This question brings our attention to the intention of disability benefits and some specific aspects of working while collecting Social Security Disability benefits. While collecting both unemployment benefits and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits is not common, it is possible and permissible if the under the right circumstances.
Whether you can collect both unemployment and SSDI benefits depends on the facts and circumstances of your case and which state you reside in. Here at National Disability Experts, we want you to understand all the particulars you need to know to find out if your situation might allow you to collect unemployment if you are terminated from your job while you are on disability.
National Disability Experts concentrates our entire legal practice on helping people with disabilities get all of the available government benefits to which they are eligible for. Too many disabled individuals are unaware that they qualify for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits, workers compensation, or unemployment benefits.
Explanation of Unemployment Benefits
Unemployment benefits are paid by individual states to residents who lose their jobs or get laid off due to factors not related to misconduct connected to your job.
Every state has its own specific qualifications for unemployment benefits. Generally, they make unemployment benefits available to those who qualify by either earning a minimum amount of wages during each quarter of the previous 12 to 15 months, or those who work a minimum number of hours each week.
The sole purpose of unemployment benefits is the same as SSDI benefits, to compensate a percentage of the wages lost by those who recently lost their job. In the case of SSDI, the claimant’s illness or injury caused their inability to work. This is where the collection of SSDI and unemployment benefits seem to be mutually exclusive.
Those seeking unemployment benefits must certify that they are able and available for work immediately. You might also be required by your state’s unemployment program to document your efforts to find a job each week.
Explanation of Social Security Disability Benefits (SSDI)
Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI or SSD) is a federally administered program that pays financial benefits to workers who have become disabled by either injury or illness and who have a long employment history over the course of their lives. The program only pays for long-term disabilities which it defines as:
A physical or mental impairment that lasts or is expected to last 12 months and which prevents the person from performing substantial gainful activities (SGAs).
The term “substantial gainful activities” is defined as the person’s ability to earn a minimum amount or income each month. In 2025, if a SSDI applicant can earn more than $1,620 per month of countable income by performing work, they will not typically be eligible for SSDI benefits.
If an SSDI applicant or recipient cannot earn more than $1,620 per month, and qualify for SSDI benefits’ other eligibility criteria, then they can receive SSDI benefits. (Blind SSDI applicants and recipients may earn as much as $2,700 per month and still qualify for SSDI benefits.)
How Is the Amount of Your Monthly SSDI Benefit Determined?
To determine an SSDI claimant’s monthly benefit amount, the Social Security Administration (SSA) looks back at an applicant’s 35 highest earning years of taxable income. The SSA “indexes” those 35 figures, adjusting them national wage trends, and then averages the resulting figures to arrive an Average Indexed Monthly Earning (AIME) figure. For details on how to figure your Average Indexed Monthly Earnings, sign on to mySSA. You will find all of your income figures and expected Social Security benefits estimates.
Working While Receiving Social Security Disability Benefits
Because SSDI benefits are reserved only for people whose long-term disability prevents them from working, it may seem odd that someone can work and still collect SSDI benefits.
But there are special features in the SSDI program that allow SSDI benefits recipients to earn some money by working without losing their benefits:
- Trial Work Periods (TWP)
- Extended Periods of Eligibility (EPE)
Trial Work Periods
Trial Work Period (TWP) was established to encourage SSDI recipients whose condition may have improved significantly to make and attempt to work without losing of their benefits.
The TWP program allows an SSDI recipient to work nine months within a five-year period and earn an unlimited amount of income while continuing to collect monthly SSDI benefits. The nine months don’t need to be consecutive; they may be spread over the five years if necessary.
Extended Periods of Eligibility (EPE)
After using up the 9 months of your TWP, workers on SSDI can continue to work for another 36 months and still collect their full SSDI in any month they fail to make more than the SGA.
Who Can Collect Unemployment Benefits While Receiving SSDI?
The contradiction between claiming you are unable to work due to a disability and also claiming you are able and available to work to collect unemployment benefits is why collecting both benefits is unusual.
However, some people do fit the circumstances allowing them to receive both SSDI and unemployment benefits. The keys to determining whether you can receive both SSDI and unemployment benefits include:
- Your state unemployment rules
- The amount of your SSDI benefits
- The number of hours and amount of wages you earned working while on SSDI.
Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits are state-run programs with their own individual sets of laws and rules. Eligibility for your state’s unemployment benefits could be available only to full-time workers and eligibility may also require that the UI applicant was earning at least a minimum income during a set number of previous months.
The amount of each worker’s monthly SSDI benefits is determined by a number of factors, most importantly by the amount of income they paid taxes on over the course of more than ten years of employment. Remember that the amount of UI benefits someone may receive depends on the amount of their usual wages.
Check with National Disability Experts
At National Disability Experts, we have clients in all 50 states. Our firm’s team of highly trained disability lawyers and advocates can answer any questions you have relating to Social Security Disability and Supplemental Security Income (SSI).