If you’re collecting Social Security retirement benefits before your full retirement age, you can earn up to $24,480 in 2026 without any reduction. Earn more, and the Social Security Administration withholds $1 in benefits for every $2 over the limit. A more generous $65,160 limit applies in the calendar year you reach full retirement age, with only $1 withheld for every $3 above it. Once you hit full retirement age, the earnings test goes away entirely and you can earn any amount without losing a dollar of your check.1Social Security Administration. Exempt Amounts Under the Earnings Test
Know Your Full Retirement Age First
Every threshold below depends on your full retirement age, so start there. It’s set entirely by your birth year:
- Born 1943–1954: 66
- Born 1955: 66 and 2 months
- Born 1956: 66 and 4 months
- Born 1957: 66 and 6 months
- Born 1958: 66 and 8 months
- Born 1959: 66 and 10 months
- Born 1960 or later: 67
Most people still working while collecting benefits today fall at the tail end of that range or into the 1960-and-later group with an FRA of 67.2Social Security Administration. Retirement Age and Benefit Reduction
If You’re Under Full Retirement Age All Year
For any full calendar year that you’re younger than your FRA, the 2026 earnings limit is $24,480. Every $2 you earn from work above that costs you $1 in withheld benefits.1Social Security Administration. Exempt Amounts Under the Earnings Test
An example. You’re 63 and earn $30,480 in 2026. That’s $6,000 above the limit, so the SSA withholds $3,000 across the year. If your monthly benefit is $1,500, that works out to roughly two full monthly checks. The withholding usually comes off the front of the year rather than spread evenly, so you might receive nothing in January and February and full checks the rest of the year.
In the Year You Reach Full Retirement Age
The rules ease considerably in the calendar year you turn your FRA. The 2026 limit rises to $65,160, and the withholding rate drops to $1 for every $3 above it. Better still, only what you earn in the months before your FRA birthday counts. Anything earned from your FRA month onward is ignored by the test.1Social Security Administration. Exempt Amounts Under the Earnings Test
Say you turn 67 in October 2026 and earn $71,160 from January through September. You’re $6,000 over the $65,160 limit, so the SSA withholds $2,000. Anything you earn from October forward doesn’t count at all.3Social Security Administration. Receiving Benefits While Working
Once You Reach Full Retirement Age
Starting with the month you hit FRA, the earnings test disappears. You can earn $200,000, $500,000, or any other amount from work with nothing withheld from your Social Security check.4Social Security Administration. Program Explainer: Retirement Earnings Test
The First-Year Monthly Rule
Annual limits create a problem for people who retire partway through the year. If you worked full-time from January through August and claimed benefits in September, you may have already blown past $24,480 before your first check ever arrived. Without a fix, the annual test would erase several months of legitimately retired benefits.
The fix is a special monthly test that applies only in your first year of receiving benefits. Instead of the annual limit, the SSA can check your earnings month by month. For 2026, you count as retired in any month you earn $2,040 or less and don’t perform substantial self-employment work. If you reach FRA in 2026, the monthly threshold is $5,430.5Social Security Administration. Special Earnings Limit Rule
So if you earned $80,000 from January through July, retired in August, and earned nothing after that, you’d still collect full benefits for August through December. For self-employment, “substantial services” generally means more than 45 hours a month in your business.5Social Security Administration. Special Earnings Limit Rule
What Counts as Earnings
The earnings test only looks at money you actively earn from work: wages from a job and net profit from self-employment, including bonuses, commissions, and vacation pay.3Social Security Administration. Receiving Benefits While Working
Money that comes in without you working for it doesn’t count. Pensions, annuities, investment income, interest, dividends, veterans benefits, and other government retirement payments are all excluded.3Social Security Administration. Receiving Benefits While Working
If you run your own business, the SSA uses net earnings: gross business income minus allowable deductions and depreciation. Stock dividends, bond interest (unless you’re a securities dealer), rental income from real estate (unless you’re a real estate dealer or regularly provide tenant services), and limited partnership income are excluded even for self-employed people.6Social Security Administration. If You Are Self-Employed
Withheld Benefits Are Not Lost
This is where anxiety about the earnings test tends to be misplaced. Benefits withheld because you earned too much aren’t gone. When you reach full retirement age, the SSA recalculates your monthly amount to credit you for the months your checks were held back, and your monthly benefit going forward rises.4Social Security Administration. Program Explainer: Retirement Earnings Test
How that pencils out depends on how long you live. If the SSA withholds 12 months of benefits, the higher post-FRA check typically makes up the difference over about 12 to 15 years. Live past that point and you come out ahead. The earnings test functions less as a penalty and more as a forced delay in collecting part of what you’re owed.
The catch: if you underestimate your earnings and the SSA overpays you, you have to give the excess back. That’s why accurate reporting matters.
Family Members on Your Record
If your spouse or children collect benefits based on your work history, your excess earnings can reduce their checks too. The SSA applies the withholding to the total family benefit when the primary worker earns above the limit. If a family member exceeds the limit through their own work, only their benefit is affected.7Social Security Administration. How Work Affects Your Benefits
Reporting Your Earnings
If you said you’d keep working when you applied, the SSA sends a form each year asking you to estimate your upcoming earnings. You’re expected to notify the agency if actual earnings will exceed your estimate, or if you start working after saying you wouldn’t.8Social Security Administration. What You Must Report While Getting Retirement
You can report changes by calling 1-800-772-1213 (TTY 1-800-322-0778), Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. in most U.S. time zones. You can also file Form SSA-795 with a brief written statement of the change and its effective date.8Social Security Administration. What You Must Report While Getting Retirement
Skipping the report doesn’t hide anything. The SSA eventually catches the discrepancy through IRS records, and by that point the overpayment can run into thousands of dollars. You’ll owe it back, and the SSA can recover it by withholding future benefits until the debt clears.
Disability Benefits Work Differently
Everything above covers Social Security retirement and survivor benefits. If you’re on Social Security Disability Insurance, none of these annual limits apply. SSDI uses a monthly threshold called substantial gainful activity: earning more than $1,690 a month in 2026 (or $2,830 if you’re blind) generally signals you can work at a substantial level and can end your benefits.9Social Security Administration. What’s New in 2026 – The Red Book Anyone receiving SSDI who’s thinking about work should contact the SSA before starting a job rather than guessing at the rules.