Hi there member_888 and 7658jds! Thank you so much both of you for responding! I've had a rough day physically today so this is the first I've even checked back to see if there was any reply to my posting and it was so nice to find there was.
Thanks member_888 also for the BibCrumbs referral link as I really didn't have anyone else's to use and would much rather use yours than signing up by going straight to their website. I did read their terms of service and a 1099 is initiated after $600 in earnings.
It was helpful to read, member_8880, that you've made about $250 a year tops so far. It does sound like I don't really have to worry about making too much. So, I've decided to sign up as a CrumbEarner and see where it leads me to. In this economy any little "crumb" will help... that's for sure!!!
Also, I did manage to get a call into the National Social Security Office today and asked them this question. It turns out that 7658jds is right about being allowed to earn about $1,000 a month. Actually, they told me the limit is $980 a month before it would affect my benefits. This is all news to me and I can see that I have a lot to learn yet about SSD. I've only been on it since last Spring so I'm still very much a novice to the whole system.
The lady I spoke at SSD today did check with her supervisor about whether BigCrumbs earning would be considered "earned" income and was told that they thought it would probably be catagorized as "unearned", but also said since it was a "special" type of income they really suggested that I check with my local Social Security office to be sure... because they would be the office that would have the final determination as to how the income would be treated if it did become an issue.
Of course, I tried to call my local office three times today and everytime I waited through the whole recording only to be told by another recording that because of call volume no one was available to take my call and then their phone system just hangs up on you... which I think stinks that you don't even get to leave a voicemail message at least. They're probably hoping people will just give up and I did.
I appreciated learning what you know, 7658jds, about how SSD goes about recouping any overpayments they consider they've made to someone... because I didn't have a clue how it would work. I'm also sorry to hear that you've been disabled now for so many years and hope you're managing fairly well considering. My SSD award letter says that they will review my case again in 5 to 7 years... so we'll see how I'm doing when that time comes, but it's been hard for me for awhile now, but I do manage to hang in there... just have to!
Thank you both again for writing to me! -Mary