Learn how to report your wages to keep Social Security informed about your work and how much money you are making.

How to Report Your Wages

To prevent overpayments from Social Security, you should regularly report your wages. If you receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI), report wages to Social Security on a monthly basis within six days of the end of each month.

If you receive Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and/or SSI payments, or are the representative payee for someone receiving SSDI and/or SSI, you may be able to report wages through the my Social Security online wage reporting service. If you are the spouse, parent, or sponsor of someone receiving SSI, you may also report your wages online. To report wages online, you must have your own my Social Security account.

SSI recipients and the spouse, parent(s), sponsor(s), and representative payees of SSI recipients may report wages by the telephone or mobile app.

For more information about these electronic wage reporting methods, please visit the SSI Spotlight on Automated Wage Reporting Tools or call the toll-free number 1-800-772-1213 or 1-800-325-0778 (TTY) and ask how you can report wages using the system or application.

Regardless of which method you use to report wages, if you receive SSI, you can sign up online to receive a monthly email or text message wage reporting reminder. To sign up online, select "Sign up, here!" and enter the requested information.

If necessary, you can report your wages by faxing, mailing or bringing pay stubs to your local Social Security office. You can report changes in your work activity by calling our toll-free number 1-800-772-1213 between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., Monday through Friday. Find an office near you by visiting the Social Security office locator.

If you decide to report your earnings by mail, you may want to use "certified" mail to protect the security of your information and ensure that it arrives at Social Security. Note: there is a cost to send certified mail and Social Security does not require you to use it.

If you receive both SSDI and SSI, when you report your earnings, it may be helpful for you to make two copies of your information; one copy for Social Security staff who handle the SSDI program and another copy for staff who handle the SSI program. You are not required to do this, but if you decide to, having two copies of your wage information may make it easier for Social Security to process your wages.

If you cannot get two copies of your wage information, or prefer to work with a single copy, you can write on your paystub's memo line or near the account owner’s address at the top that you receive both SSDI and SSI benefits.

Be sure to keep records, such as pay stubs, pay records and bank statements, to verify your earnings if needed in the future. Refer to the Income Reporting For Social Security Disability Benefits chart for more information about what you must report — either as earnings from work or other income.