A reader writes in, asking:

"Tin you lot recommend an book/writer that tin help me learn nigh Social Security inability benefits for my adult disabled child? In detail, I would like to know how much he can earn earlier it impacts what he may receive from my SS retirement benefit."

The definition of disability for adult disabled kid cases is the aforementioned as for cases in which a person is receiving a disability benefit on their own piece of work record.

Y'all can find the inability-related chapters of the SSA'southward POMS here. (The POMS is essentially the SSA's comprehensive internal manual.)

To initially qualify equally disabled, a person must be unable to engage in "substantial gainful activity." For 2020, the threshold for substantial gainful activity is $1,260/month (or $2,110/month for a person who is blind).

However, once a person has already qualified every bit disabled, there is a different (lower) earnings threshold that becomes relevant. If a disabled person's earnings in a given month exceed a certain threshold ($910 in 2020), it triggers a "trial work menstruation." A person'south disability do good will not exist terminated due to their earnings during the trial work period. If a person has 9 months of earnings above that threshold ($910 in 2020) during any rolling 60-month window, the trial work period ends, and then the following rules kick in, to determine whether their disability benefit really gets terminated. (Of annotation: the ix months don't take to exist consecutive.)

After a person's trial work period ends, they aren't necessarily permanently considered no-longer-disabled. Rather, later the trial work period, the person enters a 36-month "re-entitlement flow." (The rules for this period are sometimes referred to as the "extended period of eligibility" rules.) During this re-entitlement period, the outset fourth dimension that the person'southward earnings exceed the substantial gainful activity threshold ($one,260 in 2020), it triggers their "grace menses." This grace menstruum lasts three months (the first month with excess earnings and the following two months). During the grace period, the person will continue to receive their benefit, regardless of earnings level. After the three-month grace period though, for the residuum of the re-entitlement period, the person'due south benefit is determined month-by-month. (If their earnings exceed the SGA threshold, they get no benefit. If their earnings are below the threshold, they get a do good.)

Later the 36-month re-entitlement menstruation ends, the person'due south benefit is permanently terminated in the showtime month in which they earn more than the SGA threshold.

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