ÿþWelcome to the Work Incentive Seminar Event, also know as the WISE. My name is Kendra Barry, and I m the Community Work Incentives Coordinator for parts of northern central Indiana. I work with Indiana Works, which is the Work Incentive Planning and Assistance project in northern central Indiana. My colleagues, Jill Skeehan and Denise Norris, as well as the project manager Dennis Born are here today as well.We provide benefits counseling to SSDI and SSI recipients. We help you understand how going back to work will effect your benefits, not only your Social Security, but also your Medicaid, Medicare, food stamps, HUD, all the different benefits that you re receiving.



What can you expect from this seminar?



This is about a 45-minute to an hour presentation of an explanation of the work incentives. And what this is going to do is give you a brief overview of the work incentives available to you as you consider going back to work. Social Security does not force you to go back to work. This is a decision that you have to make on your own, but we are here to let you know about the programs in place to assist you with making that decision. After my presentation, you ll hear from all the other different agencies who can let you know the services that they can provide to you. There are a lot of different reasons that people have for going back to work. Some of the most common ones that we hear are to earn more income, or to get more independence, to learn new skills, or to meet new people. No matter what your reason is for going back to work, we re here to help you accomplish that goal. The disability benefit programs that I mentioned are Social Security Disability Insurance, or SSDI, and Supplemental Security Income, or SSI. The difference between these two programs is that SSDI recipients have worked in the past. They ve paid their FICA taxes and they ve earned enough to reach an insured status, so they re receiving from that or they re receiving from a family member who worked in the past and reached that status. SSI is the Supplemental Security Income program, and that is for people with limited resources and limited income. Usually they haven t worked enough in the past to reach the full insured status or they haven t worked enough close to where they became disabled to reach that status. Some of you may be receiving both SSDI and SSI, and this is known as concurrent benefits. We re going to present the work incentives today by both programs, so we ll review SSDI first and then go over the SSI work incentives, and those of you receiving both benefits will be able to utilize all of the work incentives. 



Social Security has a lot of different programs in place to assist you as you're considering going back to work. The first things that we're going to review are the work incentives and the different programs that can help you. After that we re going to go over the Ticket to Work and how you can use that to get services and actually find a job and keep your job.





There are a lot of questions that I hear as a Community Work Incentives Coordinator, and one of the most common ones is "Will I lose my benefits when I go back to work?" A lot of people assume that their Social Security is just going to stop when they go back to work, and that s not the case. There are a lot of work incentives out there to help you maintain your Social Security or to work your way slowly off benefits so that you're not just left with nothing. Some of the other questions that we hear are  What will happen to my health insurance?   Will I lose my Medicare and Medicaid when I go back to work?  And we ll review that because that s not the case either. People ask how they get the skills that they need to go back to work. With the employment market the way that it is, and trying to find a job, it can be difficult. And that's the point of the Ticket to Work program is that you can actually get assistance in finding a job and keeping that job. And then a common question that we hear from people that are working is "What happens if I lose my job?" or if my symptoms get worse and I m unable to work. And there are work incentives to help with that so that you don t have to go through the whole application process again, and we ll review those.



We re going to review the different work incentive programs, and again we re going to do them by the different programs, the SSDI and then the SSI.



The advantages of the work incentives are that they provide you with a safety net. They allow you to try different jobs, get training, learn new skills, gain confidence and to hopefully start a new career. The point is that you know, going back to work, you re not just going to lose everything. 



The SSDI work incentives start off with a 9-month trial work period. And what this is, is that it s a 9-month period where you can earn any amount of money at all and continue to receive your SSDI. This is a great incentive for people because it allows you that 9 months to know that your SSDI check is not going to stop. After that 9-month trial work period, you go into an automatic reinstatement period for 3 years, and the way that this works--it s called the extended period of eligibility--the way it works is that, say you're working at a job and you re earning $900 a month, but the holidays roll around and you pick up more hours or you end up working overtime and you earn $1,000. Social Security has set a level of money that you--if you earn under, you ll continue to maintain eligibility for SSDI. This is known as substantial gainful activity, or SGA, and that level for 2009 is $980. So if during those holiday months you earned $1,000, you d be over that level. You wouldn t qualify to earn your check for that month

during this 3-year period. But in January if your earnings went back down to $900, you would be eligible again to earn your SSDI check. So that s another work incentive that s available, so you know you re not just going to lose your benefits. After that three-year period, what happens is that if you keep working, and say you go back full time, you re earning above SGA, your Social Security will stop. If during the next 5-year period you lose your job and your symptoms get worse or your disability has gotten worse so that you can t work, you can apply for expedited reinstatement. And the way that this works is that you tell Social Security you would like to apply for this, and they will give you six months of provisional payments instead of having you reapply for Social Security. A lot of people worry that they are going to have to go through the Social Security application process again, and for some people it took years, and with this work incentive, you don t have to do that.



There are other work incentives available to help lower your countable income in order to keep you under SGA so that you can maintain eligibility for the SSDI program. The first work incentive is known as the impairment related work expense. A lot of you probably pay out of pocket for medication costs. Even if you have Medicaid and Medicare you probably still have a co-pay, or to see the doctor there are co-pays or for any equipment that you might need, whether it s a cane or prosthetic device, wheelchairs, things that like that. If you re paying for those, you can apply for an impairment related work expense. What you do is you write up a form of what you're paying monthly. If, say, you're paying $50 a month for doctors' visits co-pays and medication costs and you re earning $1,000. With just that $1,000, you re over that SGA level of $980, but if you apply for the $50 impairment related work expense, Social Security will subtract $50 dollars from that $1,000, so your countable income is only $950. And that would make it that you could maintain eligibility for the SSDI program.



Another work incentive that can help you lower your countable income is the subsidy, and this one s a little bit more difficult to explain, but the way it works is that if you go back to work, sometimes you might have to take extra breaks or your supervisor may help you with some tasks or co-workers may assist you with completing some tasks. The subsidy allows you to figure out how much work you're doing versus what you're getting paid. And what you do is tell Social Security you d like to apply for the subsidy, and they send your supervisor a form to complete. They will ask questions about do you take extra breaks? Do you have a different schedule because of your disability? Are you receiving any assistance? And Social Security will determine what your countable income is based on that. So these work incentives are great. They can be used after the completion of your trial work period, and they can help you to maintain eligibility for the SSDI program.



A lot of people worry about their health insurance when they go back to work. They think that if they go back to work part time, they ll lose their Medicare or Medicaid but they won t qualify for employer's benefits, and that s not the case either. With Medicare, your Medicare will continue for at least 93 months after the completion of your trial work period. That s seven years and nine months that you ll have continued health care coverage through Medicare after your trial work period. After that time you may even be able to apply for extended Medicare coverage depending on your situation.



The SSI work incentives are a lot different than the SSDI work incentives, and we re going to cover those now. Again, for those of you receiving both benefits, all of these work incentives are going to apply to you. The way working affects SSI payments is that pretty much any earnings you have are going to affect your SSI payment. Social Security disregards the first $85 that you earn, they don t count it, and then they divide by half. So the example on the screen, if you earn $885, Social Security is going to count half of that, $400 is what they re going to count; because they ignore the $85, and that brings you down $800, and then they count half.With that $400 that they re counting, you would still be eligible to receive an SSI payment of $274. Combined with the $885 that you earned, you have well over $1,000, which is much more than the SSI program provides. The federal benefit rate this year is $674 for SSI recipients. So it s a good work incentive, and for most people going back to work is going to be extremely beneficial, even if your SSI payment is lowered.



You can apply for impairment related work expenses with the SSI program as well, although it's different than with the SSDI program. With the SSI program if you re paying $50 out of pocket for medication or for doctors' co-pays and things, you can apply for the impairment related work expense, and Social Security will give you back half of that money. So you would get $25 addition on your SSI check to help cover those costs so that you can continue to work and it's not as difficult for you to afford to work. A lot of people question what will happen to their SSI if they go back to work full-time. The SSI program is great because they figure your payments monthly. The way it works is that they count your earnings each month to figure what your payment is, so just like the previous example I gave for SSDI, if you work more during the holiday season, you may not qualify for SSI the month of December because you picked up the overtime, but the following month you would qualify for your SSI check again. So that s a great work incentive and something to keep in mind when you go back to work.



You also should know that with the SSI program there is an extended Medicaid coverage. The work incentive's known as 1619(b), and it allows you to have Medicaid coverage up to an earning level of around $32,000 this year. That means you could go back to work full time and continue to have Medicaid coverage up to a certain level, so that s a great thing to know. For most people, once you reach that level you most likely qualify for employer health benefits, so it s a good program. The Plan to Achieve Self-Support is another work incentive available to SSI recipients, and what this is is a program that allows you to set aside either some of or all of your earned income and maintain eligibility for SSI. The way that it works is, say you re working part-time. You earn $400 a month. You can set aside that money into a PASS account and continue to receive the full amount of SSI instead of having that money counted against you and your SSI payment lowered. The PASS money has to be used for certain things. It can be used for further training, education, going back to school and things, or specialized devices that you may need that are related to going back to work. Like if you needed a specialized tool set or a telephone to help you hear better, things like that. The PASS program is a great program out there, and we can assist you with learning more about that if you re interested. If you re receiving both SSI and SSDI, then all of these work incentives that I ve just presented to you are available.



One of the main programs that you can use is the Ticket to Work. The Ticket to Work allows you to utilize an employment network to receive services and training. Your Social Security employment team is made up of a lot of different groups, starting with the employment network. They provide the one-on-one service to help you do résumé preparation, interview skills training, job coaching and things like that. They're going to work with you one on one to actually find a job . The work incentive planning and assistance projects, the WIPAs, would be myself with Indiana Works and my colleagues. We provide benefits counseling. We'll explain to you exactly what will happen to your benefits when you go back to work. And again, not only the Social Security, but also other benefits you're receiving. The operations support manager, Maximus, can answer questions that you may have regarding Social Security, such as the Ticket to Work program and questions like that. The state protection advocacy can assist you with conflict resolution, they can answer questions that you may have, and they can help you with any other problems that you're having. Social Security Employees are there to answer questions for you regarding your Social Security. If your payments change or when you became eligible, things like that.



Social Security is committed to working with people with disabilities, they are also at the forefront of hiring people with disabilities; so they are very aware of what's going on and are there to help you. This is an example of the Ticket to Work. Most people received the Ticket to Work years ago. It came in the mail, and people didn't know what to do with it. You can call this number that's listed up here, it's also in your PowerPoint presentation, you can call and find out if you have a ticket and if you can utilize this program. The employment networks are who will take your Ticket to Work. They can be private companies, public organizations, state vocational rehabilitation agencies, employment agencies, schools; a lot of different groups are out there to take your Ticket. 



The advantages of using the Ticket to Work is that you have no medical reviews while the Ticket is in use, and this is a great advantage. It's probably the number one advantage of using the Ticket. The other advantages are that the services are free; the job coaching services, the résumé preparation, finding the job. These services are free, and by assigning your Ticket to an employment network, you get to utilize these services. If you're unhappy with the employment network that you choose, you are free to change your agency. You can change to a different employment network that better suits your needs. When it comes to choosing an employment network there are a lot of things to keep in mind. I always suggest to people that you write down what you're looking for. What kind of services you need, what your job goal is going to be, and what you need their assistance with.



Some of the services that the different employment networks can offer are skills testing, interest testing, résumé preparation, job coaching, on-site job assistance, and then follow-along training. You need to decide what's important to you. What service do you need or don't you need? Some people may need more services than others, and it's important to know what you're looking for when it comes to choosing an agency. When you contact the different agencies, you can tell them what your work goal is and what your disability is. Some agencies specify which disabilities they actually work with. Other agencies are better at getting people jobs in certain areas. So it's important to talk with them and tell them what your situation is. You can ask about their success rate and find out how they place people and how they work with people. You should also find out what they expect from you as well as tell them what you expect from them. It's good to talk with them and just see how you feel. After you've spoken with them or called them up, you should note whether or not they made you feel welcome, if you felt like you were going to be able to work with them and if they were going to meet your needs. You can find out if you're going to develop your work goal together. Are they going to take into consideration your wants and your needs? Right now we are going to have the different employment networks come up and talk to you a little about their services and about how they can assist you with your job search.