SSA Form 821

One of the countless forms that the Social Security Administration (“SSA”) uses is SSA-821 “Work Activity Report.”. The SSA asks a claimant who is applying for Social Security Disability (“SSD”) benefits to complete form SSA-821 when it sees the claimant has income after the date when the SSD application says the claimant became disabled, known as the alleged onset date (the “AOD”). 

Not all income after the AOD precludes receipt of SSD benefits. I represent a 60 year old extermination service salesperson whose SSD benefits were awarded today even though her form SSA-821 reflected two sources of income after the AOD. However, neither provided grounds to issue a partially favorable decision. 

The first source of income represented accrued vacation time, while the second represented unused sick time. Both of those sources of income constitute passive income. A person can receive SSD benefits regardless of the amount of income they receive so long as it is passive income.