What to Do for Income While Waiting for Disability

Getting a disability check every month is a huge help. Unfortunately, the waiting period to get disability payments and health insurance coverage— especially Social Security Disability Insurance SSDI and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) — takes years for most applicants.

There are a number of possible alternative income sources while you wait for your application to get approved, but there are also some things to watch out for. Let’s look at your options so you can pay the bills without ever losing eligibility for disability benefits.

Key takeaways

• Disability benefits like SSDI and SSI often take over two years to be approved, so it’s important to plan for income during the waiting period.

• You can explore alternative support options such as SNAP, TANF, housing assistance, and short-term disability benefits to cover basic needs.

• Be careful with earned income limits, as earning too much while applying could affect your eligibility for SSDI or SSI.

• In urgent situations, you may qualify for a “dire need” case, which can speed up your disability claim if your health or safety is at risk.

Watch out for these income limits for SSDI and SSI

Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) both have strict income limits. Earning more than the allowed amount could affect your eligibility or lead to disqualification. That’s why it’s important to understand these limits before taking on gig work or additional side jobs to supplement your income.

With SSDI, that limit is based on your substantial gainful activity (SGA), or SGA for short. SGA is any active income you have, including from jobs. The SGA limit for 2026 is $1,620 (or $2,700 if you’re blind). Earning more than that could disqualify you from SSDI.

SSI doesn’t have the same income cap, but if you earn more than about $994 per month, it will effectively disqualify you from receiving benefits.

Passive income and the value of other benefits may not count, though. Check your income sources with this guide to what income counts for SSI.

To avoid getting disqualified from SSDI or SSI mid-application, you might want to look for financial assistance or income sources that aren’t necessarily a paying job. Let’s look at some of your options.

How to get help with food, housing, and legal assistance

There are various state and federal programs for people with disabilities, though they aren’t always easy to get and may require their own wait times.

One helpful place to start is with Benefits.gov. Filling out the initial questionnaire takes about 30 minutes and provides information on various government benefits for which you may be eligible.

Your state’s Department of Social Services can also help you find state-specific food, housing programs, and childcare.

We also have a guide with various resources for people with disabilities.

Food

You deserve regular, nutritious meals even as you wait for disability benefits. For that, here are three options to explore:

1. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also called food stamps

2. Meals on Wheels if you’re 60 or older

3. Feeding America food banks and pantries

Housing

Your best bet here is to start with public and subsidized housing from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). This HUD resource locator can help you find options near you.

You can also visit your local HUD office to talk through your options with someone in person.

You may also consider the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which provides support with home energy bills.

Legal support

If you’re looking for legal support specifically for your housing — if you’re facing eviction, for example — check out LawHelp.org.

For more general legal support, try your local chapter of the Legal Aid Society. This organization operates offices all over the country to provide free legal aid.

And if you need help specifically with your Social Security disability case, your best option is a disability lawyer. Atticus can get you started with finding a lawyer through our disability benefits quiz. Disability lawyers work on a contingency basis, meaning you only pay a one-time fee if you win benefits.

How to expedite your disability claim

The Social Security Administration (SSA) considers a claim to be a “dire need” case when a person’s financial situation puts their health or safety at risk. In these situations, the SSA may speed up the application review process.

You may qualify as a dire need case if you:

• Do not have stable housing or are currently homeless

• Are at risk of eviction or losing your home to foreclosure

• Are unable to afford or obtain food

• Are facing a shutoff of essential utilities, such as electricity or water

• Cannot access necessary medications or medical treatment

Keep in mind that the SSA typically requires proof that your financial hardship is affecting your ability to meet basic needs like housing, food, or healthcare. Debts such as credit cards or overdue non-essential bills are generally not considered.

5 types of disability benefits

While waiting for disability benefits, there are other benefit programs that may be eligible for, including short-term disability insurance, private disbaility benefits, workers' compensation, or unemployment benefits.

TANF

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) is a federal assistance program that provides short-term financial help to low-income families with children. The program can offer monthly cash assistance, job and employment training, and, in some cases, child care support. TANF is run by individual states, so eligibility requirements, benefit amounts, and rules can vary from state to state.

Short-term disability insurance

While you’re waiting for your federal disability application to process, you might be able to get short-term disability insurance through your state. That said, only five states offer these programs in 2026:

1. California

2. Hawaii

3. New Jersey

4. New York

5. Rhode Island

If you’re fortunate enough to live in one of those states, you can learn more about short-term disability insurance here.

Private disability benefits

Many employers offer private short-term or long-term disability insurance policies at no cost to you. Double-check whether you have access to a policy and what it covers. The catch is that to qualify for payments, you need to have a policy in place before your health condition develops.

If you bought life insurance, there is also a chance that your policy includes a disability insurance rider. Check your individual policy’s details for more details on whether your condition could qualify.

Workers’ compensation

If your disability resulted from a workplace injury or illness, workers’ compensation benefits may be an option for you. Workers’ comp includes regular payments and will cover medical bills as you recover.

However, it’s important to be careful about taking workers’ comp and applying for Social Security disability benefits at the same time. If you get workers’ compensation, the Social Security Administration (SSA) could take that as evidence that you plan to return to work and thus don’t need disability benefits yet.

The key takeaway is that workers’ comp can complicate your disability application. For advice on your specific situation, speak with a disability lawyer. They can help you get a better idea of how workers’ comp would impact your disability application, if at all.

Read more on what to watch out for when applying for disability while on workers’ comp.

Unemployment benefits

Like workers’ compensation, unemployment insurance (UI) benefits can muddy the waters of your SSDI application.

You can certainly apply for SSDI after your unemployment benefits end, but getting unemployment and disability benefits at the same time could disqualify you from SSDI.

In the eyes of the SSA, taking unemployment indicates that you’re able to and plan to return to work. But to have a successful disability claim, you need the SSA to decide that you can’t work.

For advice specific to your situation, talk to a disability lawyer. They can explain whether your unemployment benefits will hurt your SSDI application.

Personal loans

On the one hand, a loan can provide you with the financial assistance you need to get through this transitory time. On the other hand, your disability application isn’t guaranteed to get approved.

If it isn’t, and you have to make loan payments as you go through appeals, you could be adding more financial stress to your plate.

It’s also important to know that even though some lenders offer a “disability loan,” it’s really just a personal loan. Personal loans usually come with high interest rates, which means repaying them will only get harder with each passing week and month.

So while a loan is an option, they aren’t the best option in many cases, and you may want to consider it as a last resort. Far too many people take out short-term loans only to end up with long-term debt.

How to manage your existing debt

If medical debt, credit card debt, car/student loan payments, overdue mortgage payments, or any other kind of debt has you stressing while you wait for your SSDI application to get approved, you can get proactive.

• Call all of your creditors (anyone who’s lent you money). Yes, this will take time. You’ll need to sit on hold and probably make repeat calls. But it can pay off.

• Negotiate your payments. Once you get someone on the line, explain that you’re having a difficult time making payments. Many lenders and medical institutions offer hardship extensions, which may allow them to temporarily adjust your payments.

• Propose a new payment plan. When you have them on the phone, you can also propose a different repayment plan — or even a settlement for a lump sum. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has a detailed debt negotiation overview to help you further explore your options here.

• Consolidate your debt. If you’re dealing with high-interest debt like credit card balances, you might also benefit from looking into debt consolidation. With this option, you take out a loan — usually through something like a debt consolidation loan or equity in your home if you own your place — and use it to pay off your high-interest debt. Then, you just have the one loan to manage.

Before taking out any loans, always make sure you understand the repayment plan, the interest rate, and whether you can actually make those payments. A lot of places that offer debt consolidation are actually predatory, so do your homework.

Where to get help filing a disability appeal

Another stressor you’ll probably deal with d

uring the disability application is a denial from the Social Security Administration (SSA). Most applications don’t get approved on the first go. In fact, the SSA denies about 75% of initial claims, and then applicants need to go through multiple rounds of appeal.

But don’t panic. Getting a denial on your initial application or reconsideration is common. Your odds of disability approval will actually go up if you appeal all the way to the hearing stage. The odds of winning are also three times higher if you work with a lawyer.

Whether you’re submitting your application for the first time or you’ve already been denied, it’s well worth talking to a disability pro. We have a quick questionnaire you can use to get connected to the right person. (Getting matched with a lawyer is free and you never have to pay anything until after you win disability benefits. If you don’t win, you won’t have to pay the lawyer.)

Related resources:

How to Write a Dire Need Letter for Social Security Disability

By Jackie Jakab

Resources for People With Disabilities: Housing, Health Care, Legal Help, and More

By Sydney Hershenhorn