Georgia NeSmith
2 min readDec 7, 2021

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I don't want to be a "Debbie Downer," but I've been in this place before, and it gives me a sick feeling in my stomach Have you considered how much the money you earn while you are receiving a disability could impact your eligibility for disability?

I don't know what the numbers are now since I'm retired and have social security rather than disability, but I once had to ask an employer for whom I worked (very happily) 20 hours a week to cut my wages from $15/hr to $12/hr because at the time the $15/hour had me earning enough for me to be disqualified from disability. This was back in the early 2010s.

That would have forced me to become homeless.

It didn't just cut the extra money from my disability, my disability would have been gone. PFFFFT! gone. Disability is not like "welfare." The eligibility requirements on your earned income drew the cut-off line under the earned income, because the fact you had that income meant you were no longer disabied.

You could have more income, but it couldn't be income from PAID work above a certain level.

A good income from paid work, regardless of any limitations you might have, proves that your disabilities don't prevent you from earning income.

You could have investments paying you thousands. But if you got income above a certain level, you could lose that disability check.

I don't know if anything has changed. They do raise the limit periodically to account for inflation. But since inflation has been relatively low (at least up to this point), that increase would often amounted to $2-3 for a month.

Please check this out. There should be a Center for Independent Living in your area with people who can advise you on that.

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Georgia NeSmith

Retired professor, feminist, writer, photographer, activist, grandmother of 5, overall Wise Woman. Phd UIA School of Journalism & Mass Communication, 1994.