SSDI's $1,690/month SGA cliff eliminates 100% of benefits when a disabled worker earns $1 over the threshold

SSDI beneficiaries who earn even $1 above the Substantial Gainful Activity (SGA) threshold of $1,690/month (2026) lose their entire monthly benefit check after their Trial Work Period and Extended Period of Eligibility end -- there is no gradual phase-out. A beneficiary receiving $1,500/month in SSDI who earns $1,691 from part-time work loses all $1,500 in benefits, resulting in a net income decrease despite working more. Why it matters: disabled workers face an all-or-nothing earnings cliff, so they deliberately limit their work hours to stay below SGA, so millions of people with disabilities who could contribute productively to the economy remain underemployed, so the federal government pays more in total benefits than it would under a gradual offset, so taxpayers bear higher costs while disabled individuals remain trapped in poverty. The structural root cause is that SSDI was designed in 1956 with a binary disabled/not-disabled framework and Congress has failed to pass legislation replacing the cash cliff with the $1-for-$2 gradual benefit offset that the Bipartisan Policy Center and disability advocates have proposed for over a decade.