Does my continues employment affect my SSDI amount?

[SweetSunflower]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? New Mexico

Hello and thank you for looking at my question. I have searched online for this answer but perhaps I'm not wording my question correctly. I have been receiving SSDI for Multiple Sclerosis since December 2010. Even at my ALJ hearing, my attorney said he's never had anyone with such a consistent work history be approved but the judge approved me on the spot, primarily as my employer presented a statement to the ALJ judge detailing the accommodations that she decided on her own to provide for me and the judge understood many employers would not be able/willing to do the same I've worked since that time with the exception of most of 2011.

On to my question. I have never made an amount per month that would put me over the allowable SGA. I'm wondering if my SSDI and/or retirement would ever be adjusted based on my current work history or is it forever based on where it was at the time which I was declared disabled? I'm totally fine if it's not; this is simply a question for which I'm unable to find an answer online. If necessary, I will contact SSA but having recently waited on hold for 80 minutes to request a new Medicare card, I thought I'd check here first.

Thank you very much for any assistance y'all can offer.

Ami

 

[OHRoadwarrior]

Not adjusted unless you go over the SGE amount. Endangered, possibly. You have been consistently working and collecting SSDI, showing that you have the potential for review every year.

 

[SweetSunflower]

Thank you for the information in your reply.

Endangered, possibly.

What, exactly, did you mean by this? I did two yearly reviews and the third year, I received a letter from the SSA which stated that they felt no need to continue.

Thank you again.

 

[justalayman]

I believe OHRoadwarrior has misinterpreted your question. While I do not have an answer, I think I understand the question so let me try to restate it.



your SSDI is based on previous earnings. You are asking that since you are currently working (within the allowances) do the taxes paid from those earnings result in an increase in the calculated benefit or is it fixed forevermore regardless of the additional recorded earnings.




I think thats what you mean and hopefully it will make sense.

 

[LdiJ]

I believe OHRoadwarrior has misinterpreted your question. While I do not have an answer, I think I understand the question so let me try to restate it.



your SSDI is based on previous earnings. You are asking that since you are currently working (within the allowances) do the taxes paid from those earnings result in an increase in the calculated benefit or is it fixed forevermore regardless of the additional recorded earnings.




I think thats what you mean and hopefully it will make sense.

I can partially answer the question. I do not know if it will impact SSDI, but I do know that it will impact regular retirement benefits once the OP switches from SSDI to regular retirement.

 

[Onderzoek]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? New Mexico

Hello and thank you for looking at my question. I have searched online for this answer but perhaps I'm not wording my question correctly. I have been receiving SSDI for Multiple Sclerosis since December 2010. Even at my ALJ hearing, my attorney said he's never had anyone with such a consistent work history be approved but the judge approved me on the spot, primarily as my employer presented a statement to the ALJ judge detailing the accommodations that she decided on her own to provide for me and the judge understood many employers would not be able/willing to do the same I've worked since that time with the exception of most of 2011.

On to my question. I have never made an amount per month that would put me over the allowable SGA. I'm wondering if my SSDI and/or retirement would ever be adjusted based on my current work history or is it forever based on where it was at the time which I was declared disabled? I'm totally fine if it's not; this is simply a question for which I'm unable to find an answer online. If necessary, I will contact SSA but having recently waited on hold for 80 minutes to request a new Medicare card, I thought I'd check here first.

Thank you very much for any assistance y'all can offer.

Ami

Short answer is it depends and maybe or maybe not.

When you received your original award in 2010, SSA used your wages and self-employment earnings posted to your earnings record through the date of onset of disability. For retirement, 40 years are used; for disability, the period is shortened and fewer years are used. This is the AIME comp for the PIA. You could look that up on the web site. AIME, Average Indexed Monthly Earnings. All the earnings are converted to today's dollars. The lowest 5 (fewer if you are younger) are eliminated. The rest are added up and divided by the number of years and then divided by 12 to determine the average amount of money you made in your working years per month. That number is used to compute your PIA according to another complex formula involving bend points and percentages.

SOOOOOOOOOO, if you work after entitlement, what matters is did you earn more after entitlement than was used in your AIME comp (in today's dollars). A person who literally worked all their life and was paid well for it will probably not make more money when they become too disabled to work. A person who took a lot of years out of the work force, or worked in non-covered employment, or who worked for cash and paid no FICA or made very little may actually make enough after entitlement in a new job. Or not.

Once the earnings are known, the system does an automatic recomputation (AERO), generally at the end of the year after the work was done, and the system determines whether or not these new wages make any difference.

Substituting a new annual earnings amount of $40,000 for an earlier year in which the earnings were $38,000 might make a few pennies difference, especially for an older person with many more years to average. But for someone who has a lot of zero years or a lot of low years, the $40,000 may be very significant and result in a higher PIA. Impossible to say without all the dollars and a program to convert to today's dollars and do the math.

Final answer; it depends.

 

[SweetSunflower]

your SSDI is based on previous earnings. You are asking that since you are currently working (within the allowances) do the taxes paid from those earnings result in an increase in the calculated benefit or is it fixed forevermore regardless of the additional recorded earnings.

I think thats what you mean and hopefully it will make sense.

JaL, you nailed it. Thank you for that clarification

 

[SweetSunflower]

I can partially answer the question. I do not know if it will impact SSDI, but I do know that it will impact regular retirement benefits once the OP switches from SSDI to regular retirement.

Good to know, thank you for taking the time to help LdiJ!

 

[SweetSunflower]

Short answer is it depends and maybe or maybe not.

When you received your original award in 2010, SSA used your wages and self-employment earnings posted to your earnings record through the date of onset of disability. For retirement, 40 years are used; for disability, the period is shortened and fewer years are used. This is the AIME comp for the PIA. You could look that up on the web site. AIME, Average Indexed Monthly Earnings. All the earnings are converted to today's dollars. The lowest 5 (fewer if you are younger) are eliminated. The rest are added up and divided by the number of years and then divided by 12 to determine the average amount of money you made in your working years per month. That number is used to compute your PIA according to another complex formula involving bend points and percentages.

SOOOOOOOOOO, if you work after entitlement, what matters is did you earn more after entitlement than was used in your AIME comp (in today's dollars). A person who literally worked all their life and was paid well for it will probably not make more money when they become too disabled to work. A person who took a lot of years out of the work force, or worked in non-covered employment, or who worked for cash and paid no FICA or made very little may actually make enough after entitlement in a new job. Or not.

Once the earnings are known, the system does an automatic recomputation (AERO), generally at the end of the year after the work was done, and the system determines whether or not these new wages make any difference.

Substituting a new annual earnings amount of $40,000 for an earlier year in which the earnings were $38,000 might make a few pennies difference, especially for an older person with many more years to average. But for someone who has a lot of zero years or a lot of low years, the $40,000 may be very significant and result in a higher PIA. Impossible to say without all the dollars and a program to convert to today's dollars and do the math.

Final answer; it depends.

Oh, goodness. Thank you so much for this helpful information, Onderzoek!

I will need to read it a few more times and after I have had enough coffee to understand it more fully. I have been searching, to no avail, for the answer to this one for a while. Apparently, I was completely clueless as to what to correctly search. It seems that TheGoogle can only read my mind to a certain point!

I want to thank all y'all for helping me figure this out, the contributors' here are an incredibly knowledgeable and helpful resource for information and this site has been my go-to for years and has helped immensely. I have indeed, read and learned. It's very much appreciated, thanks again and happy new year!