Good afternoon everybody or good morning if you're on the other side of the country. This is Ray Cebula from Cornell University’s Employment and Disability Institute. An I’d like to welcome you today’s WISE event. Our work incentive seminar event. You are participating through a webinar process called gotowebinar. And I’d like to take you through the technology that is involved with today's webinar so that you can participate as fully as possible. On the right-hand corner of your screen you should have a webinar console. You are connected automatically using the mic and speakers from your computer. If at anytime during today’s presentation you are having difficulty hearing us, with your computer microphone and speakers, you can dial in on the phone and hear the presentation. Just click on the plus sign on your audio link, the audio box in your console. That was will open up, and you can click, push the button on use telephone. When you do push that button, today's dial-in information, access code and audio PIN will appear and you'll be able to connect via telephone. We do want to have your questions and we want to hear what you think. So, if you have a question to pose to today's panel, please open up your question box by clicking on the plus sign in front of the word question. It’s going to give you this question box. You can type in your question. Click send, and it will appear on our desktop. Jayme Pendergraft will monitor our question box today. We do have a rather large audience and I can assure you, because of that, we will not get to every question. So, Jayme will pick some that pertain to the most people, at least according to her belief. If your question is not answered directly, we want you to contact your local WIPA office or The Work Center. We will give you that information towards the end of today’s webinar. So, that being said, I do want to talk about webinar accessibility. We strive to make these webinars as accessible as possible. There are many sorts of accessibilities and we want to hear from you about how this webinar worked for you individually. If you do have an issue, we would love to hear about it. If you have a system or method that would help us improve our delivery, for accessibility purposes, please let us know. That’ an important point for us. I want to ask you a couple of questions. What I am going to do right now is launch a polling question and ask you what age group you fall into. You can make a selection, I will give everybody a few seconds, to get that information to us, you all are going fast, that is great. That is looking wonderful. Thank you very very much. One more question. Would you select a gender please. Alright, everybody is fast on the trigger today. Thank you very much. This information helps us make the webinar more direct. Now what we want you to indicate here is how many folks are with you at your computer screen. Are you there in the room alone or are there a bunch of people in the room with you? This gives us a great indication of how many people are actually listening in today. Alright. Great. That was very very helpful. We will have a couple of more questions for you at the end. And today's agenda, will start with talking with David who is a community work incentive coordinator with the Department of Vocational Services at the Maine Medical Center. He will be giving us the WISE presentation. We’ll then talk with employment network, Debbie Gilmer is the director for project development at the Center for Self- Determination. We will move on to a vocational rehabilitation presentation, Alison Trussel, from the Vocational Rehabilitation Center, the Maine Bureau of Rehabilitation Services, and Mel Clarridge is with us to talk about protection and advocacy program for beneficiaries of Social Security. I’m going to hand it over to David now to begin his presentation. Take it away David. David Dubay: Alright, thanks Ray. And thanks for all of you for joining us today. So the WISE event. What does WISE stand for? This is a Work Incentive Seminar Event. Is a program of Social Security. And the purpose is to explain to you what happens to your SSI, SSDI benefits when you return to work. What are some of the advantages of working are and also, information about the Ticket to Work program. Next slide please. What can we expect from the seminar. We will be talking about what is SSI, what is SSDI, what are some of the differences. What are the incentives that Social Security provides to you to support your goal of returning to work. And we’ll also take a look at some of the resources that are available to you to help you with that. Such as, employment networks, vocational rehabilitation, and the Ticket to Work program. Next slide please. So, reasons to work. A lot of times when people talk to me about why they want to return work, more money is the primary reason. People want to be able to make ends meet. They want to be able to improve the standard of living that they have. And return to work can certainly help you do that. Also a lot of other benefits to returning to work. These are things like achieving greater independence. Greater life satisfaction. Getting out there, being able to meet new people. Learn new skills. I'm sure that there are many other reasons that people have for returning to work. And, next slide. Some of the questions that people tend to have. As community work incentive coordinator, when I meet with folks who are looking at return to work and they wonder what will happen to their benefits, one of the big questions they have is what happens to my check? What happens to, if I had Medicaid, if I had Medicare, do I get to keep those benefits? What happens if I try working and it does not work out, and I have to stop working? Can I get my check back, or does it stay in place? Also, what if my job goals requires additional skills? What if I want to go back to school? Learn something new. How does all of that fit into the picture? Next slide please. First I would like to go over some of the technical language. We throw around these acronyms like SSI, SSDI. What do we mean by these things? Social Security Disability Insurance is SSDI. And insurance really is the key word. When we are talking about Social Security Disability Insurance. What happens with Social Security Disability Insurance, or SSDI, is that most folks have a prior work history. They pay taxes, they paid into the Social Security system. That’s kind of like paying a premium into an insuarance program. And the when someone becomes disabled, they are then able to claim the benefits from Social Security based on that past work history. With SSI, this is Supplemental Security Income. Supplemental is the key word here. Sometimes, what can happen here is you have someone who has not paid enough into the Social Security system to get a SSDI benefit and so they need something to supplement that. Or, maybe somebody does get SSDI but it is a smaller amount than they deem to be the minimum that people should be receiving. For example, on SSI will pay up to $674 a month for a single individual. What if your SSDI is $300? And a case like that, you'll get two checks, the SSDI and also the SSI to supplement the SSDI and bring you up to the $674 level. Some folks who don't receive SSDI, receive straight SSI. They get a straight monthly check of $674. At the bottom there, and mentions that if you hear the phrase concurrent, that means that you get two checks a month. Next slide please. So, how can Social Security help with your goal of returning to work and there are two primary things that we will be talking about. With work incentives, these are programs that Social Security has put into place for for both SSI and SSDI. To assist people with keeping their cash benefit or a least keep part of it as they return to work. Or, if they are working above a certain level, to be able to get their check back if they have to stop working. Also, work incentives include programs to assist people with keeping their medical insurance in place as they return to work. And then Ticket to Work, it is a more specific program within this. And what Ticket to Work does is enables you to access services to help you with that job search to help you access, if you’re looking at additional training and things of that sort. Next slide please. Just a reminder, please type any questions you may have in the question box on your webinar browser. Next page. So, we are going to start to get into some of these specific work incentives. First, we will be talking about SSDI. This is the Social Security Disability Insurance. And what happens with SSDI is, they have a series of phases that the work incentives go through. The first phase, is a trial work period. This is nine months where you can make anything and you still get your full SSDI check. After that, what happens is you keep getting your SSDI check if your gross pay, each month, this is what you got paid at your job for all of the taxes come out, your actual paycheck will be a little lower after the taxes are paid. They are looking at gross income so that's under $1000 a month. Then your SSDI check continues. Any month where you make at least $1000, then you don’t get your check for the month. The thing is, they are taking in month by month. Basically, what happens is, the next month, if your income dips under $1000, then you are SSDI check comes back. After this nine-month trial work period where you can make anything, at that point what happens is that your SSDI check becomes like a light switch. You can flick it off and on month by month, depending upon whether you're above or below that $1000 threshold. If you ever heard somebody referred to SGA, that's what that $1000 number is. SGA stands for Substantial Gainful Activity. So, you can turn your SSDI check for three years. When three years are over, what happens at that point, if your earnings for your job are below that SGA number, then your SSDI check continues. At this point, if you start making over $1000 a month, that is when your SSDI benefit would and. However, you can get back on benefits pretty quickly if you need to. You have five years, where if you have to stop working, then you can reapply for your old SSDI benefit. This expedited reinstatement, is a much faster process than the first time around. Typically, when someone applies for SSDI, they go through a process, sometimes they are denied. They have to appeal, it can take a while. Expidited reinstatement, EXR, for short, is a much faster process. Next slide please. Okay. That was SSDI. Now we are switching over to SSI. This is the other disability program that Social Security has. The Supplemental Security Income. And, what happens with SSI is that it is totally different. You can think of SSI and SSDI being too parallel universes with different laws of physics. What happens in one universe does not happen in the other. So with SSI, they have a completely different approach to work incentives. What they are doing with SSI is they are doing math.. What they end up doing is, when you're working, they look at your gross wages, what you got page before all those taxes came out. They are counting about half of it. In the example above the screen, if you made $885 gross, in a certain month, Social Security will act like it's only 400. So, what ends up happening in this example is that they adjust the SSI check based on the $400, not based on $885 that you actually made. So for example, if your SSI check was $674, and then you had a job and you are in $885, they would say, we would subtract $400 from the SSI check. So your new SSI check would become $274. Remember, you have is $885 from your job in addition to that. So, even though your SSI check is less, the thing to focus on is that overall, your income is more. $185 plus $274, we are looking at a little over $1100. That's quite a bit more than the $674 that SSI pays by itself when somebody is not working. The other thing that people can do with SSI is that, sometimes, they can take other deductions off of their gross income. So, Ray is highlighting impairment related work expenses. You might have heard people refer to IRWEs. That sort of the initials and IRWE just a shorthand for talking about this. What these IRWEs refer to are if you have out-of-pocket expenses that are related to your disability and they are necessary for you to maintain the job that you have, then Social Security could deduct that figure off of your gross income. So if we went back to the example, you made $885, and they’re only counting $400 of that, let's say that you have $20 in out-of-pocket expenses. In that case, once they do all of the math, it will only be $390 that is counting against the SSI. If someone had $60 worth of IRWEs, it would be$370 counting against the SSI. Some common examples of IRWEs would be if you have things like co-pays that you paid on your medications. You have these medications because of your disability, and if you do not take your medication, you would not feel well enough to work so it is work related. Another example might be some people have therapist or Counselor co-pays. Some people have adaptive equipment. They have out-of-pocket expenses related to maintaining this adaptive equipment and this could be anything from things to help you with your vehicle, it could be things to help you with walking. Sometimes too, people even with transportation, this can be kind of a tricky one, if you have out-of-pocket transportation expenses that have to be disability related, so, one example would be if somebody was taking medication and the pharmacist put on their do not drive when you're taking this medication. Then, if you out out of pocket expenses to get to work, that could be a transportation IRWE. Some folks have service animals. One thing I do want to add is, when it comes to certain things, that are related to blindness like a seeing eye dog or a screen reader, there’s actually a different work incentive, for blind work incentives. And, this actually is, I will not go into detail, but it fits in more favorably. This would be something that you would want to talk with your local CWIC about if that pertains to you. Next slide please. A few more pieces of information about SSI. Many of you are wondering, if SSI is on this sliding scale at some point, you will be earning enough that the SSI check becomes zero. What happens at that point? Some things to keep in mind about this. One thing is that, if your SSI check is zero, because you are working, your SSI is still there. It is on the computer, when you minimize program, it is still there in the tray. You can click on and maximize it again if you need to. SSI works the same way. If you have to stop working, let Social Security know about that. You'll be sending in your pay stubs to them every month anyway. It's always good, as soon as you know that a change is coming up, to inform them about that. Then, they can re-issue that SSI check. On the other thing, people wonder, wait a minute. Most folks on SSI have Medicaid. What’s going to happen to my Medicaid if my SSI becomes zero? There is a protection in place for that. So, people can be working and their SSI might be zero but they still have Medicaid. This, one thing I will say about Medicaid is that, Medicaid varies quite a bit from state to state. Every state has a certain leverage to tailor their program. So, it is very important that you talk to your local CWIC about how Medicaid works in your state. The 1619(b), that’s the name of the work incentive that allows people with SSI to keep Medicaid when they’re working. What is the 1619(b) threshold for my state? And even if somebody is working above that threshold, keep in mind that there are certain Medicaid programs that can continue Medicaid in certain cases beyond that point. Next slide please. Okay. So, another one of the questions that we had. How do I get skills and experience that I need to achieve my job goal? Next slide please. And we have a variety of sources and, later on, I am going to pass on this discussion to people who have an expertise in their area. Just briefly, employment network. What this is, this is an agency that can assist people with finding work with finding resources to obtain some of the training that they need to obtain their job goal. We have Debbie Gilmer with us here today as you will be talking a little bit more about what ENs do. There's also the WIPA program. The Work Incentives Planning Assistance program. That's me. Every state has a WIPA project. In Maine, it’s Maine Medical Center. In many other states, Maine is a low population state, so we serve the whole state. A lot of other states you might find there are several WIPA projects so if you're in New York City, you'll have a WIPA project that focused specifically on that area as compared to if you’re in Buffalo there might be a different WIPA project that is more knowledgeable about the Western New York area. There is also the beneficiary access and support services. We have Mel Clarrige here with us today, he is with a program that is also funded by Social Security. And, basically, this is advocacy. So, if you are working and there is an issue that has arisen such as, you feel like Social Security is not counting certain work incentives the way that they should, there is protection and advocacy for beneficiaries of Social Security in all 50 states as well. Of course, we have your local Social Security Office. There are employees there. They are the people that you want to be in touch with as you return to work as well because, with Social Security does not necessarily know when someone returns to work. Basically, because the government is pretty big. And, so, the taxes are being sent to the IRS, but they are pretty busy in Social Security. They don't always have the time to talk to each other about individual cases. So, when you do return to work, make sure that you keep in touch with your local Social Security office so that they know you are working. They will let you know about reporting requirements, how often should you be mailing in your pay stubs to them. Next slide please. So, we just discussed some of the work incentives. Now we are moving on to the Ticket to Work program. And, we will move onto the next slide and there is a picture on the next slide. Many of you have probably seen this postcard. You have gotten one in the mail and who knows what happened to it. It got lost or it ended up being used as a coaster and now there’s a coffee stain on it. Is no good now, right? Well, actually it’s fine. The postcard that they send you is just to kind of give you a heads up that Ticket to Work exists. You have it available to you. But if you lost your card, or if it has a big coffee stain on it, don't worry about it. All of the stuff is computerized. And, you could still go to an employment network, you can go to vocational rehabilitation, and they can access Ticket to Work. You can assign your ticket to one of them. It doesn’t matter if you don't have that postcard. Next slide please. Who will take your ticket? There are a few different possibilities for you. We’ve already talked a little bit about employment networks and we’ll hear more about them later on. Employment networks, some of them are private companies. They are private agencies that are set up to assist people. Sometimes they are public organizations. And, with state vocational rehabilitation agencies, that is one example of a public organization that you can assign your ticket to. We have also Allison with us today she’ll be talking more about vocational rehabilitation and what they do. Sometimes, also, there are employment agencies. And even schools, to whom you can assign your ticket. Essentially, what happens when you are assigning your ticket is that there is a contract with Social Security. So, the employment network is agreeing to Social Security to work with you to help you achieve your job goal. On the next slide. A question that always comes up is well, why should I assign my ticket? What is going to be different if I assign my ticket compared to if I don't? On the slide there’s a big sticker that says free. The thing about ticket is that obviously, the employment networks, they have to keep their lights on, they have to pay their employees. How do they do that? Certainly, people who are receiving SSI or SSDI cannot afford to do that. Well, because this is a contract between Social Security and the employment network, Social Security is providing the funding to the employment network for them to provide that service to you. That way you don't have to pay for that service. There are a few other things that the Ticket to Work program can provide you with. One thing is that with Social Security, they do a medical review every few years. How many years depends on a case-by-case thing. What they are doing is that they are verifying that there is an ongoing disability there so that they can continue the SSI or SSDI payments. So, when you're Ticket to Work as assigned to an employment network, Social Security does not do that medical review. As long as you're making progress with your job goal. In keeping in mind that, being in school is something that does count as progress towards that job goal, so protection from those reviews. The program is voluntary, so if you should choose not to participate and Ticket to Work, that is fine. There is no penalty for choosing not to. The other thing is that you are in charge. Who do you want to assign your Ticket to Work to? You have a variety of choices. Every state has a vocational rehabilitation program. There’s a variety of employment networks. Even if you live in a smaller area, keep in mind ther are some smaller networks that are nationwide that can provide services to people even if they might not be located right in your geographic area. Again, for more information about what employment networks are available in your area, that is information that we can provide to you. Towards the end of this presentation there are some websites that we will give you that you can go to. The other thing is that, when you assign your ticket to employment network, keep in mind that you are hiring them. So, the employment network works for you. If you should decide that this employment network is not working out for you, then you do have the right to reassign your ticket to a different employment network. Next slide please. So, how do you go about selecting and negotiating with an employment network? So, some of the services that employment networks provide, there is a list up here. Skills testing. They can work on you to figure out what sort of thing that you are good at. What sort of thing are you interested in? And of course with resume preparation, that is one of the most important things when it comes to finding a job. But how do you make a resume? What kind of format works best? That is something that employment networks can help you with. Interviewing skills. The interview is sort of the event that seals the deal. When you meet a potential employer in person, making a positive impact on them is very important and, working with the employment network to learn interviewing skills is a very important part of the job search process. Of course, with the job search itself, how to go about identifying jobs, how to go about making the applications. The work incentives counseling. You know, as someone that does work incentives counseling, you know, probably 90% of the referals that I get are from employment networks, vocational rehabilitation. This is a key part of the process of finding a job. We want to make sure that we understand what the impact on your benefits will be if you return to work. We want to make sure that you understand that as well. The final thing listed, job coaching. This is, in some cases, when somebody starts a job they need some support. They need somebody to help them on the job with getting oriented with getting up to speed with the job. And job coaches can help with that. Next slide please. Okay. When you contact an employment network, one thing that is important, is to talk about what sorts of job goals that you have? Because, the more specific your goals are, the easier it is to target the type of job and help the employment network with helping you fine tune the approach that you are taking. In some cases, people are not quite sure, after disability, them I feel like, well, I am not sure what I can or cannot do. And, so, even being able to suggest certain the things that you're interested in and the employment network at that point can assist in doing the skills testing, some of the interest inventories. You are asking about the success rate? Asking a question such as, well, what percentage of people that come to you ultimately find a job? What percentage of people are still employed three months later, six months later, a year later? Keeping in mind also to sort of, compare that answer with what is happening with the economy in your local area. How does that fit in with your local unemployment rate and things of that nature. Then, what will what they do for you? Also, what is expected of you? When working with an employment network, this is a partnership. It's something where they have certain responsibilities that you have certain responsibilities as well. The people who are most successful are the people who work well with others and who are very clear about, well this is what I am going to do. I am going to make sure that I follow through with that. Next slide please. So, selecting an employment network to work for you. And, I think the tips that are available on this slide, I think our pretty straightforward things. How comfortable do you feel? Most of us get a quick sense, when we enter a place, do the people seem freindly? Do they seem empathetic? Do they seem knowledgeable? What sort of emotional reaction are you getting from this employment network? How do they assign a counselor? What is the process? I am meeting with some employment networks, and, I am asking them questions, but what is the next up? What is the next step going to be after that? In most cases, what will happen is, they will come up with a written employment plan. This can be handy because it spells out, in detail, what the stubs are and who is responsible for what. One thing that you might want to do is to ask, can I see an example? Do you have, sort of, obviously not somebody's real employment plan, but sort of, an example of what an employment plan might look like? That way you can get a sense of how they go about things. If you are interviewing more than one employment network you can kind of compare the approaches they take and feel out which one you feel the most comfortable with. Can you and your EN both follow through the plan? This is a feasibility question. You know, am I being realistic about the job goal? In terms of what types of jobs are available in the area? What abilities are? Is the EN being realistic about what they are able to do? Next slide please. So, I am going to turn things over to Allison Trussell. She is a Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor with the Maine Bureau of Vocational Rehabilitation Services. Allison. Allison Trussell: Hello there. I am looking at the slides on paper because I cannot get my computer running. Butt, the role of the ticket for vocational rehab consumers is the slide that I am on. Presumtive eligibility for Social Security consumers is anyone that receives SSDI or SSI is presumed eligible for our services. However, in VR we do have to continue to assess whether a person is able to benefit from our services. And we do that by a number of different tests- neuropsychological tests, psychological assessments, occupational therapy evaluations, to determine a person’s skills, abilities, strengths and weaknesses. And we move forward with that. Once a person is found eligible for VR services, the consumer and counselor develop an employment plan. That employment plan has to have a very distinct goal. And, on the plan is listed services that are going to be needed in order for that consumer to reach their vocational goal. That could include schooling if that is what’s needed for them to reach their goal. It includes training, job development, there are some people who need long-term support to help them maintain their employment. The ticket can be assigned to VR when the appointment plan is signed. At that time, I have to let the office, the bureau, know that I have signed that off and they go and they do their paperwork. I am not too sure what the paperwork is but it’s with Maximus and we have specialists that work with them. Some of the ticket incentives while in plan with VR . What I do explain to my clients is that continuing disability reviews are exempted while the computer is making timely progress towards employment. Meaning, they won't get reviewed and as long as they are continuing to work with voc rehab and move in a successful manner. I constantly, all of my clients, that’s one of the first thing I do is to make a referral to the community work incentive coordinator. I work quite often with David Dubay and my clients, and find that this is an extremely necessary program for clients to understand that they can work and be successful and still maintain receiving their benefits which is really, an extensive, it is extremely important for them to understand that they have that security for them to move forward. When employment does begin, a consumer and counselor discuss the opportunity to have an employment network provide employment services when VR ends. And that is job development, like talking previously there’s long-term support, and they can continue to work with the provider to help them maintain their employment. The consumer has the choice to decide which network, employment network that they would like to work with. There are numerous agencies that they can choose from. Voc rehab, here in Maine, we are very big into consumer choice. It’s very important that they work with a person that they have chosen, not just handed someone. Partnership press referral is made to the employment network for warm hand off from VR when employment is stable. And, you know, when the person is, it is usually after 90 days we will close a person successfully, when they worked with long-term support with the employment network, we keep them open for an extra 90 days to make sure that they have been able to maintain the employment and give them that extra support. Then, their long-term support continues. And, this last slide, it’s VR program closure. Consumer can now assign the ticket to employment network for follow along with employment support. That again, that’s with the employment network of their choice, they continue to work with that network and maintain their employment. I always put that a consumer, any consumer that is closed successfully can gain postemployment services through voc rehab. If a person has closed successfully with vocational rehab, they have three years from the date of closure to contact voc rehab and say that they're having disability related needs or because of the disability they weren’t unable to hang on with their employment. We may be able to reopen their case without them having to reapply for services. That ticket can stay assigned to the employment network and they can still continue to choose to work with the same employment network that they have in the past. And definitely, I am not able to receive any questions because my computer is not functioning. I have support staff trying to help me. If there are any questions, definitely feel free to post them. I am sure I will be able to receive them. David Dubay: Thank you Allison. And I think up next we have Debbie Gilmer. She is from Syntiro, which is an employment network from Readfield, Maine. Debbie? Debbie Gilmer: Hello, thank you it is my pleasure to join you today. I work for an organization that has an approved contract with the Social Security Administration as an EN. Like you have heard today, many EN's are community rehab providers. We are not a community rehab provider. We provide the same or similar array of services that other EN's provide. I have, the most critical thing that I want to share, first and foremost, the most critical thing I want to share is that finding the right fit with an EN is absolutely critical. As David said, and Allison said, we welcome a lot of questions. It is a contract, and individual work plan is a contract that you make with us. And, we want to meet your needs and we want to be sure that we can accommodate you. Next slide please. This slide talks about where to find the list of employment networks. David had said there would be a list of resources. www.yourtickettowork.com is where you can find the list of EN's and your state. Our EN happens to be one that serves our entire state. We just serve those in the state of Maine. I know a number of other EN's in our state have more focus to geographic regions. There are some, as the previous speaker mentioned, there are EN's that serve national focus. Next slide please. When people call, one of the first things that we do is that we verify, or clarify that people are willing and interested in working and maybe eventually terminating from cash benefits. David presented information on the work incentives and in a very quick overview, the information that he would provide you when you met individually to determine, sort of, what is the best fit for you. How many hours you want to work, the kinds of wages you want to earn, and, but one of the things that as an EN that we do, is really get a commitment from folks is that, you are willing to start small, maybe, and look at part-time work. But ultimately, the ticket program is designed for people that are interested in either entering the workforce for the first time and working towards a full-time. Or, ultimately getting off benefits and returning to work. So, that is a critical piece for an employment network. So that is a clarifying piece that we will ask when you call. Next slide please Ray? I think all of the EN have a different process but when you call our office, we are going to explain a little bit about the ticket program. We have a person that does intakes. She will send out an application. I know, probably, different networks do use a bit of a different process. We have an application that we ask people to fill out. If somebody needs help filling it out, we are glad to do that. Once we have that application, and hopefully it comes with work history but sometimes it doesn't, we will meet with an individual in person. We will discuss their work goals. Your intentions about work, again, what are your short-term goals, long-term goals? It is a bit of job coaching and career exploration, if you will. We will identify some challenges and barriers that people may be facing, perceive they’re facing, or have faced in the past. Our plan is to design a support plan that addresses those potential barriers. Next slide. That discussion evolves into what is called an individual work plan. This is a contract if you will. That, we send in to officially get your ticket assigned to us. The face to face appointment slide there, thank you. Next slide. Both speakers have shared a little bit already about EN services and examples. I wanted to talk in more detail about that. I will talk a little bit about some of the things that we provide. Again, the most critical piece is to interview an EN and multiple ENs. Sometimes you can do that over the phone and get a sense of the services that an EN could provide. Other times, you can get a better sense of the fit, whether it is a good match face to face. One of the first things that we do after we get an application is help people prepare a resume. I think we prepare resumes for everybody that, with whom we have received an application from regardless of whether or not their ticket has been assigned to us. Completing, I mean, getting a resume, having a resume is a critical first step. We have established, we help people do interview skills. I have taken or sent people to what I would've called mock interviews. We all have professional connections and colleagues with whom we work with different industries, and, those folks have been very generous in sharing their time and assisting us with some practice interviews in real employment situations. I have done a lot of work with helping people establish online accounts for job banks and online job search functions. Sharing information about accommodations. Information and resources. Talking about disclosure. The tax incentive information. And the referrals to the local WIPA. David said if you get 90% of his referrals from employment networks and VR, we get a lot of our referrals from David and his colleagues and so we partnered well together. Next slide. Some more services. Certainly, job leads. In addition to job applications, resumes, we have generic job applications that we assist people in completing. So that folks have and can make copies, I sent 25 completed applications to ticket holders with people or folks we are working or investigating ticket assignments so that they have job applications to submit. I have spent time occurs centers and job banks with people. Certainly, individual job development is a service that we can provide. I think one of the critical things that an employment network provides is at least information and referrals to, other resources. We do not necessarily, and can’t at this point, we are a very small organization, with a small number of tickets and assignments, provide training and resource scholarship. We have helped people file FASFAs – FAFSA is a financial aid application,filling out college applications, making referrals to voc rehab where that’s appropriate an folks haven’t otherwise been connected to VR. Another service we’ve provided as part of ongoing or long- term job support, I call it life coaching. Just having somebody on the phone. I talked to somebody weekly just as a check-in. We use getting ready to work, I'm ready to work checklist that we use to monitor people that we have to get in assignments with. It identifies the responsibilities of our organization to support you and your obligation and responsibilities to work with us and to carry out the objectives of your work plan and what you’ve committed to. Another place that we have made referrals to, one of the things that, a barrier to returning to work sometimes is childcare. We have located childcare resources for people in the community. I could go on for a long time about the examples of the kinds of services that ENs provide, but those are number of examples of the kind that we provide and others do as well. Next slide please. After you start work, as people mentioned already, you'll be expected to provide paste-ups to us so that we can verify your employment and your wages. But, you will also need to continue to report your earnings to Social Security Administration. We have offered to do that. People have preferred that they have a routine, in our experience they continue to report their own earnings to SSA, but that's something that a EN can provide. A pro active follow-up schedule the EN, again, that is what we are calling our ready to work checklist. That we used to monitor and check-in with ticket assignments regularly. Again, on the bottom of that slide is a link to where you can find the ENs in your neighborhood. Thank you. David Dubay: Thanks, Debbie. I think for protection of advocacy of beneficiaries of Social Security, or PABSS for short, we will have Ray Cebula, tell us about this program. Ray Cebula: Thank you David. I am pinchhitting for Mel who was having some telephone difficulties. Fortunately, in a prior life, I was working for a PABSS organization. It is a national agency that has branches in every state. The protection advocacy system offices throughout the country and in the territories. This particular program is focused on Social Security and SSI recipients who are attempting to return to work and face barriers, legal barriers along that journey that require representation. Again, located in every state. If you type in protection and advocacy into any Google search, you will find a list in your state. Both the CWICs, David's office, and the local network will be able to help you locate offices in your state. The services are provided free. Provided somebody is receiving or SSI cash benefit or Social Security or extended Medicare benefit based on a disability. They are free to anybody who needs services in order to maintain, regain, or obtain employment. Anytime somebody faces a bump that road to work, the PABSS are available to step in. PABSS can assist beneficiaries. Here is a short list of options. Is important to recognize that there are 57 different programs. They all focus on different issues and may be a little bit different. Generally, they can advocate for workplace accommodation. If you are in need of accommodations, as our last speaker the employment network representatives just mentioned, we are all in the business of trying to help people determine whether or not people should or can reveal their disability to an employer. If their accommodation is necessary, the PABSS agency is there to help negotiate the accommodation. You can advocate vocational services. Through employment networks or through state VR. If you feel you need assistance in negotiating a plan for employment with an employment network or a VR agency, they will be there to help you. They can certainly provide information, referal, and advocacy around Social Security benefits. And, most other public benefits received by people with disabilities. Again, otherwise, remove the barriers to work. If there is a need for legal related services, PABSS is the place to go. Jayme just let me know a website and a phone number. The website would be www.yourtickettowork.com or call (866) 968-7842 or TDD, (866)833-2967. Do you need to be using your ticket to get PABSS services? The short answer is no. You are eligible, even if you do not have a ticket, as Doug said, if your ticket has a coffee stain on it or you’ve lost it or you voluntarily chosen not to assign it, you can still seek PABSS services to eliminate those barriers to work. They can include anything. They can include discrimination in hiring or firing, they could include failure to provide accommodation to needs negotiate. The legal implication for disclosing a disability to an employer or, benefits issues such as Social Security related benefits. Find your local P and A at agency, here’s another website, look at www.ssa.gov/work/PandA.html in that will provide you with a list that will indicate who you should be calling in your state or territory. Here's a few other resources we want you to know about today. There are a couple of websites. www.chooseworkttw.net And www.yourtickettowork.com. Both of these websites are good first place to start. In fact, any of the people or agencies that have spoken today are a perfect first place start. You cannot enter this program the wrong way you will be referred to the services that you need. Here is another great place to start. Work Incentive Information and Referral Center or Workcenter. Is a place to call to check do you have a ticket available, what might happen when you return to work, wher can I get local services if I want to return to work and those phone numbers are, for voice, (866) 968-7842 and for TDD (866) 833-2967. Will that is the Work Incentive Information and Referral Center. Jayme, I am going to turn it over to you for question and answer. Jayme Pendergraft: Thank you Ray, but first I am going to ask you to launch the final poll questions. Ray Cebula: Thank you very much Jayme. Jeff, I am going to have to ask you to help me with that. My polls are, hidden again. Jeff is going to be- Jeff Trondsen: They should be up there, Ray. The first question is do you plan on following up with the WIPA? Yes, No, or Not Applicable. Ray Cebula: Just make a selection, and we will be tallying up the votes. Jeff Trondsen: Okay great, thank you. And, the last question of the day, do you plan on following up with a EN. Again, Yes, No, or Not Applicable. [ Silence ] Okay, thank you. Ray Cebula: Okay. Jayme, now take it away. Jayme Pendergraft: Thank you very much. We are going to go through some of your questions this afternoon. We will not have the chance to get to all of them. But we do encourage you, if you don't your question answered, please follow up with your local WIPA or give the Work Incentive Information and Referral Center a call. They would be happy to help. Our first question is what is the maximum income I can make before it impacts my benefits? David Dubay: Okay. This is David. I think that is a big question that I often get. How much can I make before that impacts my benefits? The first thing to be aware of is which benefit that you are receiving. The answer is different if we are talking about SSI compared to SSDI. With SSDI, this is the Social Security Disability Insurance, and, what happens there is people have nine months, nine trial work months where they can make anything they still get their full Social Security check. Keep in mind that you have one trial work period so you might have used some of the months and it's always good to meet with your local WIPA projects they can help you look at how many trial work months you have. Once that is over, what happens with the social security disability is that if your gross earnings are under $1000 a month, then you keep on getting your SSDI check. But if you're making a least $1000, that is when you don't get that check for the month. The following month you might if your income dipped back under $1000. That is the light switch analogy that I gave. When it comesto SSI, this is a Supplemental Security Income. So now we are in a different universe with different laws of physics. Things work differently in the SSI universe. SSI is the one that does the mathematical calculation. So, with SSI, pretty much, working will affect the SSI check, keeping in mind that the more you earn, the more money you have when all is said and done. So you can think of SSI as in on a sliding scale where, the SSI goes down as your earnings go up, but when you add the two together you have more money will relative to when you were not working. Jayme Pendergraft: Okay. Thank you David. How do I get the Ticket to Work and is there an expiration date? David Dubay: With Ticket to Work, it’s pretty much everyone that has SSI or has SSDI has the Ticket to Work. Some cases people may have used their ticket in the past. It is always good to check with the Workcenter. And again, that's the tollfree number was (866) 968-7842 or the TDD was (866) 833-2967. There is no expiration date to the ticket. So, you may have gone on benefits recently or several years ago but you have that Ticket to Work. You might choose to use it tomorrow or next year or the year after. After will be there waiting for you when you are ready to access it. Debbie Gilmer: Thank you David. This is Debbie. We are also as an employment network can check employment status. We get calls about whether or not people have tickets and that is something that an employment network can do as well. David Dubay: Excellent. Jayme Pendergraft: Our next question is, how does the nine- month trial work period work? Is that in row or over a span of time? How does that work? David Dubay: Good question. With your trial work period, of course, with everything that we talked about, there are always a bunch more details, one of the things that we do, after we meet was on we sent them a written summary of what we talked about. Because, it is a lot of information. With the trial work period, you don’thave to work the nine months all at once. And, actually, you have to earn in a certain minimum amount before Social Security will even count that as a trial work period. So, you might have someone who is working, they are making less than the minimum $720, and Social Security says, it’s too small, don't worry about it. It won’t be trial work period. With trial work periods, it gives you a lot of flexibility. One thing that I have seen is that since somebody will someone who is a student, they want to have a part-time job just for gas in the car but they want to wait to use their trial work months until after graduation when they get the job they were hoping for. Having that minimum before it even counts as a trial work month is in place so that, people in a situation like a student, can do that part-time job and save the trial work months later. Other times also, you have people whose jobs are more seasonal. I know here in Maine, there are a lot of jobs that crop up in the summertime when all of the tourists are here. Then, those jobs may not be available in January when the land is frozen. So, people can do these seasonal jobs and they might use three months this year, and, they still have six trial work months left over that next year, they can tap into again. Jayme Pendergraft: Okay. Thank you. Our next question is what does SGA mean? David Dubay: A lot of acronyms. SGA stands for Substantial Gainful Activity. It is more a technical term, but the important number is that, in 2011, SGA is $1000 a month. So someone has SSDI and they went through their nine-month trial work period, if they are earning less than $1000, that magic SGA number, they still keep getting that SSDI check. Jayme Pendergraft: Is that SGA number nationwide or by state? David Dubay: SGA is nationwide. Although, I should add, for people who are blind, SGA is higher, it is $1640 a month. That also is the same throughout the entire country. Jayme Pendergraft: And, work incentives available in every state? David Dubay: They are. Yes. With work incentives, because Social Security is a federal program, it is available in all 50 states. In fact, you know, if someone is receiving SSI or SSDI and they are living in a certain state, and then they move to a different state, they still have that SSI or SSDI benefit because it's coming from the government. Jayme Pendergraft: Great. Thank you. We may have a couple of people do want to address this question. This, why do they have to change careers? Are there any educational programs available to me? David Dubay: When it comes to educational programs, there are often times, like if someone is working with vocational rehabilitation, is going back to school, is part of that job goal, then, voc rehab may assist them with applying to college and employment networks do that as well. I think Debbie was talking earlier about assisting people with filling out be financial aid form. Social Security has work incentives of its own. One of them is called the PASS plan. Plan to Achieve Self-Support. It is a detailed work incentive. I don't have time to go into that today. Just to say, very briefly, what PASS can do is that it can help people with a specific job goal with having increased resources to pay for things if they need to achieve that job goal. Jayme Pendergraft: Thank you. This question is for Ray. Can I working individual receive SSDI and use their Ticket to Work also receive Medicaid? Ray Cebula: That is a very state specific question. In several states, there are what are known as Medicaid buy- ins. So somebody who is working, has a disability and is over the income level for standard Medicaid may be able to apply and pay a premium on a sliding fee scale. So the best way to find out whether or not you are living in one of the 43 states that have a buy-in, is to contact your local WIPA program. Jayme Pendergraft: Thank you Ray. Follow-up to that. More acronym questions. What is a CWIC and what is a WIPA? Ray Cebula: That’s a great question and I was noticing that as I went through too. I’m going to apologize for myself and everybody else, those of us who do this all of the time just start throwing around the alphabet. WIPA is a Work Incentives Planning and Assistance project. David works for a WIPA project. David is a CWIC. A CWIC is a Community Work Incentive Coordinator. WIPA is the greater project and CWIC is the staff person you speak to. Jayme Pendergraft: You mentioned $885. Is that gross or net pay? David Dubay: Yes, the $885 we mentioned in that example was gross pay. Keep in mind what your paycheck is, isn’t actually what Social Security is looking at. They are looking at what you got paid before all of those taxes came out. So it is gross pay. Jayme Pendergraft: Thank you. Are there any work incentives for entrepreneurship, self-employment or starting your own business? David Dubay: There are, yes. If someone is self-employed, there's a special set of work incentives. Social Security counts the income differently because they understand that, you have business expenses. As well. They do have, again this gets into level of detail that your local CWIC can explain to you, they have certain incentives that relate specifically to self-employment. Jayme Pendergraft: Thank you. Is there medical review during trial work period? The medical review, is, what Social Security will do is that they will schedule that years ahead of time. They can do, I think it is one-year, three-year, and seven- year reviews. They might schedule something for, 2012, and of course, if you're using your trial work period at the time, medical review could a quarter during the time. The medical review is a separate issue from the work incentive. Keep in mind, if your Ticket to Work is a signed you an employment network or to voc rehab, then Social Security will not do that medical review. Jayme Pendergraft: Okay. Thank you. Do any of these programs offer tuition assistance? David Dubay: With tuition assistance itself, as far as direct tuition assistance, off of the top of my head, not that I’m aware of. Usually with, what they look for people to do is, to fill out the financial aid application. Again, if some they had a PASS plan, they might be putting money aside as part of the PASS plan that they can use cover expenses that are not covered by the financial aid. Jayme Pendergraft: Okay. With that, I know a lot of you have been asking questions about whether or not the webinar will be available after we finish up here today. And an archive of the full webinar with the transcript and PowerPoint slides will be available online. That website is www.ilr.cornell.edu/edi/m-wise-webinars.cfm And Jeff and I have both sent that link out in the chat box. And that will be up there in about two weeks. Yes, the transcript will be available after the webinar. With that, Ray, I’m going to hand it over to you with this question, how do I get started? Ray Cebula: How do you get started? Well, as I was indicating, there’s really no wrong way to get started. The first and easiest way to get started is to call that Workcenter. Let me back up. See if and I can back these slides up. There is the Work Incentive Information and Referral Center numbers. (866) 968-7842 For voice, and (866) 833-2967 for TDD. The folks there will be able to speak generally about work incentives and get you in contact with the local CWIC, the David who serves your area. If you do happen to get on one of those links and make your initial contact with your EN or your state VR agency, I think you could be pretty certain that you will also be referred back to the CWIC. Everybody who provides services to folks with disabilities who are trying to return to work pretty much functions like a team. Every piece of this team, and every member of this team is necessary to provide you with a full battery of assistance. I don't think there is a wrong way. The work incentive information and referral network or center here, work center, is probably the most direct way. Jayme Pendergraft: Okay Ray, that's the conclusion of our question-and-answer session, and I’ll hand it over to you to wrap it up. Ray Cebula: Okay. Thank you everybody for joining us today. Please watch out in your e-mail. Keep in touch with Jayme. Watch for a webinar. We do hold these in a monthly basis. The dates will be available to you. As Jayme said within two weeks, this webinar will be posted to the website. Please feel free to listen in again. With that, I will close out the session and thank you all. Have a great day.