If you are a blind person who works while receiving Social Security benefits, special rules apply to you.

* You can earn up to $1,330 a month in the year 2003 before your earnings affect your benefits.

* If your earnings are too high to receive disability benefits, you are still eligible for a disability "freeze." This means that those years in which you had low or no earnings because of your disability will not be counted in figuring your future benefits, which are based on your average earnings over your worklife.

* If you are age 55 to 65, a more lenient rule is used to determine your inability to work. It says that you can receive disability benefits if you cannot do the same or similar work you did before you reached age 55 or became blind, whichever is later. (The regular rule requires that a disabled person be unable to do any type of work in the general economy.) For more information on special rules for blind persons, ask Social Security for the booklet, If You Are Blind Or Have Low Vision—How We Can Help (Publication No. 05-10052).