Does plasma donation debit card income need to be reported to Social Security?

they dont care about that stuff lol. its not a job

YES YOU ABSOLUTELY NEED TO REPORT IT!!!!! Social Security counts EVERYTHING as income. I lost my benefits for 6 months because I didn't report some side gig money. They're looking for ANY reason to cut people off. Don't risk it!!!

This is actually a bit complicated. For SSDI specifically, only earned income from work activity counts toward the Substantial Gainful Activity (SGA) limits. Plasma donation payments are generally considered unearned income because you're not performing a service or labor - you're being compensated for a biological product. Unearned income doesn't affect SSDI benefits, but it WOULD affect SSI benefits if you were receiving those instead. That said, it's always best to report any income to be safe. You can call your local office to confirm this specific situation.

when I was on benefits i did like a million things for extra cash and never reported nothin and nobody ever said anything to me about it

I dealt with this exact question last year. The plasma donation payments are considered unearned income, so they don't count toward the SSDI earnings limit (which is $1,550/month for 2025 if you're not in the trial work period). However, you should still report it on your annual SSA-455 continuing disability review form in the section that asks about other income. The payments won't affect your SSDI eligibility or payment amount, but transparency is important. Keep in mind if you ever switch to SSI, then all income (earned and unearned) affects your benefit amount.

I tried calling the SSA directly to ask something similar and spent THREE DAYS trying to get through to someone. Kept getting disconnected or told the wait time was over 2 hours. Finally I found this service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that got me through to a real person at Social Security in about 20 minutes. They have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/Z-BRbJw3puU The agent told me that for SSDI, plasma donation payments don't count as earned income because it's not employment. So it doesn't affect the SGA limit. But she still recommended documenting everything just in case.

My brother donates plasma and he's on benefits too. I remember him saying that he mentioned it during his review and they said it was fine. Doesn't count as work. I think there's a difference between income from working vs. other types of money you receive. At least that's what my brother said the SS people told him.

I still don't trust those SSA people. Even if it's technically allowed, they can use ANYTHING against you in a continuing disability review. If they see you're healthy enough to donate plasma regularly, they might decide you're healthy enough to work! It's all so subjective!

Thanks everyone for the advice! I'm going to document all my plasma donation payments just to be safe, but it sounds like I don't need to worry about it affecting my SSDI since it's not earned income from employment. I'll probably still mention it during my next medical review just to be transparent. I'm so relieved - this extra money really helps with my medication costs that insurance doesn't fully cover.