SLEDGE: Can I work and receive disability?

Q: I am receiving Social Security disability benefits. Will my benefits be affected if I work and earn money?

A: Social Security has special rules called “work incentives” that help you keep your cash benefits and Medicare while you test your ability to work. For example, there is a trial work period during which you can receive full benefits regardless of how much you earn, as long as you report your work activity and continue to have a disabling impairment.

The trial work period continues until you accumulate nine months (not necessarily consecutive) in which you perform what we call “services” within a rolling 60-month period. We consider your work to be “services” if you earn more than $700 a month in 2009. For 2008, this amount was $670.

After the trial work period ends, your benefits will stop for months your earnings are at a level we consider “substantial,” currently $980 in 2009. For 2008, this amount was $940. Different amounts apply to people who are disabled because of blindness. The monthly substantial amount for statutorily blind individuals for 2009 is $1,640; for 2008 this amount was $1,570.

For an additional 36 months after completing the trial work period, Social Security can start your benefits again if your earnings fall below the “substantial” level and you continue to have a disabling impairment. For more information about work incentives, read the leaflet, Working While Disabled-How We Can Help (SSA Publication No.  05-10095) available at http://www.socialsecurity.gov. 

Social Security to test Microsoft HealthVault in disability process

The Social Security Administration has entered into an agreement with Microsoft to test the use of Microsoft’s Healthvault application in the disability process. HealthVault is a free online service that enables people to gather, store and manage their families’ health information and share that information with their physicians and healthcare providers. These “personal health records” contain the same types of information that Social Security generally obtains from people applying for disability benefits.

Social Security and Microsoft are developing a technical prototype connecting the two organizations that will be available later this year. The agency also will collaborate with Microsoft to study current personal health record standards, gaps in those standards and options for filling those gaps.