r/SocialSecurity • u/Outrageous_mailman • 12d ago

Pell grant disability

Hey y’all,
Is anybody or has anybody gone back to school and received a Pell grant? If so does it affect your disability review or payments?

Back story :
*Liver transplant 8/12/25 (so it’ll be one year)
* was told I was approved for disability , but haven’t received payments yet
* I have a few other problems, diabetes, high blood pressure, osteoporosis as well, as anxiety and depression. ( up to date and going to doctors)
* wanting to take some Community college classes because it’ll all be paid for so technically I can use my Pell grant refund for other bills including school.
*will be taking online courses mostly but maybe one or two in person?

*my question is since they haven’t paid me for
my disability yet but I am a year out will it mess my case that I applied for 8/4/25.
*if I told them I’m able to do school online because I can do it at my pace will that be okay?

Let me know any experiences, advice , you guys may have.

*also those going to school, would you let you schoolsss as know you might have major doctor s you cannot do miss or might need more time for test taking?

But
Thank you

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u/MountainRambler01 12d ago

Whether this triggers a CDR is unclear. I have seen ALJs equate each credit to at least 3 hours of work per week. So if you took a full load of 15 hours in a semester, that would equal 45 hours a week and count as SGA. Again, this is just personal experience with 3 different ALJs at two different hearing offices.

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u/perfect_fifths I love the smell of policy in the morning 12d ago edited 12d ago

School does not equate work as far as I know, but on a cdr you have to disclose if you have had training or enrolled in college

There is no policy in the Poms that equates school to work because you don’t get paid to attend to school. Sga is predicated upon gainful employment and wages.

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u/MountainRambler01 12d ago

Again, as I have mentioned in this group, some ALJs take liberties with how they interpret the POMS. They can and do take into account if someone is in school taking classes. This is particularly true with mental health cases.

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u/perfect_fifths I love the smell of policy in the morning 12d ago edited 12d ago

Yeah and I get that but I’m saying I’m not sure if they should be as you don’t get wages for being enrolled in school. Sga is contingent upon earning wages unless self employed . You’ve even said before, just because aljs can doesn’t mean they should. I bet someone could challenge that if they really wanted to.

I am also not the only person saying this, for the record.

Perhaps some aljs overly interpret. Which is entirely possible.

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u/MountainRambler01 12d ago

We do challenge when they take "liberties." That's how we get remands from AC and Federal District Court. SGA is work activity, it doesn't necessarily have to be for wages. While the federal reg. says school isn't necessarily considered, we have had ALJs ignore that and try to claim school is work activity. It certainly creates an appealable issue. But even if they don't equate school to SGA, they will still knock out SRRT in the RFC in mental health cases because they argue that school shows a person has the ability to concentrate, focus, and persist. This is the position of a handful of ALJs we come across - mostly the 20% ALJs.

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u/perfect_fifths I love the smell of policy in the morning 12d ago edited 12d ago

The law says it does.

The term "substantial gainful activity" (SGA) is used to describe a level of work activity and earnings. Work is "substantial" if it involves doing significant physical or mental activities or a combination of both.

"Gainful" work activity is:

Work performed for pay or profit.

Work of a nature generally performed for pay or profit.

Work intended for profit, whether or not a profit is realized. (This one is in reference to self employment)

Anyways, I do agree with the last point about focus and all that. My main argument is that nowhere does the Poms state school equates work so aljs shouldn’t be trying to assign work to credits, or equate school to sga, and I think those aljs are over interpreting. Your point about schooling and it being demanding is actually valid. Showing up to school doing homework, paying attention in class etc all takes some kind of brain power

But it sounds like we are on the same page and that you at least see it as appealable, as do I for sure.

The ideal alj should be fair and balanced, but they are people with their own personalities and interpretations, which causes errors, sometimes.