EarnSafe is a free, no-login benefit-safety calculator for SSDI recipients. Enter your profile and monthly earnings to model how work affects your benefits month by month — Trial Work Period tracking, SGA thresholds, Extended Period of Eligibility, benefit cessation, and reinstatement.

No. EarnSafe is an independent tool not affiliated with SSA or the United States government. It is not legal or financial advice. Always verify your situation with SSA or a certified benefits counselor before making decisions about work.

No. Everything you enter stays in your browser tab. No earnings figures, dates, or personal details are ever sent to a server, stored in a database, or logged. Closing or refreshing the tab clears your session completely.

Yes. No account, no subscription, no ads, and no paywalled results. EarnSafe is free because the author believes people navigating disability benefits deserve tools built with care, not a paywall.

The Trial Work Period is a 9-month safety net that lets you test your ability to work without immediately losing your SSDI benefits. TWP months do not need to be consecutive — SSA counts any month with earnings above the TWP threshold (e.g., $1,160/mo in 2025) within a rolling 60-month window. Once 9 months are counted, the TWP is exhausted.

Substantial Gainful Activity is the monthly gross earnings threshold SSA uses to determine whether you are working at a substantial level. Earning above SGA outside the Trial Work Period triggers benefit suspension. The threshold is adjusted annually: $1,620/mo for non-blind recipients and $2,700/mo for blind recipients in 2025.

SSA enters a 3-month grace period — the cessation month plus two more — during which you continue receiving benefits regardless of earnings. After the grace period, benefits are suspended in months where your earnings exceed SGA. You remain in the 36-month Extended Period of Eligibility, which allows automatic reinstatement in below-SGA months.

The Extended Period of Eligibility is a 36-month window that begins the month after TWP exhaustion. During the EPE, your benefits are automatically reinstated in any month your earnings fall below the SGA threshold — no new application required. Once the EPE ends, cessation becomes final.

Yes, but only during the Extended Period of Eligibility. If your earnings drop below SGA in any month within the 36-month EPE window, benefits are reinstated for that month automatically. After the EPE expires, reinstatement requires a new application under the Expedited Reinstatement program.

IRWE are disability-related costs you pay out of pocket to enable you to work — such as specialized equipment, prescriptions needed to tolerate work, or specialized transportation. SSA subtracts verified IRWE amounts from your gross monthly earnings before applying the SGA and TWP tests, which can meaningfully lower your countable income.

Your onset date is the date SSA determined your disability began. It is listed on your award letter or SSA determination notice. If you are unsure, use the date from your award documentation or check your account at ssa.gov/myaccount.

Your benefit start date is the month your SSDI payments began — typically your onset date plus the 5-month waiting period. It appears on your award letter. You can also find it by logging into your My Social Security account at ssa.gov/myaccount.

Always enter gross monthly income — your earnings before taxes or deductions. SSA's SGA and TWP tests are applied to gross earnings (minus any IRWE). Entering net income will understate your countable earnings and produce incorrect results.

Double-check your onset date, benefit start date, and earnings entries. The most common source of error is entering net income instead of gross, or missing a month. If you believe EarnSafe is applying the rules incorrectly, please open a bug report on the Contact page or on GitHub.