Hi I am posting this on behalf of my fiance. We have a child together and both he and our child receive benefits. He has recently been offered a job as a property manager of some storage units in our local town. It doesn't pay but 300 a month but that would help with other bills that we have. Now we spoke with a lady from the social security office and she said he is allowed to make up to 1000.00 dollars per month however after 9 months there will be an evaluation. I told her I am concerned that if he takes the position then ss may look at this as he is capable of doing some form of work and obviously there is work that he can do if he is a property manager. The caseworker said that ss will send a questionaire that will ask him about the work he performs and in that he can add that I help him with the work which is basically some paper work and oversight of the units. There will be times he has to clear out units but we have someone to do that work for us. So my at this time my concern is that if he takes this job the ss will view that as he can work and that there is some form of work available that he can do. Is it a in your opinion a "bad" idea do to this for the little money that will be made each month? I am so worried that it will end up having a negative impact on our family. I work but barely bring home enough to cover the bills and his income isn't that great either. I am somewhat new so I hope I have confused anyone. I appreciate all advice on this topic. Thank you

If he's also receiving an apartment, how much will his W2 claim in benefits? Are they really giving him a free apartment, or are they subtracting the cost before he gets his check?

If he's able to work, than he should be working. Look into the Ticket to Work Program for him. There are ways for him to test his abilities.

Start here: http://ssa.gov/work/overview.html

I also think if he is able to work he should be working. If you have a young child, he probably is young and in the long run, your family would be better off if he could work.

Does he need training? What could if do if he was trained?

SSA could decide that he is able to work even if he has not returned to work. But it all depends if he is able to work or not able to work. Choosing to only earn $300 is not proof that he cannot work more than that.

Whether or not he takes the job, IMO, should not be based on what you think the outcome on SSA benefits might be or might not be.

I had to chuckle at that remark. From what I can remember off hand, Tony Randall (1) & Anthony Quinn (2-3) had children well into their 80's!

Janke did qualify the remark by saying probably.

And wealthy, famous, older men likely having an easier time attracting a woman of child bearing age than your average citizen, let alone someone that is disabled.

If anyone can work, I think they should be trying to work.

You make it sound like he could manage this, with some accommodations.

If he can't, it sounds like you have made accommodations for you to do most of the paperwork and have others do the apartment clean outs If you need the extra income, could you take on this part time job ?

Your husband does not need to work. When it comes time for his review, the ssa will use that against him - i promise you that. There are rules that say you can work and that sounds really good, but be prepared to have a difficult time with any reviews if you decide to go that way. 99% of the time it will be a problem. There is an old saying and the information the ssa provides about people being able to work reminds me of it, "the bold print giveth and the fine print taketh away." the ssa says one thing and gets you trapped doing something else. *admin edit* With everything that is going on today with different branch's of government, you have to know there are going to be problems. It's a given

There is a misconception about work incentives. The ultimate goal, the reason there are work incentives, is return to work, return to Substantial Gainful Activity. The goal of work incentives is not to help you supplement SSDI benefits. The work incentives are there to help a disabled person transition back into the work force without fear of benefits being stopped immediately. And since SSI itself is 'Supplemental Security Income', all income affects the SSI. So it is possible that a person who has shown that they can do some work activity is also showing that they are not as disabled as they were when they applied.

SSDI is not a lifetime guarantee. Never was. Retirement Social Security is a lifetime amount.