CAN YOU LOSE YOUR DISABILITY BENEFITS?

You could lose your Social Security disability benefits. Here are some things that can cause you to lose your benefits.

1. You go back to work. Wages are automatically reported to Social Security and when you reach the level of "Substantial Gainful Activity," ($1,310 per month in 2021), Social Security will eventually terminate your benefit. It probably won't be immediately, so if you keep working, you may owe a refund to Social Security by the time they stop your check.

2. You have a continuing eligibility review (CER) and are found to have made "significant medical improvement," so you are no longer disabled. Social Security reviews most beneficiaries every 3 to 5 years to determine if they are still disabled. If not, benefits can be terminated. Your best protection is to keep seeing your doctors and follow medical treatment. And don't ignore notices you get about a review. Respond to them. Many beneficiaries get terminated just because they don't respond to notices about reviews.

3. You reach full retirement age. Your check actually will not stop at full retirement age; however, it converts to a retirement benefit. The amount doesn't change. Your payments will now come from the Disability Trust Fund, not the Retirement Trust Fund.

The Social Security Administration takes great care to be sure no beneficiary is working at SGA level and receiving a disability benefit at the same time. It is always a good idea to report your earnings (including self-employment earnings) to Social Security--especially if you regularly earn in the neighborhood of $1,300 per month (gross). While you are technically allowed to work part-time to supplement your SSDI benefits, you cannot bump that $1,310 per month limit. When that happens, Social Security will find that you are gainfully employed and no longer eligible for a disability benefit. Simply stopping work may not solve your problem at that point.