Generally speaking your chances of success when applying for disability are greater if you are not working.  Remember that SSA defines disability in terms of how your medical issues prevent you from engaging in substantial gainful activity (SGA).  SGA can be a job, attending school or volunteering – anything that is equivalent to a job.  SSA puts a dollar value on SGA – if you are earning $1,310 per month gross (in 2021), you are presumed to be at SGA level and therefore not disabled.

If you are working part time and earning less than $1,310 per month gross, you can, in theory, file for disability.  But in my experience, part time work muddies the water.  If you appear before a disability judge and you have been earning $900 per month regularly, that judge is like to ask if you could get to the $1,310 level if you put just a few more hours in, or if you took a slightly easier job.  Some judges will question whether you are intentionally suppressing your earnings.

As a rule, SSD claims are cleaner if your file shows no earnings after your alleged onset date.

Can You Try to Work After Applying for Benefits?

Yes, you can try to work.  In the disability world there is a concept called unsuccessful work attempt (UWA).  If you go back to work and you last less than 6 months because you cannot maintain attendance or keep up performance, that job would be considered as an UWA.  Unsuccessful work attempts can help your case in that they demonstrate that you are fighting against the idea of labeling yourself as disabled and that you hate the idea of filing for disability.

I encourage my clients to try to work and to keep me updated as to how their efforts are proceeding.  We want to avoid a situation where a claimant exceeds the 6 months UWA limit and thus makes his/her application void but shortly thereafter has to quit because the understanding manager left and now they are in a different work environment.

Does Passive Income Hurt Your Case?

No, income from investments, long term disability policies, owed commissions or vacation days is not considered SGA and will not count against you.  However you will likely need to produce evidence proving that those earnings are not from current employment.