'disability secrets' website gives conflicting advice regarding working part time on disability benefits

this “disability secrets” website is great at giving straight dope easy to understand advice for those getting or trying to get disability benefits. they gave some conflicting advice though regarding how much one could work…

“This SGA limit allows many disability recipients to do some part-time work. For example, if you were to work 16 hours a week making $16 per hour, your monthly income would be about $1,100, which falls under the SGA amount. As long as you haven’t improved enough medically to work full time (since you were approved for benefits), you should be able to continue receiving benefits.”

" If you return to work while receiving SSDI benefits, the SSA will want to determine if you are engaging in “substantial gainful activity” (SGA). The biggest factor in determining if work qualifies as SGA is the amount a person is paid. In 2020, someone is generally considered to be engaging in SGA if he or she earns more than $1,260 ($2,110 for blind SSDI recipients) So, for example, if you are making, say, $200 per week doing part-time work, you would not be working over the SGA limit. However, this isn’t a cut and dry issue. If you are working a lot, it’s possible for the SSA to determine that your job duties constitute SGA even if you are earning less than the SGA amount."

16 bucks an hour times 16 hours per week, is more than two hundred per week. so their advice is shake-y.

to be clear, these arent contradictions, but it does call into question how social security would view a schizophrenic working a lot, but under the ‘substantial gainful activity’ amount.

the sixteen hours per week thing is also misleading, cause in weeks where there are five work weeks, a person working that much would be over the limit. i dont know why the site would even bother stating that example, as it’s such a simple mistake for someone who is as knowledgeable bout these work related programs as this website.

questions, comments, words of wisdom?

1 Like

Best to ask social security directly

1 Like

My disability attorney said not to work more than 15 hours or I risk losing my benefits and that’s getting paid minimum wage. He said otherwise they’ll say if you can handle that, you can handle more

1 Like

yeah im not sure how many hours i can work a week part time. i was thinking 15-20 hours i could handle but dont want to risk losing ssdi and then having to struggle to try to work full time.

1 Like

yeah i work 16 hours a week, and was makin 200 dollars a week. now they just gave everyone who works my job at my business across the country a raise to 15 bucks an hour. i feel like i might be punished just for happening to make a bit on the high side. the average wage for my job as a profession is like 12 bucks an hour. i work at a deli.

This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.