Persons living with a disability may feel the need to be active, to have purpose. So, a disabled person may volunteer for community service--at a school, a hospital or other community organization. By definition, volunteer work is unpaid.
However, volunteer work could cause the Social Security Administration (SSA) to terminate disability benefits in some cases.
The Social Security Administration defines work as"performing tasks for pay or profit or doing work that is usually performed for pay or profit – even if no payment is received or no profit is realized." The general standard Social Security uses to determine if an activity constitutes work is Substantial Gainful Activity (SGA). In 2023, you are performing "substantial gainful activity" if you earn wages of at least $1,470 per month (gross). If you perform volunteer work while receiving SSDI, the SSA may decide that volunteer work constitutes SGA, even if you are not paid-- and your benefits could be terminated.
The premise of Social Security disability is that the recipient is unable to work.. If the individual is performing volunteer work on a regular basis, Social Security may determine that he/she could perform that work for pay--thus, they are not disabled.
While there are no firm guidelines for doing volunteer work, here are some of the things that would likely endanger your SSDI benefits:
- Volunteering several days per week or working substantial hours each week.
- Volunteer work for a company owned by a relative, especially a spouse.
- Maintaining a regular work schedule--that is, you check in and out at a certain time each day or work a regular "shift."
- Doing the type of volunteer work that people commonly do for pay.
Performing a few hours of volunteer work per week should not be a problem, especially if you set your own hours and don't work a regular "shift." You would want to avoid working anywhere near 8 hours per day or 30 or more hours per week. Generally, avoid any volunteer activity which appears to show you capable of doing full-time work.
One question to ask yourself: "Would my volunteer activities equal significant gainful activity IF I were being paid the customary wage for such work?
For example, Susan is a former registered nurse, now on SSDI. She volunteers 6 hours per day, 5 days per week at the hospital assisting patients. Let's assume that the typical wage for a registered nurse is about $30 per hour. If Susan volunteers 30 hours per week at the hospital, she could be earning about $2,800 per month IF she were being paid. It is very likely that Social Security will consider Susan to be engaging in substantial gainful activity; therefore, she is not disabled. She could work if she wanted to and she could earn at least $1,470 per month, which is the level of SGA. The fact that she is not getting paid is because she doesn't want to be paid, not because she is unable to work.
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Charles W. Forsythe is an author and the founder of The Forsythe Firm in Huntsville, AL. He spends all his time tirelessly working to help qualified individuals get disability benefits, primarily from Social Security. He offers free consultations.
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