid Eligibility (Section 1619(B)) Many states also run Medicaid Buy-In programs that let working people with disabilities purchase Medicaid at income levels above the standard SSI limit.
Deductions That Let You Earn More
Three programs can raise the effective earnings ceiling by taking certain costs or income out of the SSA’s calculation.
Impairment-Related Work Expenses. If your disability forces you to pay out of pocket for things you need to work — specialized equipment, certain medications, modified transportation, attendant care — those costs are Impairment-Related Work Expenses (IRWEs). For SSDI, they’re subtracted from your gross earnings before the SSA checks whether you’re over SGA. For SSI, they’re deducted from earned income before your check is calculated.11Social Security Administration. SSI Spotlight on Impairment-Related Work Expenses The expense has to be disability-related, necessary for work, and not reimbursed by anyone else. Keep every receipt; the SSA won’t deduct what you can’t document.
Student Earned Income Exclusion. SSI recipients under age 22 who are regularly attending school can exclude up to $2,410 per month of earned income in 2026, capped at $9,730 for the year.12Social Security Administration. What’s New in 2026 This exclusion applies before the standard $65 and $20, which means a working student can often keep most or all of their SSI intact.
Plan to Achieve Self-Support. A PASS is a written plan letting an SSI recipient set aside income or resources for a specific work goal — starting a business, paying for school, buying tools. Money set aside under an approved PASS isn’t counted when the SSA calculates your SSI, which can raise your check or help you qualify in the first place. Resources set aside for the plan also don’t count against SSI’s resource limit. You apply on Form SSA-545-BK, listing the goal, the items or services you need, their costs, and a timeline; a PASS specialist decides whether the plan is realistic.13Social Security Administration. Plan to Achieve Self-Support (PASS)
Reporting Your Work
Reporting mistakes are the fastest way to end up owing the SSA money. The rules differ by program.
SSI recipients must report monthly wages by the sixth day of the month after getting paid. Changes to other income — child support, pensions, unemployment — must be reported by the tenth day of the month after the change.14Social Security Administration. Report Monthly Wages and Other Income While on SSI You can report through your my Social Security account, the SSA Mobile Wage Reporting App, or the automated line at 1-866-772-0953. Self-employment income is reported yearly, by January 10.
SSDI recipients don’t have a fixed monthly deadline, but they should report the start or stop of any job, and any change in pay, as soon as it happens. Waiting doesn’t help. The SSA eventually matches tax records against benefit records, and by the time it catches up you could owe months of payments back.
Self-employed recipients face extra scrutiny. The SSA doesn’t just look at net earnings; it also considers whether your work activity is comparable to what someone without a disability does in a similar business, how many hours you put in, and whether the work is clearly worth the SGA amount even if net income falls below it. When countable income is calculated, you deduct normal business expenses, the value of any unpaid help from family, and any IRWEs not already subtracted as business expenses.15Social Security Administration. Code of Federal Regulations 404.1575 – Evaluation Guides if You Are Self-Employed
Keep every pay stub, profit-and-loss statement, and reporting confirmation. If a dispute comes up months later, your records are your defense.
If You Get an Overpayment Notice
Even careful reporters sometimes get an overpayment notice, often because the SSA processed a change late or calculated countable income differently than you did. You have three options, and you should act within 60 days of receiving the notice (the SSA assumes you received it five days after the date printed on it).
You can appeal on Form SSA-561 if you believe you weren’t overpaid or the amount is wrong.16Social Security Administration. Overpayments You can request a waiver on Form SSA-632-BK, which asks the SSA to forgive the debt entirely; to qualify, you have to show the overpayment wasn’t your fault and that repaying it would cause financial hardship or be unfair. The waiver form requires detailed financial disclosure — bank statements, utility bills, rent or mortgage information, pay stubs, tax returns — so the SSA can decide whether repayment would take money you need for basic living expenses.17Social Security Administration. Code of Federal Regulations 404.0506 – When Waiver May Be Applied and How to Process the Request Or you can agree you owe the money and negotiate a repayment plan, usually paid through partial withholding from future benefits. Ignoring the notice means the SSA will recover the full amount automatically.
Taxes on Your Combined Income
Part-time earnings can push you into a range where part of your SSDI becomes taxable, which catches many people off guard. The IRS looks at your “combined income” — adjusted gross income plus any nontaxable interest plus half of your Social Security benefits. If that total is between $25,000 and $34,000 for a single filer ($32,000 to $44,000 married filing jointly), up to 50% of your benefits may be taxable. Above $34,000 for singles ($44,000 for joint filers), up to 85% may be taxable.18Internal Revenue Service. IRS Reminds Taxpayers Their Social Security Benefits May Be Taxable Those thresholds have never been adjusted for inflation, so even modest earnings can tip you over. SSI payments are not taxable. If you’re working and expect to owe, the IRS Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program offers free preparation for people with disabilities earning under $67,000.
A Note on Private Disability Insurance
Everything above applies to SSDI and SSI. If you also receive benefits from a private disability policy, those are governed by your insurance contract, not by SSA rules. Two contract terms decide whether part-time work is safe: whether the policy has a “residual” or “partial” disability provision that pays a reduced benefit when you earn less than before, and whether the policy defines disability as inability to do your “own occupation” or “any occupation” you’re reasonably qualified for. Many policies start with own-occupation coverage and switch to any-occupation after one or two years. Read the contract before taking any work; the SSA’s rules won’t protect your private benefit.