You can keep working while on disability in Virginia, but the rules that decide whether your check shrinks or stops depend on which program pays you. For Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) recipients in 2026, earning more than $1,690 a month after a trial work period can end your cash benefit. For Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients, there is no single cutoff; your payment drops gradually as your earnings rise. The rules are federal, so Virginia does not change them, but the state does add programs that make working with a disability easier.
Why SSDI and SSI Handle Work So Differently
SSDI is an insurance program you earned by paying payroll taxes. Your check reflects your lifetime earnings, and your household savings do not affect eligibility. Because SSDI is not needs-based, the Social Security Administration (SSA) uses hard earnings thresholds to decide whether you are still disabled enough to qualify.
SSI is a needs-based program for people who are disabled, blind, or over 65 with very limited income and assets. An individual’s countable resources cannot exceed $2,000, or $3,000 for a couple.1Social Security Administration. 2026 Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) Fact Sheet Instead of a cliff, SSI uses a formula that reduces your monthly payment as your earnings grow, so working almost always leaves you with more total income.
If you receive both programs (called concurrent benefits), each set of rules runs in parallel. Work first affects SSDI through the SGA rules, and it affects SSI through the earnings formula.
SSDI: The Trial Work Period and Substantial Gainful Activity
SSDI gives you a runway to try working without losing your benefit. The Trial Work Period lets you keep your full SSDI check for nine months regardless of how much you earn, as long as you still meet the medical definition of disability. The nine months do not have to be consecutive; they can fall anywhere within a rolling 60-month window.2Social Security Administration. 20 CFR 404.1592 – The Trial Work Period
A month only uses up one of your nine if your gross earnings cross the SSA’s yearly threshold. In 2026 that threshold is $1,210.3Social Security Administration. Trial Work Period Earn less than that in a given month, and it does not count.
Once you have used all nine trial months, the SSA starts comparing your earnings to the Substantial Gainful Activity (SGA) limit. In 2026, SGA is $1,690 per month for non-blind individuals and $2,830 per month for blind individuals.4Social Security Administration. Substantial Gainful Activity Earning above that line signals to the SSA that you are capable of substantial work.
Crossing the SGA line does not immediately cut off your benefits. You then enter a 36-month re-entitlement period called the Extended Period of Eligibility.5Social Security Administration. POMS DI 13010.210 – Extended Period of Eligibility (EPE) – Overview During those 36 months, the SSA pays your benefit for any month your earnings fall below SGA and withholds it for any month they exceed it. Your case stays open the whole time, so a bad month or a flare-up does not force you to reapply.
Two adjustments can lower the earnings the SSA counts against you. If your employer provides accommodations, extra supervision, or pays you more than the market value of your work, the SSA can subtract that subsidy before comparing your earnings to SGA.6Social Security Administration. POMS DI 10505.010 – Determining Countable Earnings And if you try a job but have to stop or cut back within six months because of your condition, the SSA may treat it as an unsuccessful work attempt and disregard those earnings entirely.7Social Security Administration. 20 CFR 404.1574 – Evaluation Guides if You Are an Employee
When SSDI Stops, and How to Restart It
If you are still above SGA when the 36-month re-entitlement period ends, your SSDI eligibility ends. You receive a three-month grace period (the cessation month plus the two after it) regardless of earnings.5Social Security Administration. POMS DI 13010.210 – Extended Period of Eligibility (EPE) – Overview After that, payments stop.
The end is not necessarily permanent. If you stop working or drop back below SGA within five years, you can request expedited reinstatement rather than filing a new disability application.8Social Security Administration. Get Disability Back if Your Benefit Ended You call the SSA, answer a set of questions, and can receive provisional benefits for up to six months while your request is reviewed. Wait longer than five years, and you go through the full application process again.
SSI: Your Check Shrinks, It Does Not Stop
SSI has no Trial Work Period, no SGA cliff, and no re-entitlement period. Instead, the SSA runs your earnings through a formula each month.
Two exclusions come off first. The $20 general exclusion is applied to any income you receive that month (unearned income first, with any remainder taken off earned income). Then the SSA excludes the first $65 of your remaining earned income. After both exclusions, only half of what is left counts against your SSI payment.9Social Security Administration. SSI Only Employment Supports
Here is how that plays out using the 2026 federal SSI rate of $994 per month.10Social Security Administration. SSI Federal Payment Amounts for 2026 Say you earn $500 in gross wages and have no unearned income. Subtract $20 (general exclusion), leaving $480. Subtract $65 (earned income exclusion), leaving $415. Divide by two: $207.50 in countable income. Your SSI check for that month is $994 minus $207.50, or $786.50. Combined with your wages, you take home $1,286.50, well above the $994 you would have received without working.
If you are under 22 and regularly attending school, the SSA excludes up to $2,410 per month in student earnings in 2026, capped at $9,730 for the year.11Social Security Administration. Student Earned Income Exclusion for SSI That exclusion runs before the standard formula, which can preserve most or all of a young person’s SSI check.
Keeping Medicare or Medicaid While You Work
For many people, losing healthcare is the real worry behind returning to work. Both Medicare and Medicaid have protections built for this.
Medicare After SSDI Cash Benefits End
If your SSDI cash payment stops because you are earning too much, your Medicare does not stop with it. You keep premium-free Medicare Part A for at least 93 months after your Trial Work Period ends, adding up to roughly eight and a half years of continued hospital coverage when combined with the trial months.12Social Security Administration. Q&A on Extended Medicare Coverage Part B continues during that window too, but someone has to keep paying the premium. Without an SSDI check to deduct from, the SSA will bill you quarterly.
Medicaid Under Section 1619(b)
SSI recipients in Virginia who work their way past the SSI cash payment can often keep Medicaid under Section 1619(b). You must still meet the disability and resource requirements, need Medicaid to keep working, and earn below a state-specific threshold the SSA sets each year. Virginia’s 2026 threshold is $63,537 in annual gross earnings.13Social Security Administration. POMS SI 02302.200 – Charted Threshold Amounts Stay below that, and Medicaid continues even after your SSI payment drops to zero.14Social Security Administration. Continued Medicaid Eligibility (Section 1619(B))
Virginia’s Medicaid Works Program
Virginia runs a Medicaid Buy-In called Medicaid Works through the Department of Medical Assistance Services. It lets working Virginians with a disability between 16 and 64 keep Medicaid at higher income levels than traditional Medicaid allows. You must be competitively employed in an integrated setting at minimum wage or above, and you set up a Work Incentive Account to hold earnings. Initial eligibility is based on income at or below 138% of the federal poverty level with standard SSI resource limits, but once you are enrolled, the earned income cap rises well beyond that. If your SSA cash benefits stop because of earnings, Medicaid Works can continue your coverage as long as you remain employed and meet the program’s requirements.
Deductions and Programs That Let You Keep More
Impairment-Related Work Expenses
If you pay out of pocket for items or services you need because of your disability in order to work, those costs come off your gross earnings before the SSA applies SGA (for SSDI) or the SSI formula.15Social Security Administration. 20 CFR 404.1576 – Impairment-Related Work Expenses Common examples: co-pays for treatment tied to your condition, specialized transportation, prescription medications, and adaptive equipment. The deduction still applies if you use those items outside of work as well. Keep every receipt; the SSA will ask for documentation.
Blind Work Expenses
If you are legally blind and receive SSI, Blind Work Expenses cover any reasonable cost of working, including things that are not tied to your visual impairment, such as income taxes and meals during work hours. This deduction is SSI-only.
Plan to Achieve Self-Support
A Plan to Achieve Self-Support (PASS) lets an SSI recipient set aside income or resources for a specific work goal without that money counting against SSI eligibility or the resource limit.16Social Security Administration. Plan to Achieve Self-Support (PASS) You can shelter SSDI income, wages, or savings to pay for vocational training, business startup costs, or equipment. The plan must be written and approved by the SSA, and the goal must be a job that could eventually reduce or eliminate your need for benefits. A PASS is especially useful for people receiving both SSDI and SSI, because it can shelter SSDI income that would otherwise reduce the SSI check.
Ticket to Work
Ticket to Work is a free, voluntary program that connects SSDI and SSI beneficiaries with employment networks and vocational rehabilitation agencies for career counseling, job placement, and ongoing support.17Social Security Administration. Ticket to Work Program Overview While you are actively using your Ticket and making progress toward your employment goals, the SSA will not schedule a medical Continuing Disability Review.18Social Security Administration. Ticket to Work Dictionary That protection only applies if you assign your Ticket before a review is already scheduled, so enrolling early matters.
Where to Start in Virginia: DARS
Virginia’s Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services (DARS) is the state’s vocational rehabilitation agency and one of the most practical starting points if you are considering a return to work. DARS provides career exploration, resume and interview coaching, assistive technology assessments, on-the-job training, and post-hire support.19Virginia Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services. For Individuals Because DARS participates in Ticket to Work, receiving services through the agency also shields you from a medical Continuing Disability Review.
DARS employs Work Incentives Specialist Advocates (WISAs) who can produce an individualized analysis of exactly how a specific job would affect your SSDI, SSI, Medicare, Medicaid, and state programs together. That is worth doing before you accept a position, because the interaction of these rules can produce results a general article cannot predict for your situation.
Reporting Your Work to the SSA
You must report work activity to the SSA whether you receive SSDI or SSI. Report when you start or stop a job, and again whenever your hours or pay rate change. The SSA does not automatically know when your employment shifts, and late reporting is the most common cause of overpayments people later have to repay.
Have these ready when you report:
- Start date of the job
- Pay stubs showing gross earnings for each pay period
- Your schedule and hourly or salaried rate
You can report by phone at 1-800-772-1213, by visiting or writing your local Social Security office, or online through your my Social Security account.20Social Security Administration. The Red Book – Returning To Work Keep copies of every pay stub and every communication with the SSA. If an overpayment happens, that paper trail is what supports a waiver request. The SSA can waive repayment if the overpayment was not your fault and repaying it would cause hardship or be unfair. For overpayments of $2,000 or less, you can request a waiver by phone; larger amounts require Form SSA-632.