Do I need to report Social Security benefits to TWC when requesting payment?
I started getting Social Security retirement benefits last month, and I'm still collecting Texas unemployment. When I do my payment request every two weeks, I'm confused about whether I need to report my Social Security as income? The TWC website asks about any "work or earnings" but Social Security isn't from working. Has anyone dealt with this? I don't want to accidentally commit fraud, but I also don't want to lose my unemployment if I don't have to. Thanks for any advice!
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Raúl Mora
You have to report it. My brother got in trouble for this last year.
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Arjun Kurti
•Oh no, really? Did he have to pay back benefits?
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Margot Quinn
Social Security retirement benefits are NOT considered earned income for TWC purposes. You don't need to report these when requesting payment. The question specifically asks about work and earnings, not all income sources. Retirement benefits, disability, investments, etc. aren't counted as work income. Just make sure you're still doing your required work searches each week!
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Raúl Mora
•This is WRONG. My brother had to pay back $5000 in benefits because he didnt report his SS. TWC counts it!!!
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Evelyn Kim
•Guys, there's some confusion here. Regular Social Security retirement benefits don't need to be reported to TWC during payment requests. The system is asking about work income, not unearned income like retirement benefits. However, if you're receiving Social Security Disability (SSDI), that's a different situation and could affect your unemployment eligibility entirely. Here's what TWC actually says: When requesting payment, you must report any work or earnings during the claim period. Social Security retirement is not considered work or earnings.
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Diego Fisher
I'm on both too! Been collecting since February and never reported my SS. No problems at all with my payments.
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Evelyn Kim
To the person whose brother had to repay benefits - there must be more to the story. Was he on regular Social Security retirement or SSDI? Did he have other unreported income? Did he fail work search requirements? TWC doesn't count regular Social Security retirement as disqualifying income that needs to be reported during payment requests.
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Raúl Mora
•idk all the details, he just told me he got in trouble for not reporting it. maybe it was something else
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Henrietta Beasley
I had so much trouble with this exact thing! Last year I spent 3 WEEKS trying to get through to TWC to ask this question and kept getting busy signals or disconnected. The whole system is designed to make you fail! They don't explain anything clearly and then punish you for making mistakes. I finally found a service called Claimyr that got me through to a TWC agent within 30 minutes when I'd been trying for weeks. The agent told me I did NOT need to report Social Security retirement benefits. Check out their demo video if you're having trouble reaching someone: https://youtu.be/V-IMvH88P1U?si=kNxmh025COIlIzKh Their website is claimyr.com - saved me so much anxiety!
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Arjun Kurti
•Thank you! I was thinking about calling them but kept putting it off because of how frustrating it is to get through. I'll check out that service.
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Lincoln Ramiro
•does this actually work? i've been trying to reach TWC for days about my claim
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Henrietta Beasley
•Yes it worked for me! After so many wasted hours trying to call them myself, it was totally worth it. The agent I got was super helpful and cleared up my confusion right away.
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Faith Kingston
Just to provide some technical clarification here: Social Security retirement benefits are considered unearned income and do NOT need to be reported when requesting TWC unemployment payments. TWC is specifically asking about work income/wages. However, while you don't need to report it during payment requests, your weekly benefit amount (WBA) may have been calculated with your Social Security taken into consideration if you were already receiving it when you applied for unemployment. TWC does reduce some people's weekly benefit amount based on pension or retirement payments, including Social Security, but this happens during the initial benefit calculation - not during your biweekly payment requests. So once your claim is established, you just report work income during payment requests, not Social Security.
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Arjun Kurti
•Thank you for explaining this so clearly! I actually started receiving Social Security AFTER I was already on unemployment, so they wouldn't have factored it in initially. Does that change anything?
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Faith Kingston
•That's a good question. Technically, you should notify TWC of this change through your correspondence inbox on the UI portal. They may recalculate your WBA going forward. But again, during your biweekly payment requests, you still only report work income, not the Social Security benefits.
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Lincoln Ramiro
my aunt gets both and she doesnt report it. system only asks about work
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Diego Fisher
Does anyone know if this same rule applies to my pension from my old job? I get unemployment and a small pension payment every month. Been reporting the pension but maybe I don't need to?
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Faith Kingston
•Pensions can be different from Social Security. If your pension is from an employer that's part of your base period for unemployment, TWC might reduce your benefits. But again, this usually happens at the claim setup, not during payment requests. The biweekly payment request is primarily concerned with new work and earnings during that specific period.
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