Upcoming Changes to Social Security Disability Benefits in 2025
Toward the end of last year, the federal government announced 2025 Social Security Disability changes. Most news reports focused on an increase in benefits thanks to a 2.5% cost-of-living adjustment, but that was only one of several changes affecting benefits, eligibility, and other key aspects of the programs available through the Social Security Administration.
If you are one of the 72.5 million people entitled to benefits this year through programs administered by Social Security, the disability lawyers at the Clauson Law Firm want you to know what to expect in 2025. This article explains each of the changes and how they may affect you.
As you read this Social Security update 2025 edition, you may have questions or need assistance with your benefits. If you do, contact the disability professionals at Clauson Law for advice and representation that you can depend upon.
2025 Cost-Of-Living Adjustment Increases Benefit Payments
Federal law enacted in 1972 provides for automatic annual cost-of-living allowances based on increases in consumer prices. Before 1972, people had to wait each year for a special Congress act before receiving a benefit increase.
A 2.5% COLA adjustment for disability 2025 began in January for recipients of Social Security Disability Insurance benefits and those entitled to Social Security retirement benefits. If you receive disability benefits through the Supplemental Security Income program, the COLA appeared in your December 31, 2024, instead of on January 1, 2025, New Year’s Day, a federal holiday.
The COLA caused the monthly maximum federal SSI benefit for an individual to increase from $943 in 2024 for an individual to $967 in 2025. Benefits payable to eligible couples increased from $1,415 monthly in 2024 to $1,450 monthly in 2025.
The Social Security Administration calculates your monthly SSDI or Social Security retirement benefits based on your average lifetime earnings. The average monthly payment to disabled workers qualifying for SSDI benefits in 2024 was $1,542. The SSDI payment increase 2025 because of the 2.5% COLA resulted in an average monthly benefit of $1,580.
Another change to monthly SSDI benefits is the maximum benefit amount for 2025. The most you could receive in SSDI benefits was $3,822 last year. The 2025 maximum SSDI or retirement payment increased to $4,018 monthly based on the maximum earnings subject to payment of Social Security taxes.
Substantial Gainful Activity Limit Increased
You must be disabled and unable to work to qualify for disability benefits through the SSDI and SSI programs. The definition of disability the Social Security Administration (SSA) uses to determine eligibility requires medical documentation of the following:
- You must be unable to do substantial gainful activity (SGA).
- The inability to do SGA is because of a medically determinable physical or mental impairment.
- The impairment or a combination of impairments must be expected to result in death or be expected to last or has lasted for a continuous one-year period.
SGA refers to a significant level of physical and mental activities a person engages in for pay or profit. The fact that you do not receive payment from an employer does not mean that you are not doing gainful activity. Activities are gainful in any of the following situations:
- You receive payment or profit.
- The activities are those generally performed for profit or pay.
- Your intention in doing the activities was that payment or profit would be realized.
The work need not be done on a full-time basis to be SGA. Social Security considers income from a part-time or full-time job to evaluate your ability to work.
Monthly income is used as the measure of a person’s ability to do SGA, but the SGA income limits changed in 2025. If your claim for disability benefits is based on blindness and you have income from working, you are not disabled if you earn more than $2,700 per month, an increase from the 2024 income limit of $2,590.
The 2025 SGA monthly earnings limit for someone with a disability other than blindness is $1,620. This is an increase from the 2024 limit of $1,550.
Monthly Earnings For Trial Work Periods
The SSA offers recipients of SSDI benefits the opportunity to try working on a full- or part-time basis without risking the loss of their benefits during a trial work period. Working during a trial period does not show that you can do SGA.
You have nine months to test your ability to work, but the months need not be consecutive. A trial month in 2025 is any month in which your earnings from working exceed $1,160, an increase from the 2024 earnings limit of $1,110. The nine months of a trial work period must be completed within 60 months.
If you earn more than the SGA limit, it does not affect your continuing eligibility for SSDI benefits, and it does not reduce your monthly payments. You must notify the SSA of your intention to participate in a trial work period and report the income earned. A trial work period is not available to recipients of SSI benefits.
At the end of a trial work period, you may continue working under an extended period of eligibility, which is 36 months. If you have monthly earnings exceeding the SGA limit, your SSDI benefits will be suspended. They can be reinstated without filing a new application. More information about programs allowing you to work while collecting disability benefits can be obtained from the disability team at Clauson Law.
Changes In Student Earned Income Exclusion For 2025
Eligibility for the SSI program is based on financial need. A recipient’s monthly income may reduce their benefits payment, but blind or disabled children attending school can work and exclude some of their earnings through the student earned income exclusion.
To qualify for a student earned income exclusion, a person must be younger than 22 years of age and regularly attending school at one of the following:
- Going to school in grades 7 through 12 for at least 12 hours per week.
- Home school in grades 7 through 12 for at least 12 hours a week.
- Taking courses at a college or university for at least eight hours a week per semester.
- Participating in a vocational training course for at least 12 hours a week.
Students who qualify for the student earned income exclusion may work while attending school and exclude up to $2,350 from their monthly income in 2025. This represents an increase from the 2024 monthly income exclusion of $2,290. The monthly exclusions are subject to an annual limit of $9,460, an increase from the 2024 limit of $9,230. The exclusion allows students to avoid reducing their monthly SSI benefits because of their income from working up to the monthly and annual limits.
Enactment of the Social Security Fairness Act
How much a person receives in Social Security retirement and SSDI benefits is determined by their average lifetime earnings working at jobs subject to payment of Social Security taxes. The Social Security Fairness Act is one of the new SSDI rules and regulations 2025 that affects more than 3.2 million people.
For years, the Windfall Elimination and Government Pension Offset provisions of the Social Security Act prevented people whose jobs were not subject to Social Security taxation from collecting benefits through Social Security or did not count their earnings when calculating SSDI or retirement benefits. The workers affected by the two provisions included some of the following:
- Firefighters, teachers, and police officers.
- Federal workers covered under the Civil Service Retirement System.
- People working for foreign governments.
The Social Security Fairness Act, signed into law in 2025, amends the Social Security Act to retroactively eliminate the Windfall Elimination and Government Pension Offset provisions as of December 2023.
If you receive disability or retirement benefits reduced because of the now-amended provisions of the Social Security Act, the SSA will automatically adjust them. You also may be entitled to a retroactive payment for the difference between what you received and what you should have received based on the 2025 amendment. Contact Clauson Law for additional information or to determine if you are affected by the new law.
Change To Full Retirement Age May Affect Your SSDI Benefits
The full retirement age is how old you must be to claim retirement benefits from Social Security without an early retirement reduction. Your full retirement age depends on the year you were born. The full retirement age in 2025 is 66 years and 10 months for people born in 1959.
You may wonder why the full retirement age is important if you receive SSDI benefits. Disability benefits through SSDI allow workers to collect the equivalent of their retirement benefits early. However, upon reaching full retirement age, a worker’s SSDI payments automatically convert to retirement benefits.
Contact Clauson Law about 2025 Social Security Disability changes
The team of disability professionals at the Clauson Law Firm should be your primary source of trusted advice and exceptional representation when you need help with disability benefits. For more information about how new SSDI rules and regulations affect you, contact Clauson Law for a free consultation and claim evaluation.
