How the 2024 COLA Affects Social Security Disability Benefits

Social Security offers several work incentives aimed at helping people with disabilities explore options for going back to work. One of these is a trial work period: An SSDI recipient can work, and earn any amount of income, for any nine months over a rolling five-year period without losing benefits. In 2023, the SSA counts a month toward your trial work period quota if you earned at least $1,050; next year, that goes up to $1,110.

SSI federal payments

Supplemental Security Income is distinct from traditional Social Security benefits — it is funded by general U.S. tax revenue, not Social Security payroll taxes, for one thing — but the SSA administers this safety net program, delivering monthly benefits to more than 7.4 million people who are 65 or older, blind or have a disability and have very low income and few financial resources.

With the 2024 COLA, the maximum federal payment to an individual SSI recipient will go up from $914 a month to $943. (Most states provide supplemental payments to some SSI beneficiaries.) A married couple in which both spouses are SSI-eligible would receive up to $1,415 a month, up from $1,371 this year.

SSI benefits are generally paid on the first of the month, but because Jan. 1 is a federal holiday, SSI recipients get their first COLA-boosted payment on the prior business day — in this case, Friday, Dec. 29.

Most people applying for SSI are subject to the substantial gainful activity limits at the filing stage — if their work income exceeds the cap at that time they claim benefits, the claim will likely be denied. The SGA cap does not apply once an applicant has been approved for and is receiving SSI.

However, people getting SSI are subject to a different income limit. If they are working or receiving money from other sources such as government benefits, investments or family members, a portion of that income is deducted from their monthly SSI payment. If this “countable income” exceeds the 2024 federal payment standard of $943 for a single person and $1,415 for a couple, they will get no SSI benefit that month.

The COLA has an additional impact on some younger people receiving SSI on the basis of disability or blindness. Those regularly attending a secondary school, college or university or getting vocational or technical training can earn up to a certain amount from work each month and not have it count against their SSI benefit. In 2024, this “student earned income exclusion” increases from $2,220 to $2,290 a month, up to an annual maximum of $9,230 ($8,950 in 2023).