Is the Earned Income Limit $880 for SSDI? Understanding SGA Thresholds

If you've come across the figure $880 in connection with SSDI and working, you're likely looking at an outdated number — or possibly confusing it with a different program threshold. The short answer is: $880 is not the current SSDI earned income limit. The actual threshold is higher, it adjusts every year, and the rules around it are more layered than a single dollar figure suggests.

Here's what's actually going on.

The Number You're Looking For: Substantial Gainful Activity (SGA)

SSDI is designed for people who cannot engage in Substantial Gainful Activity — work that produces earnings above a set monthly threshold. If you earn above that threshold, SSA generally considers you capable of substantial work, which can affect your eligibility or benefits.

That threshold is called the SGA limit, and it changes annually based on the national average wage index.

For 2025, the SGA limits are:

These figures adjust each year, so any specific number you find — including $880 — may reflect a past year's threshold. SSA publishes updated SGA amounts annually, and the current figures are always available on ssa.gov.

Where Did $880 Come From?

The $880 figure was the non-blind SGA threshold in 2006. It may appear in older articles, forum posts, or guides that haven't been updated. It also circulates because people share SSDI information secondhand, and those numbers stick around long after they've changed.

If someone told you the limit is $880, that information is approximately two decades out of date. Using it to make decisions about working while on SSDI could lead to serious miscalculations.

How SGA Actually Works in Practice

The SGA threshold isn't just a ceiling you stay under — it operates differently depending on where you are in your SSDI timeline.

Before Approval

If you're applying for SSDI and currently working, SSA looks at whether your earnings exceed SGA at the time of your application. Earning above SGA during the application period is a significant problem — it can result in an immediate denial, regardless of your medical condition. The five-step evaluation process SSA uses begins with this SGA check.

After Approval: The Trial Work Period 🔍

Once you're approved and receiving benefits, the rules shift. SSDI includes built-in work incentives designed to let recipients test their ability to return to work without immediately losing benefits.

The Trial Work Period (TWP) allows you to work for up to 9 months (not necessarily consecutive) within a 60-month rolling window, earning any amount, without affecting your benefits. In 2025, a month counts as a trial work month if you earn more than $1,110.

After those 9 months are used, you enter a 36-month Extended Period of Eligibility (EPE). During this window, SSA evaluates each month against the SGA threshold. Months where you earn above SGA may result in benefits being withheld; months below SGA, benefits can resume.

Substantial Gainful Activity vs. Net Earnings

SSA doesn't always use gross wages as-is. Work expenses related to your disability — things like medications, transportation, or adaptive equipment that allow you to work — can sometimes be deducted when calculating your countable earnings. These are called Impairment-Related Work Expenses (IRWEs), and they can bring your countable income below SGA even if your gross pay exceeds it.

This is one reason why looking at a single threshold figure gives an incomplete picture.

SSDI vs. SSI: A Critical Distinction

The $880 figure may also cause confusion because SSI — Supplemental Security Income — uses different income rules entirely. SSI calculates benefits based on total income (earned and unearned) and applies exclusions differently than SSDI does.

These are two separate programs:

• SSDI is based on your work history and Social Security credits. SGA is the primary earnings test.
• SSI is need-based. It uses an income calculation that starts by excluding the first $65 of earned income, then counts half of what remains. No SGA threshold applies the same way.

Mixing up rules between the two programs is a common source of misinformation. If someone cited $880 as an SSDI limit but was actually thinking of SSI calculations, that's another reason the number circulates incorrectly.

Variables That Shape Your Specific Outcome 📋

How the SGA threshold affects any individual depends on factors that vary from person to person:

• Approval status — Are you still applying, in a Trial Work Period, or past your Extended Period of Eligibility?
• Type of work — Self-employment is calculated differently than wage employment
• Disability-related work expenses — IRWEs can reduce your countable earnings
• Whether you're blind — A higher SGA threshold applies
• State you live in — Some states supplement SSI, which can interact with SSDI in complex ways for dual recipients
• Subsidies or special conditions — If an employer is giving you unusual accommodations or support, SSA may adjust what counts as SGA

The Gap Between the Rule and Your Reality

Understanding that the SGA threshold for 2025 is $1,620 for most SSDI recipients — not $880 — is a meaningful correction. But knowing the number is only one piece. Whether you're approaching that line from below, using trial work months, managing disability-related expenses, or weighing a return to part-time work, the math looks different depending on where you actually stand in the SSDI timeline.

The program rules are the same for everyone. How they apply to any given person's situation is where the real complexity lives.