I'm on SSDI; if i am able to earn the amount allowed without losing benefits, would i have earned enough credit to increase my benefit at FRA?

Hi,

Not necessarily. Your benefit rate would only increase if you earn more in a year than you did in one of the years previously used to compute your Social Security disability (SSDI) benefit rate.

SSDI benefits are based on an average of a variable number of earnings years depending on a person's age at the time they became disabled. For example, say a person became disabled at age 40. In that case their SSDI rate would be calculated based on an average of their highest roughly 15 years of wage-indexed earnings (https://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/handbook/handbook.07/handbook-0700.html). Such a person could raise their SSDI rate or future Social Security retirement benefit rate if they subsequently return to work, but only if they earn a higher amount in some subsequent year than the amount of earnings they were credited with in one or more of the 15 years previously used to calculate their SSDI rate.

Best, Jerry