How much income you can have on Social Security depends on which benefit you receive and, for retirement benefits, how close you are to full retirement age. In 2026, if you’re collecting retirement benefits and are under full retirement age (FRA) for the whole year, you can earn up to $24,480 from work before the Social Security Administration starts withholding anything. Above that, the SSA holds back $1 for every $2 you earn over the limit.1Social Security Administration. Exempt Amounts Under the Earnings Test SSDI and SSI operate on entirely different rules, covered below.
Retirement Earnings Limits in 2026
The earnings test only applies before FRA, which is 67 for anyone born in 1960 or later. Once you hit FRA, you can earn any amount with no reduction to your benefits.2Social Security Administration. Benefits Planner: Retirement – Retirement Age Calculator
If you’re under FRA for all of 2026, the annual limit is $24,480 and the SSA withholds $1 for every $2 you earn above it. Earn $30,480 and that’s $6,000 over the limit, so $3,000 is withheld from your benefits during the year.
In the year you actually reach FRA, a higher limit applies to the months before your birthday month: $65,160 in 2026, with a gentler withholding rate of $1 for every $3 over. Only earnings from January through the month before your FRA birthday count. Starting the month you reach FRA, the earnings test disappears completely.1Social Security Administration. Exempt Amounts Under the Earnings Test
The Special Rule for Your First Year of Benefits
The annual limit can penalize people who retire mid-year after months of full salary. The SSA fixes this with a monthly rule that applies during your first year of receiving benefits. You get a full benefit check for any month your earnings stay at or below a monthly threshold, no matter what you earned earlier in the year.3Social Security Administration. Receiving Benefits While Working
In 2026, that monthly threshold is $2,040 if you’ll be under FRA all year, or $5,430 if you’re reaching FRA during the year. If you’re self-employed, you also can’t be performing what the SSA calls substantial services in your business, defined as more than 45 hours a month, or 15 to 45 hours in a highly skilled occupation.4Social Security Administration. Special Earnings Limit Rule
Say you retire in June 2026 after earning $80,000 through May. The annual test would erase several months of benefits. Under the monthly rule, the SSA still pays full benefits for July through December as long as each month’s earnings stay under $2,040.
What Counts as Earned Income
Only income from work counts. That means gross wages from a job (before deductions) and net profit from self-employment (after business expenses). Bonuses, commissions, and vacation pay all count.3Social Security Administration. Receiving Benefits While Working
Income that isn’t from active work is ignored entirely by the earnings test. Pensions, annuities, investment returns, interest, dividends, capital gains, veterans benefits, and other government or military retirement pay don’t affect your Social Security under this rule.3Social Security Administration. Receiving Benefits While Working The practical consequence surprises people: a retiree pulling $100,000 a year from dividends sees zero benefit reduction, while someone earning $30,000 from a part-time job does.
Earnings Limits for SSDI
Social Security Disability Insurance uses a completely different test. Instead of withholding part of your check, the SSA asks whether your earnings show you can perform “substantial gainful activity,” or SGA. Consistently exceed the SGA limit and the SSA may decide you’re no longer disabled and end your benefits.
In 2026, the monthly SGA limit is $1,690 for non-blind individuals and $2,830 for blind individuals.5Social Security Administration. Substantial Gainful Activity
Trial Work Period
You don’t lose benefits the moment you start working. SSDI gives you a trial work period (TWP) of nine months within any rolling 60-month window. During those nine months, you get full SSDI benefits no matter how much you earn.6Social Security Administration. Code of Federal Regulations 404.1592 The nine months don’t need to be consecutive.
A month counts toward your TWP in 2026 if your pre-tax earnings reach $1,210 or more.7Ticket to Work – Social Security. Fact Sheet – Trial Work Period 2026
Extended Period of Eligibility
After the nine TWP months are used up, you get a 36-month extended period of eligibility (EPE). During the EPE, you still get benefits for any month your earnings fall below SGA. Cross SGA and benefits stop for that month, but they restart automatically if earnings drop back down. That on-off flexibility runs the full 36 months.8Social Security Administration. POMS DI 13010.210 – Extended Period of Eligibility
Once the 36 months end, earning above SGA permanently ends SSDI eligibility. That makes it worth tracking your earnings against both the TWP and SGA thresholds month by month.
Earnings Limits for SSI
Supplemental Security Income is a needs-based program, and nearly all income (earned or unearned) reduces your payment. The maximum federal SSI payment in 2026 is $994 per month for individuals and $1,491 for couples.9Social Security Administration. 2026 Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) Fact Sheet
Before earnings reduce your payment, the SSA applies exclusions. First, $20 of any income each month (earned or unearned) is excluded. Then the first $65 of earned income is excluded. After that, only half of remaining earned income counts against your benefit.10Social Security Administration. Income Exclusions for SSI Program
The math on a $500 month of earnings with no other income: subtract $20, leaving $480. Subtract $65, leaving $415. Divide by two, and $207.50 counts against your SSI. Your payment that month would be $994 minus $207.50, or $786.50. Because only half of countable earnings actually reduces the check, working leaves you financially ahead.11Social Security Administration. Understanding Supplemental Security Income SSI Income – 2025 Edition
Withheld Retirement Benefits Come Back Later
This detail gets lost in the panic about the earnings test. Money withheld before FRA isn’t gone. When you reach FRA, the SSA recalculates your monthly benefit to credit you for each month benefits were withheld, resulting in a permanently higher check.12Social Security Administration. Retirement Earnings Test
The mechanism is an adjustment to your early-claiming reduction. If you filed at 62 and had 12 months of benefits withheld, the SSA recalculates as if you’d filed a year later. The SSA also reviews your earnings record each year, and if your recent work counts as one of your highest-earning years, that can raise your benefit further.13Social Security Administration. How Work Affects Your Benefits For many beneficiaries, the higher monthly payments eventually make up for what was withheld. The earnings test functions as a deferral more than a penalty.
Taxes Are a Separate Issue
Even when the earnings test doesn’t cost you anything, working can push part of your Social Security into taxable income. The IRS calculates “combined income” as your adjusted gross income plus nontaxable interest plus half of your Social Security benefits. The thresholds are set by federal statute and have never been indexed for inflation, so more retirees cross them each year.14Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 86 – Social Security and Tier 1 Railroad Retirement Benefits
- Single filers with combined income between $25,000 and $34,000: up to 50% of benefits may be taxable.
- Single filers with combined income above $34,000: up to 85% of benefits may be taxable.
- Married filing jointly with combined income between $32,000 and $44,000: up to 50% of benefits may be taxable.
- Married filing jointly with combined income above $44,000: up to 85% of benefits may be taxable.
“Up to 85% taxable” doesn’t mean losing 85% of your benefits to tax. It means 85% of the benefit amount gets added to your taxable income and taxed at your ordinary rate.15Internal Revenue Service. IRS Reminds Taxpayers Their Social Security Benefits May Be Taxable
Reporting Your Earnings
Telling the SSA about your work income is your responsibility. Retirement and SSDI recipients can report changes by calling 1-800-772-1213 (TTY 1-800-325-0778) or visiting a local office.16Social Security Administration. Report Changes to Work and Income
SSI recipients have more options. Monthly wages can go in through the SSA Mobile Wage Reporting app, an automated telephone line at 1-866-772-0953 (available 24/7), or online through your local office’s wage reporting system.17Social Security Administration. Report Monthly Wages and Other Income While on SSI
Skipping the report doesn’t hide the income. The SSA matches W-2s and tax returns, catches the overpayment, and sends a notice demanding repayment. If the overpayment wasn’t your fault and paying it back would cause financial hardship, you can request a waiver using Form SSA-632-BK. If both conditions are met, the SSA may forgive the debt.18Social Security Administration. Ask Us to Waive an Overpayment