SSI and youth who work a Griffin Hammis production tailored for Minnesota.
There are lots of exciting changes that happened during and after high school,
including entering the world of work.
During this transition.
It's great to explore the type of work that fits you best.
To do that, you might get a job after school or on
weekends.
I would love to get an after school job.
That's fantastic.
Hold on, I get SSI, can I still work if I get SFI?
Absolutely.
There are special SSI rules that support working.
In fact, there's one just for students under the
age of 22.
Really.
I'm only 17 so I'd love to hear more about it.
It's called the Student Earned Income exclusion, or SEIE for short.
With this rule, it's possible to work and still receive
your full SSI benefit.
Seriously.
Yeah, seriously.
Let's say you get $994.00 of SSI.
Then you get a job making $900 a month with SE i.e.
You'd still get $994.00 of SSI.
Plus you'd have $900 from your job.
That's $1894.00 a month, double what you have now.
Holy cow, that's great.
You're absolutely right with the student earned income exclusion,
you'd be earning more money and you'd also get some work experience.
Wait a second, can I earn any amount I want with the
SEIE?
There are limits, but you're going to be amazed at how high
they are.
With the SEIE, you can earn up to $9730 a year and still
get your full SSI benefit.
Isn't that incredible?
Yeah, that's awesome.
Your monthly earnings also have to be below $2410 to keep getting the full SSI.
Those are the 2026 limits, but they usually go up a little each
January.
That's great, but what happens if I earn more than that?
I've got great news about that, too.
In that case, the regular SSI income deductions kick in.
Let me explain.
Let's say you get $994. 00 of SSI and then you get a job making
$900.
After the SEIE is used up, Social Security won't count the 1st $85
of your earnings and then they only count half of the rest.
So instead of getting $994.00 of SSI, you'd get $586 plus.
Add that to your $900.00 of wages, it means a total of $1486.
So you can see earning more money means having more money.
This is amazing.
Can anyone use the SEIE?
Not everyone can use the student earned income exclusion.
To qualify for the SEIE, you must be under 22 years old and
regularly attending school.
Well I'm definitely under 22, but I'm not sure what regularly attending
school means.
You have to be taking one or more classes and attending school for at least 8 hours
a week if you're in college, 12 hours a week if you're in grades seven
through 12, or at least 12 hours a week if you're in
a training program, or 15 if the program has a shot class.
Got it.
I also get medical assistance, can I keep that if I work?
Of course, if you still get SSI when you work,
that means your income is low enough to keep medical assistance.
And if your SSI drops to 0 because of your job,
there are two work incentives that allow you to keep medical assistance.
Wow that's great thank you.
I see what you mean.
It really does pay to work.
You can learn even more on mn.db1o1.org.
Go to the Programs tab, select Supplemental Security Income,
and then select the SSI and Work article.
You can also use the School and Work Estimator to see how you can be better
off of the job.
Or you can get answers to your SSI questions by starting a chat.
To do that, click the chat link at the top or bottom
of each page.
And if you'd like to talk to someone about your SSI questions,
call the Disability Hub MN at 1866 333-2466.
To see more videos like this one, go to MNDB 101 org.
Knowledge is power.
Take time to learn more about I and work.