Student Earned Income Exclusion (SEIE) helps working students who receive SSI, to earn income while attending school, keep more of their SSI check and improve  their employment outcomes.

For SSI Beneficiaries Recipients who engage in self-employment, the Social Security Administration offers some work incentives that can be useful in starting a business and maintaining the business. These work incentives offer a “financial cushion” during the start-up of the business and throughout the life of the business, and are designed to help individuals reach selfsufficiency through their self-employment.

This fact sheet provides a brief overview of Self-Employment and Work Incentives for SSI. You should contact your local Social Security Administration Office and a Community Work Incentives  Coordinator to help you understand the specifics of self-employment and work incentives and how they apply to you.

SSI recipients can continue to be eligible to receive SSI checks when working if they still have a disability, and meet other requirements (such as income and resource limits). When working, the SSI cash will gradually decrease as earnings increase by approximately $1 for every $2 earned.

A Plan for Achieving Self Support (PASS) is a work incentive Social Security developed to help SSI recipients work. It allows people with disabilities or blindness to set aside resources and/or various kinds of income for a specified period  of time to use toward an occupational work goal or start a business. A PASS can help an individual to save income and/or resources to use to achieve a work goal and become self-sufficient.

Under the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act, a safety net is established for SSDI beneficiaries and SSI recipients who have been terminated from SSA’s roles due to work. If individuals are unable to work again due to disability, they may apply for a reinstatement of benefits. Through the Expedited Reinstatement of Benefits, you will not have to file a completely new application to begin your benefit check again.

Blind Work Expense (BWE) is a work incentive for individuals receiving SSI who have a primary diagnosis of blindness and who earn income. To qualify for a BWE the individual must be under age 65, or age 65 or older and receive SSI payments due to blindness before reaching age 65.

The Impairment Related Work Expenses (IRWE) is a work incentive available to individuals who receive SSI. The IRWE allows an individual to deduct certain items and services they need to work from their gross earnings, even if those items are needed for non-work activities. This helps SSI recipients to pay for the costs of expenses resulting from their disability to support their work.

Section 1619b allows individuals who are eligible for SSI to continue to be eligible for Medicaid coverage when their earnings are too high to continue to receive SSI. This work incentive applies to individuals whose earnings are below Indiana’s threshold (currently 34,713 in 2011).