Social Security is a very important source of income for those who are retired or disabled. If you're receiving benefits, the final thing y'all desire is to somehow jeopardize the money the Social Security Administration (SSA) is sending you.

Unfortunately, in some cases, working while receiving benefits tin can affect your monthly checks. If yous are on disability, earning too much coin could crusade you to lose eligibility entirely. If you're getting retirement benefits, information technology'southward possible some of your checks could exist withheld if your earnings exceed a certain level. Yet, this depends on your age -- and you do get the withheld funds back eventually in almost cases, provided that yous live long enough.

To help you meliorate empathize whether you tin can earn a paycheck without jeopardizing the income Social Security sends to you, bank check out this guide to how much you lot can earn without losing your benefits.

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Image source: Getty Images.

How much tin yous earn without losing Social Security retirement benefits?

The affect of piece of work on your Social Security retirement benefits will vary depending on whether you have reached full retirement age (FRA).

FRA is the historic period at which you lot're entitled to claim full retirement benefits without a reduction due to filing early. Your FRA depends on your birth year, equally the chart below shows. If y'all've already reached it, you tin work as much as you want without affecting your benefits. If you lot're below it, you lot can do some piece of work, but some of your benefits checks could exist withheld if you earn too much.

If You lot Were Built-in in Your FRA Is
1937 or earlier 65
1938 65 and 2 months
1939 65 and four months
1940 65 and 6 months
1941 65 and 8 months
1942 65 and 10 months
1943-1954 66
1955 66 and two months
1956 66 and 4 months
1957 66 and half dozen months
1958 66 and viii months
1959 66 and 10 months
1960 or later 67

Table source: Social Security Administration.

The amount of income you lot can earn before your benefits are withheld volition vary depending on whether you will reach FRA at some point in the twelvemonth y'all're working.

Working in any years earlier you striking FRA

The earliest y'all tin can claim Social Security is 62, simply if you lot were built-in in 1943 or later, the earliest you'll reach FRA is 66. This means you could both work and earn Social Security benefits for as long as four to 5 years before you achieve the year you'll hitting FRA. In whatever of these years, your benefits will be reduced past $1 for every $2 earned above a set income limit.

The amount y'all can earn without affecting benefits changes each year. For 2019, the limit is $17,640. This is the limit that applies to yous if you volition non hit FRA in 2022 but are working and receiving Social Security benefits at the aforementioned time during this yr.

Allow'due south take a expect at how this could affect your benefits, assuming you were scheduled to receive $14,000 in total checks from Social Security in 2022 and that y'all will not hit FRA during the entirety of this year:

  • If y'all piece of work and earn $6,000 throughout the year, you take non hit the $17,640 almanac earnings that would trigger withholding of some of your Social Security benefits. You volition receive your full $14,000 in benefits.
  • If y'all piece of work and earn $35,000, you accept exceeded the $17,640 limit by $17,360. You lose $1 for each $2 earned in excess of the limit, so y'all lose $8,680 of your almanac benefits. Your annual income from Social Security will be reduced to $five,320 (from the total $14,000) because $eight,680 of your benefits will be withheld.
  • If you lot work and earn $fourscore,000, you have exceeded the $17,640 limit by $62,360. Since benefits are reduced by $1 for each $2 earned over the limit, your benefits would have to be reduced by $31,180. This exceeds total annual benefits, then you won't receive any checks from Social Security.

If you have some money withheld from benefits due to working as well much, you get credited for this and eventually get your money back -- provided you live long enough. Nosotros'll discuss how and when your withheld funds come up dorsum to yous below.

Working in the yr you lot hit FRA

If yous hitting FRA during the twelvemonth you work, you can nonetheless have some of your Social Security benefits withheld if yous exceed earnings limits prior to reaching full retirement age.

There'south an income limit again, just information technology's much higher. And you lot have only $i in benefits withheld for every $3 above the limit, not for every $two to a higher place the limit.

For 2019, the income limit before benefits are affected is $46,920. So permit's look at our same examples in which you're receiving $fourteen,000 in annual Social Security income and yous work during the year you hit FRA.

  • If you piece of work and earn $6,000 or $35,000, yous haven't exceeded the $46,920 limit, so you won't have any of your benefits withheld.
  • If you lot work and earn $80,000, you've exceeded the $46,920 limit by $33,080. Benefits are reduced by $i for every $3 above the limit, and then they are reduced by about $11,026.67. All but around $2,973 of your $xiv,000 Social Security benefit will be withheld.
  • If you work and earn $100,000, you've exceeded the $46,920 limit by $53,080. This results in $17,693 beingness withheld, and so you wouldn't get any benefits at all.

Working afterward you hit FRA

You can work as much as you want subsequently y'all hit FRA. It doesn't affair if you make $6,000 or $600,000 -- you'll still become your full monthly Social Security retirement bank check.

What happens if some of your benefits are withheld?

The SSA does not account for the reduction in benefits past making each month'southward bank check smaller throughout the twelvemonth. Instead, the SSA volition not send whatsoever checks until the full amount has been withheld for the year. For the SSA to do this, you are expected to report your projected earnings ahead of time.

If you receive monthly benefits of $1,200 per month and yous're supposed to have $five,800 withheld because of how much yous're working, information technology would have about 4.viii months of having your full $1,200 do good withheld to account for the $5,800. The SSA would circular upward to v months. For the first 5 months of the year, you won't receive benefit checks at all. And so you'd get your full $1,200 in benefits for the remaining seven months.

In this example, the SSA withheld $200 too much from you ($one,200 10 5 months = $6,000). You'd receive the extra $200 dorsum in your check the next year.

When do you go dorsum the withheld money?

The coin withheld from your benefits considering you worked before FRA does not disappear forever. Y'all tin can eventually get information technology back provided yous alive long enough.

When you accept some of your Social Security benefits withheld, the SSA will requite you credit for those months and will recalculate your new higher monthly do good once you hit FRA. Here'due south how this works:

  • When you lot claim benefits earlier FRA, yous're subject to an early on filing penalty of five/nine of 1% per month for each of the first 36 months you file prior to FRA. You're likewise subject to an additional 5/12 of 1% early on filing penalty for each additional month prior to 36 months that you merits benefits before FRA.
  • This penalty is applied to reduce your primary insurance corporeality, which is the standard benefit you'd receive at total retirement age (FRA). Your PIA is based on an average wage earned over the 35-years in your career when your inflation-adjusted income was highest (for more on this, see the Social Security benefits formula).
  • When you hit FRA, if you lot filed early but your benefit check was withheld in some months due to earning as well much, the SSA volition eliminate the early on filing penalty for these months. This causes an increase in your monthly checks.

Permit's look at an example. Say your primary insurance amount at a full retirement age of 67 would exist $1,400 per month -- but you lot claim benefits at 65. During the yr when you're 65 and the yr when you're 66, you work enough that your benefits check is withheld for the showtime five months of each year. In the twelvemonth yous turn 67, you don't have any benefits checks withheld at all.

  • If you merits benefits at 65 instead of 67, that'due south two years or 24 months earlier FRA.
  • You are field of study to a penalty of 5/9 of one% for each of the 24 months before FRA you claimed benefits. Your penalization equals ((5/ix) x .01) x 24 = .133 or xiii.3%.
  • Your PIA of $1,400 would be reduced by 13.3%, so your monthly benefit starting at 65 would be around $1,214.
  • Because y'all worked enough that your benefit was withheld for 10 months, the SSA will recalculate your monthly do good when you hit FRA to give you credit for those ten months. Instead of an early filing penalty being applied for 24 months, it will exist practical only for xiv months.
  • Your PIA will no longer be reduced by 13.3% due to early filing. Instead, it volition be reduced past ((v/ix) x .01) x 14 = .078 or 7.8%. Your new PIA would be well-nigh $1,291.

Since your PIA is adjusted upward by just $77 per month, it will have you awhile to make upwards for 10 months of having $1,400 benefits withheld ($i,400 x ten months of missed benefits divided past $77 extra per month). In fact, information technology will take you just over xv years to get dorsum the benefits you didn't receive due to working while receiving Social Security income.

Working could sometimes raise your benefit

There'southward one other caveat to consider. Call up, your Social Security do good is based on your highest 35 years of earnings. If you work after you lot start getting Social Security benefits and the salary you earn is higher than your income in some earlier years, yous could replace a twelvemonth of low earnings with a yr of high earnings. This could enhance the do good you lot're entitled to.

Likewise, if you worked less than 35 years earlier claiming Social Security benefits, you could also increment your main insurance amount past working longer. When you don't work a full 35 years, the SSA factors in years of $0s when determining your monthly benefits. You could eliminate some of these $0 wage years by working even after y'all begin receiving Social Security retirement checks.

This guide to how your work history affects Social Security benefits provides more than insight into how working could increase your monthly income then you'll know if this applies to you.

How much can you earn without losing Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits?

Social Security Disability Insurance is an earned benefit for which you get eligible if yous work long enough to earn sufficient work credits prior to the time your disability stops you lot from working. Y'all can learn more than most SSDI benefits and eligibility in our guide, but the important thing to know hither is that you lot can get SSDI benefits fifty-fifty if y'all have substantial avails and if your household income is loftier.

Nonetheless, since SSDI is intended to support those who are too ill or injured to work, benefits can terminate if you become able to earn income through work (rather than from other sources such equally investments or gifts from family).

SSDI does desire to encourage yous to attempt returning to the workforce, though -- so your monthly benefits won't be affected right away if you offset earning income. Instead, you take the opportunity to continue receiving your full SSDI checks during a trial work period. Here's how this works:

  • You lot're allowed to piece of work for upwardly to ix cumulative months within whatsoever 60-month period while receiving full SSDI benefits. A month counts equally 1 of your nine work months if earnings from piece of work or net self-employment turn a profit exceed a certain threshold ($880 in 2019) or if yous piece of work more than 80 hours per month at your ain business. You tin deduct business expenses and certain expenses associated with working while disabled in determining if yous've cleared the income threshold.
  • Once y'all've worked nine months in a rolling 60-calendar month period, you lot'll continue to receive total SSDI benefits during whatever calendar month over the post-obit 36 months when you don't accept substantial earnings. Substantial earnings are also defined as earning above a set income, which in 2022 is $1,220 (or $2,040 if you're bullheaded).

If you're working while receiving SSDI benefits, you're besides eligible for expedited reinstatement benefits inside 5 years. If your status worsens and you get unable to continue earning income from a job or self-employment, expedited reinstatement ensures y'all tin can asking that your SSDI benefits restart without having to complete a full and lengthy disability awarding process again.

How much can you earn without losing Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits?

Supplemental Security Income, or SSI, too provides benefits to disabled individuals likewise as to seniors over 65.

SSI is not an earned benefits program, unlike SSDI. Eligibility is not dependent on working and earning piece of work credits as you pay Social Security taxes but instead is based on fiscal need. If you have a low household income and less than $two,000 in private countable avails or $3,000 in countable assets as a couple, you lot tin can become eligible for these benefits.

Considering SSI benefits are for lower-income recipients, yous will lose admission to these benefits if you have too much coin coming in from any other sources. In fact, you lot tin lose eligibility for SSI if you have earned income (such every bit income from work) or if you have unearned income including:

  • Social Security retirement benefits
  • Pension income
  • Money from state inability programs
  • Unemployment benefits
  • Income from involvement or dividends

Yous can also lose admission to SSI if you have accounted income, which is income from other people who yous live with or from the person who sponsored you if you are an alien. And if you become nutrient or shelter for free, this is even considered a type of income, chosen in-kind income, that can affect access to benefits.

How much earned income tin can you accept without losing SSI?

When you lot take earned income, y'all lose a portion of the monthly benefits you lot receive from SSI. Eventually, your earned income can grow so high that you lose your unabridged do good. But non all earned income counts.

The SSA excludes certain income from counting when determining your earned income level. Information technology excludes:

  • The outset $20 of all income earned (so if you only have earned income, this would come off your earned income total. But it could besides come off unearned, deemed, or in-kind income, in which instance it wouldn't reduce your earned income.)
  • The offset $65 of monthly earned income
  • Income that is being used to pursue a plan of cocky-support by someone who is disabled or blind or income that is gear up aside for such a plan
  • The kickoff $xxx of infrequent income per quarter

Yous are also able to deduct any work expenses related to impairment. And only 1-half of your earned income counts in determining how much your benefits are reduced.

So, for example, say it'due south 2022 and y'all earn $1,627 per month in earned income with no other income sources.

  • Yous'll subtract $85 from the $ane,627 ($xx + $65), which will leave yous with $1,542.
  • Simply one-half of this income counts, then you'd have $771 in earned income.
  • For 2019, $771 happens to be the monthly maximum federal benefit -- chosen the federal benefit limit -- for an individual receiving SSI.
  • In this example, your benefit is reduced to $0.

So, for 2019, you can earn up to $1,627 in earned income and get at least some SSI benefits. Once you hitting the federal benefit limit, all the same, your SSI do good ends.

How much unearned income can you accept without losing SSI?

You'll also lose your benefits if you have also much unearned income. And all your unearned income counts, equally opposed to just half your earned income.

This means yous will lose your SSI benefits equally soon as your unearned income hits $791 per month in 2019. You become ineligible with $791 in income -- rather than when you lot hit the federal benefits limit of $771 -- because of the rule allowing you to subtract the first $20 of income from any source.

How much deemed income or in-kind income can you accept without losing SSI?

While the SSA considers both deemed and in-kind income in determining whether y'all remain eligible for SSI benefits, neither of these types of income are money you earn in a traditional sense.

Recall, deemed income is money your spouse earns (or coin your parents earn if yous're a disabled kid under xviii), while in-kind income is financial assist that comes from friends and family unit, such as help paying rent.

Since these types of "income" aren't traditional earnings, nosotros won't go into bully detail in this guide nigh how much in-kind or deemed income you can have without losing Social Security benefits. The SSA will assist yous to make up one's mind if any income is beingness deemed to you lot and in what amount and volition besides provide advice on whether in-kind income affects your benefits. The main thing to recall is that you must report your spouse's income and any financial gifts or contributions you receive.

If you are concerned you lot will be subject area to a reduction in benefits or a loss of benefits because of deemed income or in-kind income, the SSA has a multistep guide to make up one's mind the amount of deemed income that can be attributed to you, every bit well as a guide to in-kind income. The rules are complicated, though, so don't worry -- the SSA volition assist you sympathise how this type of financial aid tin affect your SSI checks.

Now yous know how earnings affect Social Security benefits

Earning coin will affect your Social security benefits in different ways depending on whether you are receiving Social Security retirement benefits, inability insurance benefits, or Supplemental Security income. Knowing the rules for your particular program volition help yous determine if it's a good thought to get a job and will help yous plan for how whatever money yous earn could affect the benefits you receive.