There may be no more unsettling letter to receive than a Social Security notice indicating that your Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments will be stopped.
This type of letter can arrive for a variety of reasons, but the main reasons are for earning too much income or Social Security determines that you are no longer disabled.
If Social Security determines that you are no longer disabled and entitled to SSI payments you may appeal this decision and continue receiving SSI payments while Social Security makes a final determination of whether or not you are disabled. If Social Security decides that in fact you are no longer disabled you may have to pay back the SSI payments you received while you were waiting for a determination. If this happens you can always ask Social Security to waive any overpayment issues and file a new claim.
Ineligibility due to work is a bit different. If you’ve been ineligible for SSI payments due to work, you may be able to restart your SSI payments again without starting a new application. If your work stops within five years of the time your SSI benefits ceased, Social Security may be able to start benefits again through the expedited reinstatement process.
During this process Social Security will examine whether SSI payments should begin again. This can take some time, which is why Social Security offers temporary benefits to those waiting for Social Security’s decision. These temporary payments can last up to six months.
Specifics Social Security looks at include:
- If benefits stopped because of earnings from work.
- Having an impairment that is the same as or related to the impairment that allowed you to get benefits at an earlier time.
- You are unable to work or earn Substantial Gainful Activity (SGA). Each year Social Security sets SGA (an amount a person can earn from work each month and still qualify for benefits). For 2013 Social Security has set SGA at $1,040 of gross income per month.
For more information about reinstating SSI payments click here.
