Key Takeaways
- A 64-year-old who collects Social Security and took a seasonal job paying under $2,000 a month stays under 2026’s $24,480 earnings limit, even if she works all 12 months at $2,000.
- Below full retirement age, Social Security holds back $1 of benefits for every $2 of wages above the limit, and it counts wages from every job she works that year.
- Benefits held back under the limit aren’t lost: at full retirement age, Social Security raises the monthly benefit to give credit for those months.
- She still has to tell Social Security she’s working, and next year’s limit goes up to $25,560.
If you’re collecting Social Security before full retirement age and picking up a seasonal job, here’s some relief: a paycheck under $2,000 a month won’t cost you a dime of benefits this year, as long as it’s your only paycheck.
A 64-year-old woman posting in Reddit’s r/SocialSecurity forum is in exactly that spot. She’s already collecting benefits and just started a seasonal part-time job paying less than $2,000 a month. She asked one thing: “How do I let SS know I’m working?”
She’ll need to tell Social Security, and it doesn’t take much. But the bigger relief for her is that the job won’t cost her any benefits.
She has room to spare under this year’s limit
At 64, she’s under full retirement age, so Social Security’s earnings test applies to her. For 2026, the limit is $24,480 of wages for anyone who won’t reach full retirement age until a later year. For every $2 she earns above it, Social Security holds back $1 of benefits. Only wages count toward it. Pensions, annuities, investment income and interest don’t.
If she worked all 12 months at $2,000, she’d earn $24,000, which leaves her $480 under the limit. And since a seasonal job won’t run all year, she should end up well below it. So Social Security holds back nothing, and every benefit check comes in full.
6 safe dividend stocks paying retirees 6%+ yields
There are over 100 stocks paying 6%+ annual dividends today.
But after an extensive investment review leveraging TIKR’s proprietary data, we now believe only six of them are truly safe for retirees.
They’re all yours for free as part of our new investment report, which you can access right here.
A second paycheck this year could change that
Social Security counts every dollar of wages she earns in 2026, from any job, against that limit. So say she’d also earned $20,000 at another job earlier this year, and the seasonal job pays $2,000 a month for three months. That’s $26,000 in wages between the two jobs, or $1,520 over the limit. At $1 for every $2, Social Security would hold back $760 of her benefits.
Even then, the $760 isn’t gone for good. Once she reaches full retirement age, Social Security recalculates her benefit to give her credit for the months it held back, so her monthly check goes up from then on. She doesn’t have to apply for it, either. The credit comes as a bigger check every month from full retirement age on, with no lump-sum refund.
Telling Social Security takes one form
Now for her question. Social Security’s page on what to report while getting retirement benefits asks anyone under full retirement age to tell it in two cases: if they start working after saying they wouldn’t, or if they expect to earn more than they estimated. One way to do that is to sign in to her online account and find Form SSA-795 (Statement of Claimant or Other Person). She fills it in with a short note about the job and the date she started, then uploads it. If she told Social Security she’d keep working when she applied, it also sends her a form each year to estimate her earnings.
That estimate matters, since Social Security adjusts her benefits based on it. People who underestimate their earnings, or report them late, can end up owing back an overpayment. So if the seasonal job turns into more hours or a raise, she should update her estimate right away.
Next year’s limit gives her a little more room
If the job runs into 2027, whatever she earns next year counts against next year’s limit, which goes up to $25,560. Each year’s wages are measured against that year’s limit, so nothing she earned in 2026 carries over. At $2,000 a month for all 12 months, she’d be $1,560 under it. She’d only lose benefits if a raise, more hours or a second job took her wages past that line.
Frankly, this is about as good as it gets for a retiree picking up extra work: the paycheck is all hers, and the only chore is a form.
Enjoy your retirement in style with these safe 6%+ dividend yields
Dividends can hold the key to enormous wealth. But only if you buy the right ones.
Picking the right high-yield dividend stock can be the difference between a dream retirement…and scraping by every month, waiting for the next Social Security check to clear.
We’ve identified six stocks yielding 6%+ that we believe every retiree should know about right now.
Disclaimer:
Please note that the articles on TIKR are not intended to serve as investment or financial advice from TIKR or our content team, nor are they recommendations to buy or sell any stocks. We create our content based on TIKR Terminal’s investment data and analysts’ estimates. Our analysis might not include recent company news or important updates. TIKR has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading, and happy investing!
