I filled-out, then submitted form SSA-820-BK on November 10th, 2013 for year 2012.

Since submitting I have been in contact with the provided contact person. Given I am self-employed my case was referred to special team... Also known as a Claims Adjuster. I am not allowed to speak to this person and come to find out the contact person on the letter I received is just a front-end person who has no hands-on.

My front-end person reports if I don't get a response... Everything is good. This is my first time/year dealing with this. I think it is important to know if I have used any time towards my Trial Work Period.

Any experience with this? Suggestions on what I should do?

Thanks.

I have no experience with the Trial Work. However, I did find the following article from the SSD website which hopefully will help you w/your concerns: CLICKY CLICK--> Documenting Self-Employment Cases

It appears you are responsible to keep track of your Trial Work periods. Since I have never taken advantage of the Trial Work option, I am not quite sure what your actual question(s) are. Sorry. Hopefully, the above link is helpful.

GOOD LUCK!!!

I'm familiar with the publication you referenced... I have documented my work-time in detail. If you are not familiar with the self-employment rules and commission... There are two ways to calculate. The Claim-Adjuster can choose to do actual or average (monthly). It can work for or against me… Claim-Adjuster’s choice!

Examples… Actual would be credited to the month I received a commission check; If then it meets their criteria… It would be credit towards a TWP. Or they can average the year’s income over year (12 months). Then if under the minimum for a TWP… No TWP’s.

So depending on how these folks choose to calculate, actual or average, I could end up with different TWP’s.

Actually, the instructions about evaluating self-employment are pretty clear, albeit complex. Average is what matters. Determining the period to average over requires you to provide all the specific information on the SSA 820 including number of hours worked in a given month.

A farmer plants a crop in the spring, waters and weeds all summer, harvests in the fall and gets paid, cleans up the field in the winter. Works all year and all months are significant in terms of the payment but only gets paid once. It is more difficult to determine TW months with some businesses, but it is based on the average, not the actual for most self-employment.


https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0410510012


5. Averaging Monthly Countable Income

Since self-employment income may fluctuate widely due to transitory business conditions, changes in the nature and size of the business, improved methods of operations, etc., the self-employed person is less likely than an employee to have a uniform income which can be readily compared to the earnings guidelines. Therefore, it is necessary to average the individual’s countable income by figuring total countable income over a representative period and dividing by the number of months in that period. As in the case of employees, income is generally to be averaged over the entire period of work requiring evaluation. However, it will be necessary to average separately the distinct periods of work involved when there is a regulatory change in the SGA earnings level or there is a significant change in work patterns or income.

Thank you for taking the time to respond. I had to think-back on where I heard the idea of actual… I believe I was told this by the front-end person I spoke to. Given that… Was I supposed to do the averaging? As I recorded commission checks in the actual month received.

SSA does the averaging.