The SGA limit doesn't apply to people already receiving SSI disability, but an SSI income limit does. Your SSI payment will shrink based on a formula applied to your earnings.
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You can work some hours every week without losing your SSI (Supplemental Security Income) benefits. Unlike SSDI, SSI uses an income-based formula rather than the substantial gainful activity (SGA) limit to determine how much you'll receive each month. (While you need to show that you’re unable to earn the SGA amount before you’re awarded disability benefits, Social Security won't cut off your SSI benefits if you start earning over the SGA limit after you begin receiving benefits. In 2026, the SGA limit is $1,690 per month.)
But that doesn't mean that you can earn an unlimited amount of income and continue to receive benefits. The income limit (which depends on your state) isn't too much higher than the SGA amount. Read on to learn exactly how the SSI income formula works and what you need to report to Social Security to avoid overpayments.
What Happens If I Go Over SGA While on SSI?
Again, it's not the SGA limit that matters, but SSI's income limit after Social Security excludes some income. Social Security will periodically review your earnings, resources, and living situation in a process called redetermination. After the agency confirms that you still meet the income and resource limits for SSI, Social Security will deduct some of your income (in other words, not count it) as a work incentive. Broadly speaking, Social Security reduces the amount of your monthly SSI benefit by about half of the amount of your monthly income.
More specifically, the agency excludes the first $65 of earned income (wages) and $20 of any income, earned or unearned, for a total of $85 per month. After these deductions, Social Security counts half of any remaining earned income towards the income limit.
Social Security won’t count any money you spend on impairment-related work expenses as part of your income. Impairment-related work expenses are reasonable costs related to your disability that allow you to work (and that aren’t being already reimbursed). For example, if you need to pay somebody to drive you to work because your disability prevents you from taking public transportation, Social Security will subtract that expense from your total income.
One exception is for blind SSI recipients, who don't need to show that their work expenses are related to their blindness. They can deduct work expenses like lunch money and union dues from their income.
How Much Can I Make Without Losing SSI?
Your SSI payments will be reduced any month in which you make more than $85, but you can make about $2,073 per month before your SSI gets reduced to nothing (that’s because $2,073 minus $85 divided by 2 is $994, the SSI income limit for 2026).
Social Security has more generous rules about how it counts income for people under age 22 who are regularly attending school. If you are under 22 and are attending school or in a training course, you can exclude up to $2,410 of earned income per month, up to a maximum yearly amount of $9,730 (in 2026).
How Does Earning SGA Affect the Trial Work Period?
The trial work period only applies to people receiving SSDI benefits. Social Security has various work incentives for people receiving disability benefits who want to get back into the labor market. For people receiving Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), this includes the trial work period, a term of nine months where you’re able to work above the SGA limit while continuing to receive your full SSDI benefits. After you’ve earned above SGA for more than nine months, Social Security will then place you on an “extended period of eligibility” that lasts for 36 months. During this time, the agency will review your eligibility for benefits on a monthly basis. If you make over the SGA limit in any particular month, you won’t receive SSDI for that month, but if your earnings dip below the SGA limit in the following month, you can receive that month’s SSDI payment.
What Is the PASS Program?
While people receiving SSI can’t take advantage of the trial work period, they can participate in the Plan to Achieve Self-Support (“PASS”) Program. During a PASS program, Social Security doesn’t count any money you earn that you use towards an employment goal that will eventually let you support yourself without SSI. For example, somebody earning $300 per month as a dishwasher who is using that money to pay for cooking school could still receive the full $994 benefit from SSI.
For more information on the PASS program as well as other Social Security incentives to get SSI recipients with disabilities back to work, see our article on SSI work incentives.
Will I Lose Medicaid if My SSI Cash Benefits Stop?
If your SSI benefits are zeroed out because you earn too much money from working, you are probably worried about losing Medicaid.
Section 1619(b) of the Social Security Act lets SSI recipients keep their Medicaid coverage even after their earnings become too high for an SSI cash payment. To qualify, you must still meet SSA's disability and other non-disability SSI criteria, need Medicaid to keep working, and have gross earnings too low to replace SSI, Medicaid, and any publicly funded attendant care.
SSA uses a state-specific earnings threshold to determine your 1619(b) eligibility. If your earnings stay below that threshold, you can keep Medicaid even without an SSI cash payment. These thresholds vary by state based on average Medicaid costs; for 2026, California's threshold is $66,078 and Texas's is $53,165. If you earn above that amount, you'll lose your Medicaid coverage. If you have certain extra expenses (like disability-related work costs or a PASS plan), SSA can set an even higher individualized threshold for you.
Read more about getting Medicaid when you're on SSI.
