42 U.S.C. § 420 — Disability provisions inapplicable if benefit rights impaired

This section is about the disability-period rules found elsewhere in this part of the Social Security Act. Those disability rules do not apply in a case where using them would cause someone to lose a monthly benefit or a lump-sum death payment that they would otherwise be entitled to receive. The disability rules also do not apply to any monthly benefit or lump-sum death payment if that benefit or payment would end up being a larger amount without the disability rules being applied. In short: whenever applying the disability-period rules would hurt a person's benefit — either by wiping it out or by shrinking it — those rules are simply not used for that benefit.