Call (843) 604-5533

Complete this quick form to get help with your disability benefits.

    Secure Information

     

    How to Protect Your Benefits While You Work

    Social Security Disability benefits are primarily for people who can’t work because of their health, but there are circumstances where you can receive benefits and make a limited amount of money from working.

    It’s understandable that you might want to work a little to make ends meet when medical issues shake up your life. But Social Security has rules regarding when and how much you can work and still get disability benefits. It’s easy to endanger your benefits by working.

    Social Security doesn’t only look at how many hours you work or how much you make. They look closely at the type of work you do and consider if it means you could work more, so you don’t need benefits.

    An experienced Charleston disability lawyer can help you determine when work activity and income put your disability benefits at risk.

    Working can complicate matters whether you’re applying for disability for the first time, or if you’re already receiving Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits.

    Robertson Wendt Disability can guide you through this in South Carolina.

    There are two ways you could work while receiving disability benefits.

    You can:

    • Work a small amount and stay under the Social Security “Substantial Gainful Activity” (SGA) limit
    • Attempt a return to work in a Trial Work Period (under SSDI benefits)

    Be careful, because working too much, working in a demanding role, or making mistakes while reporting your income can cost you your benefits.

    The experienced disability attorneys at Robertson Wendt Disability have helped thousands of South Carolinians navigate questions like these on their way to securing financial relief.

    Get My Free Consultation! »

     

    How Does Social Security Measure Substantial Gainful Activity?

    If you work while you’re applying for or receiving disability benefits, you need to know about substantial gainful activity.

    This is a limit on how much people can earn from work while qualifying for benefits.

    In 2026, SGA was set at $1,690 per month in earnings for non-blind individuals and $2,830 per month for people with blindness seeking SSDI.

    If you can work and earn more than this, you’re likely to be denied disability benefits. If you’re already receiving Social Security Disability and you start earning more than SGA, your benefits could be paused or stopped.

    Here are some more rules to know about SGA:

    • The Social Security Administration (SSA) looks at gross pay, not take-home pay, when determining if you earn too much.
    • Additional income, like tips, bonuses and the monetary value of benefits provided by your employer, counts toward SGA.
    • Working too many hours can jeopardize your disability claim, even if you don’t exceed SGA.

    Social Security also accounts for other factors, like whether your employer offers you accommodations so you can work, or if you personally incur extra expenses in order to work with a disability.

    Those items can be deducted from your SGA calculation, making it easier to stay under the limit.

    But Social Security also may look at the nature of your work, not just hours, income and expenses. If they decide the kind of work you’re doing is a sign you could work enough to support yourself, they will reject, stop or pause your benefits.

    This is confusing to navigate on your own. Even if you think you understand how it works, you could easily do something that affects your claim for disability benefits or your existing benefits.

    If you have questions about substantial gainful activity and what your paychecks mean for your disability benefits, get a FREE case review from our Charleston disability law firm.

     

    What’s a Trial Work Period for Social Security Disability?

    If you already receive benefits, Social Security gives you a chance to try working without sacrificing them. This is known as a Trial Work Period.

    The Trial Work Period allows SSDI recipients to earn as much as they want, even if it exceeds SGA limits, for up to nine months in a rolling 60-month period.

    For 2026, any month that you earn $1,210 or more, before taxes, counts as a month toward your Trial Work Period.

    Once you’ve worked a total of nine months under a Trial Work Period, you still can have an Extended Period of Eligibility for 36 months.

    This means you hold on to your eligibility for disability benefits, but you don’t receive disability checks in months that your work income goes above SGA.

    If your health problems are still too much, and you have to stop working, you can go back to receiving disability without going through the application process all over again.

    This allows you to check and see if you can return to work.

    Our South Carolina disability attorneys can tell you more about this program and what you can do to protect your benefits when you want to earn income from working.

    How Can a Charleston Disability Lawyer Help?

    Qualifying for Social Security Disability benefits is difficult enough. Trying to work while applying for disability benefits puts you at risk of denial.

    Wanting to return to work when you already receive benefits is admirable, but you need to do it the right way, weighing the money you can make against the possible loss of benefits every month.

    If you’re applying for benefits, you don’t want to get rejected by the SSA outright. If you’re on benefits, you don’t want to unnecessarily risk your monthly checks or health care coverage.

    The lawyers at Robertson Wendt Disability make up one of the most experienced Social Security Disability legal teams in South Carolina.

    Rob Wendt is a board-certified specialist in Social Security Disability law through the National Board of Trial Advocacy, a designation few lawyers have in South Carolina.

    We help people in Charleston, Columbia, Beaufort, Florence and across the state get the benefits that they deserve.

    If you have questions about working while receiving or applying for disability benefits, contact us today.

     

    Skip to content