§416.976. Impairment-related work expenses. — Inbound Citations

(6) Earned income you use to pay impairment-related work expenses described in § 416.976, if you are disabled (but not blind) and under age 65 or you are disabled (but not blind) and received SSI as a disabled individual (or received disability payments under a former State plan) for the month before you reached age 65.

(i) For periods prior to December 1, 1990, you must be able, however, to establish your initial eligibility for Federal benefits without the use of the impairment-related work expense exclusion. Once you establish your initial eligibility without the use of the impairment-related work expense exclusion, the exclusion applies for determining your eligibility for all subsequent consecutive months for which you are eligible for regular SSI benefits, federally administered optional State supplementary payments, special SSI cash benefits or special SSI eligibility status. If, in a subsequent month, you are not eligible for any of these benefits, you cannot reestablish your eligibility for Federal SSI benefits or federally administered optional State supplementary payments before December 1, 1990, using the impairment-related work expense exclusion.

(ii) For periods after November 30, 1990, you may also use the impairment-related work expense exclusion to establish initial eligibility and reeligibility following a month in which you were not eligible for regular SSI benefits, a federally administered optional State supplementary payment, special SSI cash benefits or special SSI eligibility status.

(b) If you are working and the work you are doing is substantial gainful activity, we will find that you are not disabled regardless of your medical condition or age, education, or work experience. (For our rules on how we decide whether you are engaging in substantial gainful activity, see §§ 416.971 through 416.976.)

(1) If you are an employee, we first consider the criteria in paragraph (a) of this section and § 416.976, and then the guides in paragraphs (b)(2) and (3) of this section. When we review your earnings to determine if you have been performing substantial gainful activity, we will subtract the value of any subsidized earnings (see paragraph (a)(2) of this section) and the reasonable cost of any impairment-related work expenses from your gross earnings (see § 416.976). The resulting amount is the amount we use to determine if you have done substantial gainful activity. We will generally average your earnings for comparison with the earnings guidelines in paragraphs (b)(2) and (3) of this section. See § 416.974a for our rules on averaging earnings.

(c) We deduct your normal business expenses from your gross income to determine net income. Once net income is determined, we deduct the reasonable value of any significant amount of unpaid help furnished by your spouse, children, or others. Miscellaneous duties that ordinarily would not have commercial value would not be considered significant. We deduct impairment-related work expenses that have not already been deducted in determining your net income. Impairment-related work expenses are explained in § 416.976. We deduct unincurred business expenses paid for you by another individual or agency. An unincurred business expense occurs when a sponsoring agency or another person incurs responsibility for the payment of certain business expenses, e.g., rent, utilities, or purchases and repair of equipment, or provides you with equipment, stock, or other material for the operation of your business. We deduct soil bank payments if they were included as farm income. That part of your income remaining after we have made all applicable deductions represents the actual value of work performed. The resulting amount is the amount we use to determine if you have done substantial gainful activity. We will generally average your income for comparison with the earnings guidelines in §§ 416.974(b)(2) and 416.974(b)(3). See § 416.974a for our rules on averaging of earnings. We will consider this amount to be substantial if—

(1) It averages more than the amounts described in § 416.974(b)(2); or

(2) It averages less than the amounts described in § 416.974(b)(2) but it is either comparable to what it was before you became seriously impaired if we had not considered your earnings or is comparable to that of unimpaired self-employed persons in your community who are in the same or a similar business as their means of livelihood.

(5) Earned income you use to pay impairment-related work expenses described in § 416.976 of this chapter, if you are receiving a social security disability insurance benefit, your disabling condition(s) does not include blindness and you are under age 65. We consider that you attain age 65 on the day before your 65th birthday. In lieu of determining the actual amount of these expenses, we will assume that the value of these work expenses is equal to a standard percentage of your total earned income per month if you tell us that you have impairment-related work expenses. The amount we exclude will be equal to the average percentage of gross earnings excluded for SSI recipients who have such expenses. Initially, the exclusion for impairment-related work expenses will be 16.3 percent of the gross earnings. We may adjust the percentages if the average percentage of gross earnings excluded for supplemental security income (SSI) recipients changes. If we make such a change we will publish a notice in the Federal Register. If excluding impairment-related work expenses greater than the standard percentage of your earned income would affect your eligibility or subsidy amount, you may establish that your actual expenses are greater than the standard percentage of your total earned income. You may do so by contacting us and providing evidence of your actual expenses. The exclusion of impairment-related work expenses also applies to the earnings of your living-with spouse if he or she is receiving a social security disability insurance benefit, the disabling condition(s) does not include blindness and he or she is under age 65;

(2) In accordance with the requirements for evaluating that evidence under the SSI program specified in 20 CFR 416.901 through 416.998.