I heard a presentation at a support group meeting on SSI benefits that explained how the SSI benefit may decrease depending on the reported (note this is required) earned income, but the total amount of income (SSI + earned income) is still going to be greater than the SSI alone until a certain point is reached at which I expect you will be very glad your loved one is earning some income, even if they are not getting rich! The SSA also has a plan that is a trial and error time period of sorts and it does not take away their benefits during that time, in case the job doesnāt work out, and they get a certain number of attempts or timeframe to use up their attempts. Someone else would have to explain this better, but I thought it seemed like a good way to go about this.