Determining Disability

If you get a railroad disability annuity and still work a little, here are the 2026 numbers to know: $1,320 a month and $15,840 a year.

Those are the allowable earnings limits for disability annuitants under retirement age. Earn more, and the Railroad Retirement Board must withhold or deduct from your annuity. A final rule effective September 9, 2026, rewrites the Board’s regulations so they finally match the formula in the Railroad Retirement Act.

Why the rewrite? Before 2007, the limits were fixed in law at $400 a month and $4,800 a year. The Railroad Retirement Disability Earnings Act of 2007 raised the monthly limit to $700 and tied it to growth in the national average wage index. The Board followed the new formula in practice and told annuitants by letter each year, but its written rules still showed the old numbers.

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One more change to watch. The law says no deduction is made if you go over the yearly limit by less than half of one month’s limit. Because of that, the Board has been listing the 2026 annual limit as $16,500 instead of $15,840. Starting with 2027, the Board says its notices will show the strict statutory annual amount.

The Board did not ask for comments because the law sets the formula. Questions go to Peter J. Orlowicz, Senior Counsel, Railroad Retirement Board, 844 North Rush Street, Chicago, IL 60611-1275, (312) 751-4922.

Federal Register filing: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/08/10/2026-16250/determining-disability

This is a Notice Nearby publisher-desk Federal brief — a short in-house summary of a public federal filing. It is not official agency minutes, not a newspaper story, and not Legal Publication. It does not satisfy a statutory notice requirement.