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

Unfortunately, in some cases, working while receiving benefits can affect your monthly checks. If you are on disability, earning too much coin could cause you to lose eligibility entirely. If yous're getting retirement benefits, information technology's possible some of your checks could exist withheld if your earnings exceed a certain level. All the same, this depends on your historic period -- and you lot do go the withheld funds back eventually in well-nigh cases, provided that you live long enough.

To help yous better understand whether you can earn a paycheck without jeopardizing the income Social Security sends to you lot, check out this guide to how much y'all can earn without losing your benefits.

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How much can you lot earn without losing Social Security retirement benefits?

The bear upon of work on your Social Security retirement benefits will vary depending on whether you have reached full retirement historic period (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 you've already reached it, you can piece of work as much as y'all want without affecting your benefits. If you're beneath information technology, you tin can exercise some work, but some of your benefits checks could exist withheld if you earn also much.

If You Were Born in Your FRA Is
1937 or earlier 65
1938 65 and ii months
1939 65 and 4 months
1940 65 and six months
1941 65 and 8 months
1942 65 and 10 months
1943-1954 66
1955 66 and 2 months
1956 66 and 4 months
1957 66 and 6 months
1958 66 and 8 months
1959 66 and 10 months
1960 or later 67

Tabular array source: Social Security Administration.

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

Working in any years earlier you hit FRA

The earliest you can merits Social Security is 62, but if you lot were born in 1943 or later on, the earliest you'll attain FRA is 66. This ways you could both work and earn Social Security benefits for as long equally 4 to 5 years before you lot reach the twelvemonth you lot'll hit FRA. In any of these years, your benefits will exist reduced by $one for every $two earned above a set income limit.

The amount you tin earn without affecting benefits changes each yr. For 2019, the limit is $17,640. This is the limit that applies to yous if you will not hit FRA in 2022 but are working and receiving Social Security benefits at the same fourth dimension during this year.

Let'southward take a await at how this could touch on your benefits, assuming you were scheduled to receive $14,000 in total checks from Social Security in 2022 and that you will not hit FRA during the entirety of this year:

  • If you work and earn $6,000 throughout the yr, you have non hit the $17,640 almanac earnings that would trigger withholding of some of your Social Security benefits. You will receive your total $fourteen,000 in benefits.
  • If you lot work and earn $35,000, you take exceeded the $17,640 limit by $17,360. You lose $1 for each $2 earned in backlog of the limit, then y'all lose $8,680 of your annual benefits. Your annual income from Social Security will be reduced to $v,320 (from the total $14,000) because $8,680 of your benefits will be withheld.
  • If you piece of work and earn $80,000, you take exceeded the $17,640 limit by $62,360. Since benefits are reduced by $1 for each $2 earned over the limit, your benefits would take to be reduced by $31,180. This exceeds total annual benefits, then you won't receive whatsoever checks from Social Security.

If you take some money withheld from benefits due to working likewise much, you get credited for this and eventually get your money dorsum -- provided yous live long enough. We'll discuss how and when your withheld funds come dorsum to you below.

Working in the year yous hit FRA

If you striking FRA during the year you work, y'all tin still take some of your Social Security benefits withheld if you exceed earnings limits prior to reaching full retirement age.

There's an income limit over again, but information technology's much higher. And you have just $ane in benefits withheld for every $3 above the limit, not for every $ii to a higher place the limit.

For 2019, the income limit before benefits are afflicted is $46,920. Then let's expect at our aforementioned examples in which you lot're receiving $14,000 in annual Social Security income and you lot work during the twelvemonth you hit FRA.

  • If you work and earn $6,000 or $35,000, you haven't exceeded the $46,920 limit, and then you won't have any of your benefits withheld.
  • If y'all work and earn $eighty,000, you've exceeded the $46,920 limit by $33,080. Benefits are reduced by $ane for every $3 in a higher place the limit, and so they are reduced by well-nigh $eleven,026.67. All but around $2,973 of your $14,000 Social Security benefit will exist withheld.
  • If you lot piece of work and earn $100,000, you've exceeded the $46,920 limit by $53,080. This results in $17,693 being withheld, then you wouldn't become any benefits at all.

Working after you hitting FRA

You tin work as much as you desire after you hit FRA. Information technology doesn't thing if you make $half dozen,000 or $600,000 -- y'all'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 by making each month'due south check smaller throughout the year. Instead, the SSA will not send whatever checks until the full amount has been withheld for the twelvemonth. For the SSA to do this, you are expected to written report your projected earnings ahead of time.

If you receive monthly benefits of $ane,200 per calendar month and you're supposed to take $5,800 withheld because of how much you're working, it would accept about four.8 months of having your full $1,200 benefit withheld to business relationship for the $five,800. The SSA would round up to five months. For the first five months of the year, you won't receive do good checks at all. Then you'd get your full $1,200 in benefits for the remaining seven months.

In this example, the SSA withheld $200 too much from you ($i,200 ten five months = $half dozen,000). Yous'd receive the extra $200 dorsum in your check the side by side year.

When do yous get back the withheld money?

The coin withheld from your benefits considering you worked before FRA does not disappear forever. You can eventually become it back provided you live long enough.

When y'all take some of your Social Security benefits withheld, the SSA volition give you credit for those months and will recalculate your new higher monthly benefit one time you hit FRA. Here's how this works:

  • When yous merits benefits before FRA, you're bailiwick to an early on filing penalty of 5/ix of 1% per calendar month for each of the kickoff 36 months you file prior to FRA. You lot're also discipline to an additional 5/12 of i% early on filing penalisation for each additional month prior to 36 months that y'all claim benefits before FRA.
  • This penalty is applied to reduce your main insurance corporeality, which is the standard benefit y'all'd receive at full retirement age (FRA). Your PIA is based on an boilerplate wage earned over the 35-years in your career when your aggrandizement-adjusted income was highest (for more than on this, meet the Social Security benefits formula).
  • When you hit FRA, if you filed early on simply your benefit check was withheld in some months due to earning too much, the SSA will eliminate the early filing penalty for these months. This causes an increase in your monthly checks.

Allow's look at an instance. Say your primary insurance amount at a total retirement historic period of 67 would be $1,400 per month -- but you claim benefits at 65. During the year when you're 65 and the year when yous're 66, y'all work enough that your benefits bank check is withheld for the first five months of each year. In the year y'all turn 67, you don't have whatsoever benefits checks withheld at all.

  • If you claim benefits at 65 instead of 67, that's 2 years or 24 months earlier FRA.
  • Yous are bailiwick to a punishment of 5/nine of 1% for each of the 24 months before FRA you claimed benefits. Your penalty equals ((five/9) x .01) 10 24 = .133 or xiii.3%.
  • Your PIA of $one,400 would be reduced by 13.3%, so your monthly benefit starting at 65 would exist effectually $1,214.
  • Considering you worked enough that your benefit was withheld for 10 months, the SSA volition recalculate your monthly benefit when you striking FRA to give you credit for those 10 months. Instead of an early filing penalty existence applied for 24 months, it will be applied only for 14 months.
  • Your PIA will no longer exist reduced past xiii.3% due to early filing. Instead, it will be reduced by ((5/9) x .01) ten 14 = .078 or 7.eight%. Your new PIA would be nearly $1,291.

Since your PIA is adjusted upward by but $77 per month, information technology will have y'all awhile to brand upwards for 10 months of having $1,400 benefits withheld ($i,400 10 ten months of missed benefits divided by $77 extra per month). In fact, it will take you lot just over 15 years to get back the benefits you didn't receive due to working while receiving Social Security income.

Working could sometimes raise your benefit

There'due south ane other caveat to consider. Remember, your Social Security do good is based on your highest 35 years of earnings. If you work later on you start getting Social Security benefits and the salary y'all earn is college than your income in some before years, you could replace a yr of low earnings with a year of high earnings. This could raise the benefit y'all're entitled to.

As well, if you worked less than 35 years before claiming Social Security benefits, you could also increase your primary insurance corporeality by working longer. When yous 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 past working even afterward you begin receiving Social Security retirement checks.

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

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

Social Security Disability Insurance is an earned benefit for which you become eligible if you work long enough to earn sufficient work credits prior to the fourth dimension your inability stops you from working. Yous tin learn more nearly SSDI benefits and eligibility in our guide, but the of import matter to know here is that you can become SSDI benefits even if you have substantial assets and if your household income is loftier.

However, since SSDI is intended to support those who are besides ill or injured to piece of work, benefits can stop if you lot become able to earn income through work (rather than from other sources such as investments or gifts from family).

SSDI does want to encourage you to endeavour returning to the workforce, though -- so your monthly benefits won't be affected right away if you kickoff earning income. Instead, you have the opportunity to proceed receiving your full SSDI checks during a trial piece of work period. Here's how this works:

  • You're allowed to work for up to nine cumulative months within any 60-month flow while receiving full SSDI benefits. A calendar month counts every bit one of your 9 work months if earnings from work or cyberspace self-employment turn a profit exceed a certain threshold ($880 in 2019) or if you work more than lxxx hours per month at your ain business. You can deduct business concern expenses and sure expenses associated with working while disabled in determining if you lot've cleared the income threshold.
  • Once you've worked ix months in a rolling lx-month menstruum, you'll keep to receive total SSDI benefits during whatsoever month over the following 36 months when you don't accept substantial earnings. Substantial earnings are also defined as earning above a ready income, which in 2022 is $1,220 (or $2,040 if you're bullheaded).

If you're working while receiving SSDI benefits, you're also eligible for expedited reinstatement benefits inside five years. If your condition worsens and you become unable to continue earning income from a job or self-employment, expedited reinstatement ensures you tin request that your SSDI benefits restart without having to complete a full and lengthy inability awarding process over again.

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

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

SSI is not an earned benefits programme, unlike SSDI. Eligibility is not dependent on working and earning piece of work credits equally you pay Social Security taxes but instead is based on financial need. If you have a low household income and less than $two,000 in individual countable assets or $three,000 in countable assets as a couple, y'all can get eligible for these benefits.

Because SSI benefits are for lower-income recipients, you will lose access to these benefits if you have also much money coming in from any other sources. In fact, you can lose eligibility for SSI if you have earned income (such as income from work) or if y'all have unearned income including:

  • Social Security retirement benefits
  • Alimony income
  • Coin from country disability programs
  • Unemployment benefits
  • Income from interest or dividends

You can besides lose access to SSI if you take deemed income, which is income from other people who yous live with or from the person who sponsored y'all if you are an alien. And if you get food or shelter for gratis, this is even considered a type of income, called in-kind income, that tin can affect admission to benefits.

How much earned income can y'all have without losing SSI?

When you accept earned income, you lose a portion of the monthly benefits yous receive from SSI. Eventually, your earned income tin can grow so high that you lose your unabridged benefit. But not all earned income counts.

The SSA excludes sure income from counting when determining your earned income level. It excludes:

  • The first $20 of all income earned (and then if you merely have earned income, this would come off your earned income total. But it could also come up off unearned, deemed, or in-kind income, in which case information technology wouldn't reduce your earned income.)
  • The first $65 of monthly earned income
  • Income that is being used to pursue a plan of self-support by someone who is disabled or bullheaded or income that is set up aside for such a plan
  • The first $xxx of infrequent income per quarter

Y'all are also able to deduct any piece of work expenses related to harm. And only one-half of your earned income counts in determining how much your benefits are reduced.

So, for example, say information technology'south 2022 and you earn $ane,627 per month in earned income with no other income sources.

  • Y'all'll subtract $85 from the $1,627 ($20 + $65), which volition exit you with $1,542.
  • Merely half of this income counts, and so yous'd have $771 in earned income.
  • For 2019, $771 happens to be the monthly maximum federal benefit -- called the federal do good limit -- for an individual receiving SSI.
  • In this example, your benefit is reduced to $0.

And so, for 2019, yous tin earn upward to $1,627 in earned income and get at least some SSI benefits. Once you lot hit the federal benefit limit, however, your SSI benefit ends.

How much unearned income tin can y'all accept without losing SSI?

You'll likewise lose your benefits if you accept also much unearned income. And all your unearned income counts, as opposed to only half your earned income.

This ways you will lose your SSI benefits as soon as your unearned income hits $791 per calendar month in 2019. You become ineligible with $791 in income -- rather than when you hit the federal benefits limit of $771 -- because of the rule assuasive you to decrease the get-go $20 of income from any source.

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

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

Remember, deemed income is money your spouse earns (or money your parents earn if you lot're a disabled child under eighteen), while in-kind income is financial assistance that comes from friends and family unit, such equally help paying hire.

Since these types of "income" aren't traditional earnings, we won't go into great detail in this guide about how much in-kind or accounted income you lot can have without losing Social Security benefits. The SSA will assist y'all to determine if any income is being accounted to you and in what corporeality and will also provide communication on whether in-kind income affects your benefits. The main thing to retrieve is that you must study your spouse's income and any financial gifts or contributions yous receive.

If you are concerned you lot volition exist subject field 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 decide the amount of deemed income that can be attributed to you, too equally a guide to in-kind income. The rules are complicated, though, so don't worry -- the SSA will help you understand how this type of financial assist can affect your SSI checks.

Now you know how earnings affect Social Security benefits

Earning coin will affect your Social security benefits in different ways depending on whether yous are receiving Social Security retirement benefits, disability insurance benefits, or Supplemental Security income. Knowing the rules for your item program will help y'all determine if information technology's a skilful idea to become a chore and will help you plan for how whatever money yous earn could affect the benefits y'all receive.