Can You Work While on Disability in Texas? SSDI, SSI, and Medicaid

You can keep working while on disability in Texas under both Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI), but the two programs handle earnings very differently. SSDI uses a monthly earnings cutoff after a protected trial period. SSI shrinks your check gradually as your wages grow. Which set of rules applies to you depends on which benefit you receive, and mixing them up is how people end up with overpayment notices.

The rules themselves are federal, so they read the same in Texas as anywhere else. What is specific to Texas is the Medicaid piece, which comes later. If you don’t know which benefit you’re on, check your award letter or your my Social Security account at ssa.gov.

Working on SSDI

Start With the Trial Work Period

Every SSDI recipient gets a Trial Work Period (TWP) before any earnings limit kicks in. It’s nine months where you can earn any amount and still receive your full SSDI check. For 2026, any month you earn more than $1,210 counts as one of the nine.¹ The months don’t have to be consecutive; they can spread across a rolling 60-month window, which matters if your condition fluctuates and you can only work sporadically.

During the TWP, your benefit doesn’t change no matter what you earn. It’s the closest thing the SSA offers to a no-risk test drive.

The Substantial Gainful Activity Line

Once the nine trial months are used, “substantial gainful activity” (SGA) becomes the on-off switch for your check. For 2026, SGA is $1,690 per month for non-blind individuals and $2,830 per month for people who are legally blind.² Those are gross earnings, but the SSA subtracts certain work expenses first, so the number that actually gets measured against the line can be lower than your paycheck (more on that below).

The Extended Period of Eligibility

After the TWP, you enter a 36-month Extended Period of Eligibility (EPE). Any month your countable earnings stay below SGA, you get your full SSDI payment. Any month you exceed it, no payment for that month.³ You don’t reapply or go through a fresh medical review each time your earnings dip back down.

The first time the SSA finds your earnings constitute SGA during the EPE, it sets a “cessation month.” You still receive benefits for that month and the two following months as a grace period.³ Once the 36 months of the EPE are up, earning above SGA in any month ends SSDI entitlement. At that point your options are a new application or Expedited Reinstatement, covered later.

Working on SSI

SSI doesn’t cut off at a hard line. Your payment goes down as your earnings go up, and because a chunk of income is ignored in the formula, working almost always leaves you with more total money than staying on benefits alone.

How the SSA Counts Your Earnings

The SSA first disregards $20 of any income you get in a month. Then it disregards the first $65 of earned income. Only half of what remains counts against your check.⁴

A concrete example. You earn $1,000 in a month in 2026. Subtract $20, leaving $980. Subtract $65, leaving $915. Cut that in half: $457.50 in countable income. The 2026 federal SSI payment for an individual is $994.⁵ Subtract the $457.50 and your SSI check is about $536.50. Add the wages back in and your total income for the month is roughly $1,536.50, well above what SSI alone would pay.

Watch the Resource Limit

SSI also has a resource ceiling: $2,000 for an individual, $3,000 for a couple in 2026.⁵ That figure hasn’t moved in decades, so earnings from work can push you over it fast if the money just sits in a checking account. Your home and one vehicle generally don’t count. A growing bank balance does.

Keeping Your Health Coverage

Medicare After SSDI Cash Benefits End

If your SSDI cash benefits stop because of work, Medicare doesn’t stop with them. You get at least 93 months of continued Medicare coverage after the Trial Work Period, roughly seven years and nine months, as long as your disabling condition still meets the SSA’s medical criteria.⁶

Texas Medicaid Under Section 1619(b)

SSI recipients in Texas generally get Medicaid automatically. When earnings zero out your SSI cash payment, Section 1619(b) of the Social Security Act lets you keep Medicaid if you still have a qualifying disability, still need Medicaid to work, and earn under Texas’s threshold. That threshold is $53,165 per year.⁷ You also need at least one prior regular SSI payment based on disability.

That ceiling is high enough that most SSI recipients who go back to part-time or moderate work will keep Medicaid. Texas also runs a Medicaid Buy-In program for workers with disabilities, which can extend coverage for people earning above the 1619(b) limit.

Deductions and Set-Asides That Push the Numbers in Your Favor

Impairment-Related Work Expenses

If you pay out of pocket for things you need because of your disability in order to work, the SSA subtracts those costs from your earnings before running its calculations. Common examples are specialized transportation, medical devices, and prescriptions tied to doing the job.⁸ For SSDI, those deductions can hold your countable earnings under SGA. For SSI, they reduce countable income and raise your monthly payment.⁹

If you are legally blind, Blind Work Expenses go further and don’t need to be disability-related at all. Income taxes, union dues, meals at work, uniforms, childcare, and tools all come off earnings before SSI is calculated.

Plan to Achieve Self-Support

A Plan to Achieve Self-Support (PASS) is for SSI recipients who want to set aside income or resources toward a specific work goal, such as starting a business, paying for school, or buying equipment. Money set aside under an approved PASS doesn’t count as income or resources, which can raise your SSI check or help you qualify for SSI in the first place.¹⁰ A PASS has to be in writing, have a clear occupational goal, and be approved by the SSA. People on SSDI whose payments are too high for SSI can sometimes use a PASS to set aside their SSDI payments and qualify for supplemental SSI while retraining.

Ticket to Work

Ticket to Work is a free, voluntary program that connects SSDI and SSI recipients ages 18 to 64 with Employment Networks offering career counseling, training, and job placement.¹¹ One useful side effect: while you are actively using your Ticket, the SSA generally won’t run a medical Continuing Disability Review.

Reporting Your Earnings

Every dollar you earn while on benefits has to be reported. Report when you start or stop working, and whenever your pay rate or hours change. The deadline is the 10th of the month following the month of the change, so a job that starts March 15 needs to be reported by April 10.¹²

You can report by phone at 1-800-772-1213, in person at your local Social Security office, by mail, through the my Social Security portal, or with the SSI Mobile Wage Reporting app. Keep pay stubs. If you are self-employed, the SSA uses Form SSA-820-BK and typically wants your Schedule C, Schedule SE, and any 1099s.¹³

If You Get an Overpayment Notice

If you earn more than expected and don’t report on time, or the SSA miscalculates, you can end up owing months of benefits back. The default recovery rate is 10% of your monthly benefit, withheld from future checks until the debt clears.¹⁴

You have three main responses. You can ask for a lower withholding rate if 10% would leave you short on basic expenses; the SSA tries to clear debts inside 12 months but will consider your finances.¹⁴ You can request a full waiver on Form SSA-632 if the overpayment wasn’t your fault and paying it back would leave you without money for food, housing, or medical care.¹⁵ Or you can challenge the overpayment itself with a Request for Reconsideration filed within 60 days.¹⁶

The best protection is reporting aggressively. Report earnings the same month they happen instead of waiting for the deadline, and keep copies of every pay stub and every communication with the SSA.

Getting Benefits Back Through Expedited Reinstatement

If your SSDI or SSI ended because of work and your condition later worsens so that you can no longer earn above SGA, you don’t have to start over with a fresh application. Expedited Reinstatement lets you request that benefits resume without a full disability determination, as long as you file within 60 months of termination.¹⁷

Your medical impairment has to be the same as or related to the original condition. While the SSA reviews the request, you can receive up to six months of provisional benefits, so you’re not left with nothing during the wait.¹⁷ If the SSA ultimately denies reinstatement, you generally don’t have to repay those provisional months, but confirm that with your local office before counting on it.

1
Social Security Administration. Trial Work Period
2
Social Security Administration. Substantial Gainful Activity
3
Social Security Administration. POMS DI 13010.210 – Extended Period of Eligibility (EPE) Overview
4
Social Security Administration. SSI Income
5
Social Security Administration. 2026 Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) Fact Sheet
6
Social Security Administration. Questions and Answers on Extended Medicare Coverage for Working People with Disabilities
7
Social Security Administration. Continued Medicaid Eligibility (Section 1619(B))
8
Social Security Administration. SSI Spotlight on Impairment-Related Work Expenses
9
Social Security Administration. Ticket to Work Work Incentives Series – Impairment-Related Work Expenses
10
Social Security Administration. Plan to Achieve Self-Support (PASS)
11
Social Security Administration. Ticket to Work Program – The Work Site
12
Social Security Administration. SSI Spotlight on Reporting Your Earnings to Social Security
13
Social Security Administration. Work Activity Report – Self-Employment (Form SSA-820-BK)
14
Social Security Administration. POMS GN 02210.030 – Request for Change in Overpayment Recovery
15
Social Security Administration. Request for Waiver of Overpayment Recovery (Form SSA-632-BK)
16
Social Security Administration. Request Reconsideration
17
Social Security Administration. POMS DI 13050.001 – Expedited Reinstatement (EXR) Overview