SGA-Substantial Gainful Activity

SGA is an acronym for the Social Security term substantial gainful activity. According to the Social Security Administration's definition of disability, in order to be considered disabled and eligible to receive disability benefits, a person must have functional limitations (mental, physical, or both) that are severe enough to restrict their ability to engage in work activity.

SGA, or substantial gainful activity, is tied to a specific monetary amount; in other words, a monthly earnings limit. To put it briefly, if a person who is filing for disability is earning more than the SGA amount, their claim will be given what is referred to as a technical denial.

When a case is given a technical denial, the denial occurs at the social security office almost immediately, meaning that the case is never sent to disability determination services and assigned to a disability examiner for processing.

Translation: there is no point to filing a claim if you are currently working and earning at least the SGA amount...however, if your condition causes you to stop work or causes your earnings to drop below the SGA limit, consider filing a claim. 

The monthly SGA amount for statutorily blind individuals for 2022 is $2260. For non-blind individuals, the monthly SGA amount for 2022 is $1350. SGA for the blind does not apply to Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits, while SGA for the non-blind disabled applies to Social Security and SSI benefits. See historical series of SGA amounts below.

Trial work period: After a person becomes eligible for Social Security disability benefits, the person may attempt to return to the work force. As an incentive, we provide a trial work period in which a beneficiary may have earnings and still collect benefits. The trial work period does not apply to SSI benefits. The monthly amount of earnings that trigger a trial work period are lower than the monthly SGA amounts shown below.

Monthly substantial gainful activity amounts by disability type

Year         Blind Non-blind

1975 $200 $200

1976 230         230

1977 240         240

1978 334         260

1979 375         280

1980 417         300

1981 459         300

1982 500         300

1983 550         300

1984 580         300

1985 610         300

1986 650         300

1987 680         300

1988 700         300

1989 740         300

1990 780         500

1991 810         500

1992 850         500

1993 880         500

1994 930         500

1995 $940 $500

1996 960         500

1997 1,000 500

1998 1,050 500

1999 1,110 700a

2000 1,170 700

2001 1,240 740

2002 1,300 780

2003 1,330 800

2004 1,350 810

2005 1,380 830

2006 1,450 860

2007 1,500 900

2008 1,570 940

2009 1,640 980

2010 1,640 1,000

2011 1,640 1,000

2012 1,690 1,010

2013 1,740 1,040

2014 1,800 1,070

2015 $1,820 $1,090

2016 1,820 1,130

2017 1,950 1,170

2018 1,970 1,180

2019 2,040 1,220

2020 2,110 1,260

2021 2,190 1,310

2022 2,260 1,350

a $500 amount applied in the first half of 1999.

Substantial work may, under some conditions, be disregarded if it is discontinued or reduced after a short time because of your impairment.  This type of work is considered an Unsuccessful Work Attempt (UWA).  Therefore, If you attempt to return to work after you have started an application for disability, but you end up stopping or reducing your work within six months because of your disability, the SSA might not count that work when determining whether you are disabled.

If you need help applying for Social Security Disability or SSI, please contact me at joshben99@gmail.com. I have over 20 years experience with Social Security Disability cases.

Location: Michigan, USA

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