These days, many women enter the workforce and have long and successful careers. Maybe you start working right out of high school, or perhaps you graduate from college before you pick an industry and find a job. Either way, you might work for decades and retire. At that point, then presumably, you can collect social security.

Social security exists so that individuals who retire can get benefits in their old age. Women with some money saved up for retirement can also collect monthly social security payments, provided they worked long enough and put enough money into the program.

What about situations where you injure yourself, though? Perhaps you can’t work anymore at your former job, or you can’t do the same work you once did.

Can you continue working while still getting social security disability payments? We will discuss that right now.

The Rules Regarding Working While Still Getting Social Security Disability  

You can still keep working while on social security disability in some instances. However, you can’t make unlimited money and still keep collecting social security disability. The law stipulates that if you pass a certain income threshold, you can no longer keep collecting.

Women who hurt themselves can certainly get social security disability if they’ve paid the proper amount into the system, and now, they need that money. If you injure yourself and you can’t work at all, you should get the full amount.

However, a time might come when you’ve recovered slightly. Maybe you’ve healed to the point where you can do some work again. Perhaps you work from home, and you make a little supplemental income.

On top of the social security disability payments you’re getting, that should help you. You must not pass that particular income threshold, though, or you will get no further social security disability benefits.

Work Incentives

Women who injure themselves and start getting social security disability payments should know about the work incentives that the program has in place. Essentially, these incentives exist to help individuals who hurt themselves start working again if they can. Obviously, that’s not always possible.

Serious injuries that prove nonfatal might get better in time. While you’re recovering, you might look into some of the education, rehabilitation, and training programs that can launch a new career.

These exist as work incentives. Usually, these programs cost you nothing. Women getting partial social security disability can look into them and enroll.

Working and SSDI Benefits

Let’s run through a common scenario. A woman in the workforce hurts herself while on the job. She starts collecting SSDI benefits, or social security disability income.

In this scenario, you can continue getting those benefits for nine full months, even if you start working again. You might do that work during this trial period. You’re seeing whether you can do the work, which isn’t what you did before. You’re trying out a new career with the limitations your injury caused.

Each year, depending on inflation and other factors, the federal government sets a cap on how much you can make each month while you continue getting SSDI benefits. If you pass a threshold, the amount determined each year, for several consecutive months, then eventually, you will stop receiving SSDI payments.

This does not mean that when you retire, you can’t get regular monthly social security payments. Provided you worked long enough and put enough money into the program, you can still start collecting once you hit the minimum legal age.

You Can Hire a Lawyer for Help

Women who injure themselves and need SSDI payments might apply and get them on their own. However, you should know that the process can take some time and has many facets. There’s paperwork and online forms. The whole system might confuse you since it’s complex and somewhat convoluted.

Since you’ve dealing with a government bureaucracy and you’re navigating its various departments and bylaws, the whole process might make you feel a little crazy sometimes. That’s why some women in this situation hire lawyers who know all about the SSDI program and getting the money you need.

You may have a legal entitlement, but that does not necessarily mean you will get that money easily. You must jump through hoops, and if you’re making some supplemental income on the side, that only complicates matters further.

The Lawyer Can Get You Your Money

Women who find lawyers who can help them get their SSDI payments usually prefer doing that versus taking on this federal bureaucracy on their own. Your lawyer can tell you exactly how much money you can make each month before you must give up your SSDI payments. They can tell you when you’re in the probationary period that starts once you start making any supplemental income at all.

They can make sure you file the proper paperwork and correctly report the supplemental income you’re making. If you don’t do this properly, then the government may claim that they’ve overpaid you, and they might attempt a clawback at some point. They have no compunctions about taking away money they gave you if they feel they made an error.

Women usually learn that the SSDI program can help them if they hurt themselves and they find themselves in dire straits. The program can easily confuse anyone who doesn’t know it well, though, which is why you might hire a lawyer who can explain it in simple terms.

When you file, they can make sure you didn’t make any mistakes or miss any crucial details. Also, if the agency rejects your claim, the lawyer can help you with the appeals process.

You must take all this seriously since you’ll likely need that money. If you get it, you can use it when you must pay medical bills, your rent, grocery bills, utility bills, and so forth.

Once you have those payments coming in, you should next determine what supplemental income you can make with your reduced capabilities.

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