1
Good afternoon everybody, this is Ray Cebula from Cornell 
Universitys Employment and Disability Institute, and I want to 
welcome you to the day's Work Incentive Seminar Event or WISE event 
and we are going to have a lot of great speakers for you today to 
give you some information about the services that can be provided to 
you as recipients of disability insurance benefits or SSI, and 
making that journey to work.
Before we begin, I want to give you a little bit of technical 
information about the program we are using.
For those of you sitting in front of a computer screen, you should 
have a webinar console upper right-hand corner of your screen.
You have been connected automatically using the microphone and 
speakers built into your computer.
If at any time you decide that is not working for you, you are able 
to switch to telephone.
Please note that it may be a toll call for you, but what you need to 
do is click on the + in the console next to the word audio and it 
will open this box.
Push the button by clicking on use telephone, and it will provide 
you with today's dial-in information, 
access code, and audio pin number.
Remember it may well be a toll call for you.
What I also want to do is let you know that we do take your 
questions and we want to hear your questions during today's webinar.
In order to ask a question click on the + next to the word question 
in the webinar console until over this box.
Type in your question, hit send and Jamie 
and I will receive those questions.
There are a lot of people, we have over 700 people registered for 
today's session, so it is not likely 
that we will get all of your questions.
We will be picking them according to questions that are of interest 
to the most people.
We will give you information about where you can get answers to your 
questions if we do not get to your specific question.
Now, as far as accessibility goes, we are trying to make sure that 
all of our webinars are accessible to everybody.
We want to hear from you.
If you do have a problem accessing any of the information or hearing 
as were participating, please let us know.
And more than letting us know that you have a problem, it is 
important to let us know if you know of a solution or of a way we 
can make our products better for you, that would be very helpful.
Please let us know exactly what you need to make this a better 
experience for you.
Now you know who I am, and we are finished 
with the first agenda item.
We have someone from the Work Incentive Planning and Assistance 
Program and her name is 
Jill Burgess issues with the University of Oklahoma.
She will be talking to us about work incentive planning and 
assistance in about the Ticket To Work program and the Social 
Security programs that can help you move you from benefits to work.
Employment Networks are private agencies that participate in this 
program to help you on a journey to work as well and we have Liz 
Richardson who is the Assistant Director of the Thunderbird Club, 
who will provide you with lots of information about what an 
Employment Network can provide you with 
to help you on your journey to work.
The Vocational Rehabilitation is a big player and every state has a 
vocational rehab agency and Sharon Caldwell is the Program Field 
Representative from the Oklahoma Department of Rehabilitation and 
will share information about that agencies part in the Return to 
Work program.
Last but not least we have Kayla Bower who is the executive director 
of the Oklahoma Disability Law Center and she will tell us about the 
PABSS program, the Protection and Advocacy for Beneficiaries of 
Social Security , which is the legal arm of all of this Return to 
Work stuff and will provide you with a little bit of extra 
protection should you need that along the road to work.
We will talk about other resources available to you and if time 
allows, we will pose some questions to our expert panelists.
Right now, I'm going to tell you a little bit about what you can 
expect from today's presentation.
You can expect lots of information on that Ticket to Work program, 
and various work incentives that Social Security provides to folks 
who are receiving benefits in order to help them return to work.
And I think and hope a lot of you will be pleasantly surprised when 
you hear that information.
We will give you lots of answers to questions that we hear from 
people all the time.
Where are you going to find more information?
We are giving you a very quick overview of a lot of information, and 
we are giving it to you in a very general way.
What we want to do is to let you know that you can sit down with 
people and talk about your own specific information and we will give 
you information about where to find that.
We'll hear success stories from people who have used their ticket to 
work, and have made progress to work,
or have already achieved their work goal.
Why should you work?
Earning more income is a very big part of it.
Social Security benefits and SSI benefits were never intended to 
help to pay our way through life.
They were only intended to help.
Returning to work is only going to mean more money in your pocket at 
the end of each month.
Gaining independence.
Gaining independence from the agencies, 
and gaining independence for yourself.
The fact that you have more income and responsibility will make you 
a more independent individual.
Learning new skills, whether that be through education or trade 
school, as you can see in this picture, learning how to use a 
computer to your advantage in someone else's advantage will allow 
you to learn new skills that you can then sell in the marketplace.
And then meeting new people.
There is a lot to be said for all this stuff not related to money 
when we return to work.
Meeting new people means that you're less isolated than people who 
do not work.
One example, I met my spouse at work.
There is a lot of things that come with that, that come with working.
I think right now we are going to call upon Michael to run a video 
for us with Victor who used his ticket to work to help him develop 
his skills and return to work after he became disabled.
He credits the Ticket to Work program for providing him with a more 
hopeful future and a greater ability to help him meet his needs and 
his family's needs.
[ Video of Ticket to Work example ] 
Do we have that video Mike?
[Mike]
I am pulling it up just give me one second.
[Ray Cebula]
Okay, thank you.
[ Video of Ticket to Work example ] 
Me, personally, being on disability was making it through the day 
barely and not having anything extra for my wife or kids.
It was tough on me.
I mean, it was hard to handle.
What made me choose work was a golden opportunity that was provided 
to me through my wife.
My wife Carla met someone at our church who was affiliated with 
Goodwill and this person directed me to the ticket to work program.
That in itself was amazing.
That experience has brought me to where I am today.
My expectation, I was pretty scared trying to enter the workforce 
again because I was afraid that I was going to lose my benefits.
And those things are very important to me because that's all I had 
to keep my family and myself afloat.
But through the Ticket to Work program, you learn that there is no 
need to be afraid, you're going to keep your benefits until you 
sustain work.
And it was like a safety net, so to speak, until I could completely 
go on my own and make it.
And through each process they guide you.
It's extremely, extremely helpful to you.
Some of the things my employment network done to help me through the 
process, they made sure they went through the paperwork and explain 
the Ticket to Work early to me which helped me feel much more at 
ease about the program, once I was able to understand it.
They set me up for customer service skills classes and then they 
helped me to get back into the workforce.
Career wise I am doing much better than I was before.
In my old job I was a Manufacturing Technician for Intel, which was 
an amazing job and I love it dearly, but it was much more physical 
than I can do now.
Now that I am in communications I have advanced from basic operator 
to a supervisor, and hopefully will soon be a manager.
Now today, having employment and having a better situation for 
myself and my family, it's great.
We live each day; we take advantage of all of our lives; we go out; 
we do things together.
We spend time together.
It's amazingly helpful for us and our future.
We are actually able to interact with the community and get involved 
in things like Goodwill and Ticket to Work and Freedom to Work and 
access to things of that nature, it's very helpful and fun.
The Ticket to Work program is amazing because it takes away all the 
barriers and the challenges that there are to get to the workplace, 
and it frees you to make choices and learn again and to be happy 
with your life, and to move forward.
It's just a great opportunity.
First thing I would recommend to a potential beneficiary would be to 
get to an employment network of your choice, get signed up, get your 
ticket in there and start the process.
There is no need to be afraid.
Everything is going to be all right.
[Ray Cebula]
All right, thanks to Victor for helping get that video.
I think I am having an echo here all of a sudden.
If people are hearing that Jamie, let me know.
Thanks to Victor again for sharing his story with us.
Some of the common concerns people have, and Victor told us about 
his concerns, will he lose benefits?
Will you lose your benefits if you return to work?
Not necessarily, not right away.
Jill is going to explain that to us as we go through today's session.
How do I get the skills and experience I need?
We all know that education is expensive and it takes a lot of time, 
whether that be a community college, a four year college, or a 
technical school.
How do you fund that?
We have a bunch of people here, everybody on the panel, is going to 
be able to share their experience and what type of services they can 
provide in order to help you obtain the skills and experience that 
you need to return to work.
What he had to stop working?
Disability is a funny thing, it's not like we can depend on feeling 
well enough to work everyday.
Some disabilities have a cycle of good times and bad times.
If you have to stop working, there is a safety net after safety net 
that will catch you again and get you back into the Social Security 
system very quickly, and very easily.
With that being said I will turn the presentation over to Jill 
Burgess who is with the WIPA agency at the University of Oklahoma.
Thank you all and I am just wondering if you all know what WIPA 
stands for because we use it everyday without thinking about, but 
it's actually the Work Incentive Planning and Assistance project and 
we are actually contracted through Social Security to be able to 
deliver this information to you.
The best part about it is that our services are free.
If you will do the next slide.
At the WIPA projects we have trained staff, and they go through a 
lot of training to be able to give you the information about the 
Ticket to Work and the Work Incentive so you can make that decision 
about your life.
We also are able to get the resources, which a few of those 
resources will be on the call today, talking about the employment 
networks, and vocational rehabilitation.
But we get you connected with those people as well, and we also host 
WISE events throughout our state.
Next please.
So when you're ready to think about going to work, you also have 
questions, where do I go from here?
Well today we will talk about the work incentives and how they apply 
to you, and like Ray said earlier, the information you get today is 
really general information about the work incentives, but we will 
also provide you with a way to contact your local work incentives 
planning and assistance budget to get you that help.
One way that we can talk about work incentives are for you to 
individually talk about work incentives is to get you to talk to 
what we call a CWIC, that is a community work incentive for Nader , 
that is the staff at the WIPA project.
Also employment networks, the vocational rehabilitation, and 
protection and Advocacy for Beneficiaries of Social Security.
Like I said before, these people will be on the call or webinar 
today for you to ask any questions.
Next.
Another thing you will want to do is stay positive and keep your 
eyes open for any opportunities in the community.
Again, I will reference back to the employment networks and the 
vocational rehabilitation because they are actually going to work 
with you to help find employment and opportunities for you.
Okay.
If you didn't know, there are two different types of programs within 
Social Security.
The first one is Social Security Disability Insurance, SSDI for 
short.
The second would be Supplemental Security Income.
And these are the two programs, but there could be a lot of you who 
actually receive both of the programs, and you are what is called 
concurrent beneficiaries.
You receive both SSI and SSDI.
But, whatever program you are receiving, you need to talk to an 
expert and that would be what we call a CWIC, a community work 
incentive coordinator.
Now, for many years of working with Social Security, common concerns 
always comes up.
One of the first ones is a what if I have not trained in how will 
that affect my benefits if I go back to school, or start a training 
program?
We will address some of these concerns as well.
A big one is if I get a paying job what will it do to my SSI check, 
or what will it do to my SSDI check?
Also, if I happened to get in an overpayment situation, what will 
happen then?
Or first what I like to say is how can we prevent that from 
happening?
We do know that when you do think about going to work, it can be 
scary because it's something unknown.
But rest assured that there are people who are putting in a 
different places for you to access, just to help you ease the 
scariness of employment.
Next.
There are three big myths we will go over.
Want to make sure that everybody is clear.
The first thing we will go over, we hear if I tried to go to work, I 
will automatically lose my Medicare or Medicaid.
That is a myth, it's false.
As long as you receive a benefit check of any amount you will keep 
your health insurance.
If you earn enough that your SSDI benefit checks stops, Medicare and 
continue up to 93 months.
If you currently receive Medicaid, you should be eligible to 
continue to receive Medicaid even after you have stopped receiving 
SSI benefits due to work.
To be eligible though, you need to meet certain requirements.
These include below a threshold amount set by your state, and even 
if your earnings exceed the state's threshold, you will still be 
eligible and should talk to your state Medicaid office.
Number two, if I use my ticket to go to work, Social Security will 
perform a medical review on me and I will lose my benefits.
Again, this is a myth.
If you use your ticket to help you go to work, Social Security will 
not perform what is known as a continuing disability review -- we 
call that a CDR for short of this is to see whether you still have 
a disability.
Social Security will postpone your medical review when your ticket 
is in use and you are making progress towards your work goal you 
even if you would otherwise be scheduled to have one, you will not 
have one when you're using your ticket.
And the last myth is if I go to work and then have to stop working, 
I will have to reapply for benefits all over again.
It took me forever to be approved for benefits and I cannot afford 
have to wait that long again so I should not try to work.
Actually, I hear this one a lot.
This again is false.
You will not need to reapply if you're benefits ended within the 
past five years due to your earnings and you meet a few other 
requirements, including that you still have the original medical 
condition, or one related to that, that prevents you from working.
This is a work incentive called Expedited Reinstatement.
You may even be able to receive up to six months of temporary cash 
benefits in addition to Medicare or Medicaid coverage while Social 
Security conducts a medical review to determine if you're benefits 
can be reinstated.
As you can see, as we went through these three different questions 
or myth, which is what you to know -- we just want you to know that 
there are things in place that will actually allow you to work.
Like we said before, it will take the scariness away of thinking 
about employment.
Next.
The Ticket to Work Program.
I don't know how many of you while other have received your Ticket 
to Work in the mail.
But this is a free and voluntary program for SSI and SSDI 
beneficiaries.
And it is for them to increase awareness to go to work and also to 
increase their current work hours.
One thing that is really important about this is that it's free.
The Ticket to Work and the Work Incentives that you hear about in a 
minute, this is all free information and access -- and it is for SSI 
and SSDI beneficiaries.
Next please.
What does the Ticket to Work Program do?
If you are asking yourself I am ready to make money.
The Ticket to Work and work incentives can help you 
improve your earning potential.
If you asked yourself I am in need of personal fulfillment and 
working will really boost my self-esteem.
Next slide please.
Then the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives can provide the 
assurance instability you need to feel confident while you pursue 
employment.
If you think about the peace that we saw before about Victor, how 
getting back on the job and being able to provide for his family 
really motivated him and kept him going to keep working.
Working for him really boosted his self-esteem, and it actually help 
him provide for his family as well.
Next slide.
If you're saying to yourself I am discouraged.
What if no one wants to hire me?
Well, what the Ticket to Work can do is help you build confidence 
and a sense of control while you research your work options.
One of the key messages that the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives 
safety act does is it's kind of a safety net for you.
You can maybe be trained if you were when you use your ticket and 
things like that at work with employment networks that work with 
employers that want to hire you.
So this is another aspect of what the ticket can do.
If you are asking yourself I am afraid I will use my benefits and I 
will not be able to get them back, well, the Work Incentives give 
you the peace of mind, and you will not lose your benefits until you 
are able to return to the SGA amount.
SGA stands for substantial gainful activity, and that is an amount 
that Social Security feels that you are gainfully employed at, at 
that point.
If you are asking yourself, I am afraid I will not be able to get 
back on benefits if my job doesn't work out, well, like we had 
talked about, that safety net, but expedited reinstatement, that 
does give you a five year window if it's the same disability and you 
can no longer work because of your disability.
This does give you a little bit of a safety net.
Okay.
How does the Ticket to Work program work?
Next slide.
If you are ready to explore the work, first you need to meet with a 
CWIC, then you need to find an employment network that suits you.
Then you need to stay connected and working with that employment 
network to explore all of your work options and things that you want 
to do.
But, one of the main things is for you to call the Ticket to Work 
helpline and the number is up on the screen, 1-866-968-7842.
And there is also the TTY.
If you need to locate a WIPA, log onto www.Social Security.gov/work, 
that will take you to the site where you can find your own state and 
you can find a WIPA closest to you.
I know some of the larger states have more than one WIPA so whatever 
counties and however those are set up, you can find what WIPA will 
serve you, and that is how you go about it.
Okay, work incentives.
Work incentives are made up of more than just the Ticket to Work 
program, they are Social Security rules that help you keep benefits 
as you explore work options.
You learn about the work incentives apply to you and begin to use 
them, you are able to make more money, gain new skills, and achieve 
greater independence for work.
Next.
The Work Incentives have many advantages and first you could receive 
training for new skills.
You do this using your employment network or vocational rehab 
because you could possibly qualify for training.
You could improve the skills that you already have, possibly by 
using a trial work time for SSI or SSDI beneficiaries.
You can pursue education, or by a work incentive we call the PASS
plan, the plan for achieving self-sufficiency or PASS and a CWIC 
would help explain the PASS plan to you.
You can also try different jobs and if you start a job, and it may 
not be a good job match but you could use your work incentives in 
whatever job that you have and whatever paying job that you have.
And also it gives you an advantage of starting a career, and again, 
you can use the different work incentives that we will go over here 
in a minute, and also talk to an employment network, or vocational 
rehab counselor too, that will help jump start a career.
Also it will help gain confidence and we talked about this earlier.
Gaining confidence by working, and there you will build friendships 
and learn new skills, and you will gain confidence when you learn 
something new.
We will move on to common work incentives that we have Community 
Work Incentive coordinators use really on a daily basis.
The first one is a trial work period, and this is for SSDI 
recipients only.
It is nine months to try work without it affecting your SSDI check.
You do have to actively report your earnings to Social Security, and 
you still have to have a disabling impairment in order to use the 
trial work period.
The next work incentive is an extended period of eligibility and 
it's only for SSDI recipients.
This is a 36 months period of time, and it follows the trial work 
period and it's a way for you to still receive benefits if you are 
earning under that SGA that we had talked about earlier, substantial 
gainful activity.
If you earn more than that you are in that extended period field and 
different things are looking at that time.
The next work incentives, earned income exclusion, or EIE, this is 
for SSI recipients only.
This is actually one of my favorite work incentives because it 
allows everyone in SSI who is working.
This is income exclusion that Social Security takes a look at and 
gives everyone.
So if you go to work, $65 of your earnings is not looked at.
They take that off the top and only look at half of your earnings.
This is another great work incentive.
The next one, expedited reinstatement, its for both SSDI and SSI.
If your benefits stopped because of your earnings level, and we 
talked about this earlier, a five year window, you can request to 
get back on benefits while Social Security is determining whether 
you still have that same disability or not.
And you can have those benefits for up to six months while they are 
determining that.
Another work incentives is protection from medical continuing 
disability reviews, that CDR we talked about.
If you are actively using your ticket Social Security cannot do a 
medical continuing disability review on you.
And those are just a few of the work incentives that apply to the 
different programs within Social Security.
So Ray, -- 
[Ray Cebula]
Okay, thank you very much Jill.
When you begin to use your Ticket to Work and take the information 
that Jill gave you today, you will want to start building an 
employment team.
You really do need an entire team.
That team is made up as Jill indicated of the employment network, 
potentially the vocational rehabilitation agency, your CWIC, the 
organization that Jill works for, the state protection and advocacy 
agency that can provide you with any legal profession you may need, 
and the area work incentives coordinator who were Social Security 
employees who focus only on people who are returning to work, and 
then the work incentives liaisons who are employees at each local 
office who specialize in work and would be the local office contact.
All of these people are going to be part of your team and are going 
to help you and provide you with different assistance to get you 
back into the workplace.
And it really does take a little bit of effort on everybody's part 
in order to do this.
The best way, to secure the best protection for you.
In order to start building our team, now that we have Jill on board, 
let's look at private employment networks and we have Liz Richardson 
who is the Assistant Director of the Thunderbird Clubhouse so take 
it away.
[Liz]
Thank you.
I feel like I'm in a different and a more unique situation being 
with a clubhouse and the clubhouse model is an international model 
that assists individuals with mental illness.
First for our employment network to work for you, you must have a 
mental illness.
But when you are ready to go to work, you can move the slide, you 
should call the Ticket to Work helpline at 866-968-7842
and this will help build your team.
And this is the website to find employment works in your area that 
you can work with.
And this is a website of www.socialsecurity.gov that will have a 
list of service providers for you to plan your work and finding out 
what the work incentives are.
Next slide please.
When you do select an employment network you may ask you questions 
such as how many people have you put to work or how many different 
companies have you worked with?
For us, we have done many different types of employment 
opportunities for folks.
Retail stores, we found people jobs at other nonprofits, a grocery 
stores.
Also the university here.
Hospitals, you know, hotels, whose service, in our area we have a 
lot of service businesses, so we have a variety of different types 
of businesses for people to choose from.
The first thing is finding out what is available.
Also, you might ask your employment network how often will we meet?
I meet with people quite often actually, and I see them at the 
clubhouse as well, because there are other opportunities like social 
opportunities as well.
How can I communicate?
We communicate with people directly.
Face-to-face.
That is a big question to ask.
Some employment networks may just communicate through e-mail or 
online or through the telephone.
We see people pretty often on a weekly basis I would say, sometimes 
daily.
Next slide.
The employment network providers should explain how the ticket 
program works and the services it provides.
Our services of course are free and that is a big thing.
I go out and I help develop jobs, I go to the employers and help the 
person find a job basically.
If not, I can even train a person on the job if they are not ready 
to go back to work yet or if they need special assistance.
And getting any type of adaptive equipment, what have you.
You should discuss with your employment network what your work goals 
are also are and what you want to do and any fears that you have 
such as losing benefits varied.
I always encourage people to go back to work.
It is a little bit fearful but in the long run you and up with much 
more money of course, you just benefits socially, emotionally, and 
you have another culture in your life, the work culture, you learn 
the work culture.
You're employment network will also help you develop your own 
individualized work plan that will help you get where you want to be.
Next please.
I'm getting a drink, I am getting kind of dry here.
[pause]
Okay, then, once you sign your individual work plan which discusses 
what it is you want to do with your work goals, once you sign that, 
you have assigned that ticket to work to that agency.
Routinely, other forms may follow, and other paperwork may follow.
Such as if they need to get in contact with Social Security or any 
other agency, you can also make up your mind to just un-assign your 
ticket at any time.
Even if you change your mind or decide it's not a good match.
The continuing disability reviews are exempted as long as you are 
making timely progress towards employment and the ticket is being 
used.
Next slide.
Other examples the employment network can provide are helping you 
develop a resume or filling out applications.
We go online often and we have a computer bank that we use at our 
agency and we help people go to all sorts of different computer 
programs that help provide resume writing.
We work on interview skills as well before an individual goes out to 
a work site.
We'll get together and research the company and find out about the 
company and say okay, these are the questions that they will 
probably ask, or, these are questions we usually say are asked.
We will find those as well.
We go to all sorts of interviewing skills as well.
If there are any type of job accommodations the individual might 
need is assessed as well and tax incentive information and referrals 
to any other types of resources in the area, such as some people may 
need medication, they may need transportation and we help with that 
as well.
The bus system, or find another means of transportation for 
individuals.
Anything to help them get back to work or providing clothing 
allowance, that has been done as well.
If the job requires certain shoes we will help them with that.
Okay.
Also other examples of employee network services is getting job 
leads and information on employers who are hiring.
We go to job fairs, we will take people to job fairs.
Also accessing the Internet.
The best way I think for us to find jobs is to be in the community 
and we help develop jobs with employers and have developed 
relationship and over years and years, we have had jobs at certain 
places for over 10 years where we have placed people because they 
know that we have been a part of the team to help people get back to 
work.
I think that is one of the most important things is to have an 
employee network that actually does the job development on your 
behalf.
Also getting together with other agency partners, like the VR office.
I think that is it.
Thank you.
[Ray Cebula]
Thanks very much.
That is just some of the information and some of the services of 
that and EN can provide as you make your journey to work.
Right now we are going to hear from Sharon Caldwell who is a Program 
Field Representative from the Oklahoma Department of Rehabilitation 
and let's see what state vocational rehabilitation services can 
bring to the table.
Take it away Sharon.
[Sharon]
Thank you Ray.
I'm going to talk about when you use your ticket with the state VR 
agency what are some of the things you can expect.
One thing is, all of you are Social Security beneficiaries so you 
are what we indicate as presumed eligible.
What that means is, with a Social Security beneficiary, we know that 
you have some documented disability and so we presume that you're 
going to be eligible for our services at that time.
This does not mean that the counselor may not have to gather medical 
records, they may need additional records before they initiate the 
services, but one good thing is that you are already present 
eligible for the service.
As Liz spoke a minutes ago, we also put together what is called an 
employment plan and this is an outline of the vocational goals you 
will be working towards along with the services it will take you to 
help you reach your goals.
These may be services that the VR agency is assisting you with along 
with other services you may already be receiving at your local 
mental health facility, services may be receiving from a doctor, at 
the VR agency we try to list all services that will help you be 
successful.
Once you have signed that employment plan with your counselor, then 
we consider your ticket to be in use.
That just means we have initiated services with the VR agency and 
that you are ready to receive the services.
One thing that we talked about several times today which is a 
benefit to you and your ticket is that you will be exempt from 
continuing disability reviews.
That is true.
One thing to always remember is that you all are exempt as long as 
you are making timely progress.
And so every 12 months, Social Security will send you some 
information to see what kind of progress you are making towards your 
employment goal.
Is always important to get that information turned in, that way they 
can document the progress, and you can continue to be exempt from 
those reviews.
Also, VR will make a referral to the community work incentive 
coordinator as Jill discussed earlier.
This is a very good partnership, an example of teamwork.
Currently in my state I enter our tickets were get calls
everyday with someone who calls and was a little bit concerned about 
how working is going to affect their benefits.
So that CWIC is there to help individuals before they start to work 
to fill more comfortable to start getting into the workforce and 
that way they know how their benefits may be affected, and 
everything is not thrown on them at once.
And so the CWIC is a very important part of that team.
Next slide please.
When you begin to work with your VR agency, the agency will keep 
your ticket in use with our organization until closure.
One good thing that has recently started is what we call the 
partnership plus and that just means that the VR agency and the EN 
as Liz represented work together to continue these services to you.
Even though you may have worked with your state VR agency, once the 
case is closed out, then we work together and assist in finding an 
employment network in your area that can continue to help.
One good thing about that is that if you assign your ticket to an 
employment network within 90 days of the VR case closure, that helps 
you remain exempt from those medical reviews and that is a very good 
partnership that has started and it is there for you.
A lot of times individuals may have their cases closed out and they 
find they may need someone to advocate for them or they may need to 
have additional assistance and that EN will be right there to pick 
that to pick that ticket up and to help you with any assistance you 
might need.
[Ray Cebula]
Thank you very much.
That gives you a little preview of what the state VR agency may be 
able to help you with.
And remember that employment team which has been noted by every 
speaker, every part of his employment team is going to be important 
to you.
I just wanted to make everybody aware that the question and answer 
box is available if you have questions, so please give them to us by 
clicking on the + next to the word in question, it will open the box 
and you can type the question and hit send and Jamie and I will get 
those questions.
Now we would like to move to the legal wing of the employment team 
and that is the Protection and Advocacy for Beneficiaries of Social 
Security or PABSS and Kayla Bower from the Oklahoma Disability Law 
Center is with us today.
[Kayla]
Good afternoon, and we are glad that you could join us today.
Let me describe to you our offices, there is one of us in every 
state and territory in the United States.
Sometimes our name sounds similar and sometimes they do not sound 
similar.
I would encourage you, no matter what state you're in, to get 
acquainted with your protection and advocacy office so you know who 
they are in that particular state.
We are designed to help both SSI and SSDI beneficiaries with 
disabilities to go to work.
It's free for anyone who receives a Social Security.
It's also available to you if you do not even have a ticket or your 
ticket has not been assigned.
Should also be aware that because of the person with a disability, 
you are covered on programs other than the protection and advocacy 
for Social Security beneficiaries as well, so we always encourage 
you that even if you're not thinking about work, you should probably 
get acquainted with our office because there might be other issues 
that if you could deal with them successfully, you would then be 
able to think about maybe going to work, or going to work would be 
good for me now.
Do not hesitate to call our offices and find out exactly what 
benefits you could get even if it is beyond the Social Security 
issue.
Next slide please.
The primary thing, this is a list of things that we primarily 
provide services for Social Security beneficiaries with regard to 
going back to work.
I want to give you an example of each one of them so hopefully it 
gives you some ideas that you might be thinking about, and it might 
help eliminate some of the problems you are fearful of.
First of all, we assist you with advocating for work accommodations.
This is a hard area for most people because oftentimes you are not 
aware, especially when going into a new workplace, you may not even 
be familiar with what kind of accommodations to ask for.
And if you do not ask for them someone is not going to think them up 
for you.
I think that developing the exact kind of accommodations you need, 
if you already know that you are in a great position, but if you do 
not, we can help you find Internet resources, the job accommodation 
network for example on the Internet is a wonderful example where you 
put in your disability and they come up with lots of suggestions or 
combinations that might work with your disability.
We can help you locate professionals that do evaluations and to help 
identify which accommodations will assist you with your disability.
Most of the accommodations are relatively inexpensive.
Sometimes you have to fight to get them though.
All the way from helping you develop the accommodations, all the way 
to bringing a lawsuit against someone who is refusing to give you 
accommodations that were reasonable, all along that line we would 
help you.
Remember there is no cost to you for these kinds of legal services.
We would also advocate for vocational services from the employment 
networks or vocational rehabilitation agencies.
If a dispute arises between you and another, we would assist you in 
trying to resolve that dispute with those two agencies are helping you.
Would also provide information and more for all and advocacy around 
the area and general.
In other words of our office doesn't do it, we will try to find you some 
place that does what you need in order to get to the next step.
The other thing, and I think this is one of other areas, advocating 
for accommodation is a huge area for what you will need.
This is the other area that is huge and that is assisting 
beneficiaries to remove barriers to work.
It's very discouraging when you hear what some employers tell 
you, I am sorry we cannot hire people with fill in the blank.
They will tell you that bluntly that if they tell you that, it will 
be covered under the Americans with disabilities act or your own 
states laws, then it is illegal to tell you that, and it can be 
very discouraging.
How many times can you hear that and still keep going back 
and trying to work?
Frankly not very long.
We try to eliminate some of those very discouraging.
Again even through filing lawsuits against an employer.
And the last few years we have filed lawsuits against two employers
in our state.
In both examples, the employer rehired the individual and they work 
there now for quite some time.
The difference in the amount of money they are earning in a job where they
can do well is so substantially higher than what they were drawn 
Social Security benefits and they are very happy returning to those 
workplaces where they were terminated for impermissible reasons.
They asked for lawyers to help them get their EEOC claim filed and 
have their lawyers pursue litigation if an issue was not satisfactorily resolved, 
it would have been impossible for them to have done on their own.
The final thing, that is addressing overpayment issues.
We hear clients tell us why would I go back to work?
Last I went to work, all it gave me was an overpayment 
and it absolutely destroyed me.
There's many ways to deal with overpayment so you can continue 
working and we will try to avoid them in the future and to avoid the impact on you 
that causes you to be terribly 
discouraged from ever returning to work.
The other thing that I might add on the, with the same notion, how 
you are feeling in terms of being discouraged, we tell clients as 
well that there are many things that we do for people with 
disabilities that enable you to just recover your spirit of wanting 
to work and rejoin the community.
It seems kind of small, but oftentimes clients are badgered by creditors.
If you're on Social Security a predator -- a creditor cannot even 
get money from your Social Security.
As a result we sometimes send them nothing more than a letter telling a 
creditor to please quit contacting the client, you cannot even 
collect this judgment from them, you're just harassing them.
You'd be surprised how many people have their spirits lifted by just 
having a creditor quit calling them.
And then when I feel better I will be up to think about going back 
to work.
Now when you go back to work you might have to deal with that 
creditor once you get income, but we can help you with that too 
but while you're on Social Security do not let them get you down while 
you're thinking about planning your own future.
These are some of the areas we can help you with, basically anything 
that can help you figure out how to go back to work and how I get 
over the barriers?
Thank you.
Thank you so much Kayla.
That was great.
We have some other resources for you that we want to tell you about 
before we start taking questions.
Always a good place to start is at www.socialsecurity.gov/work and 
you will be able to find just about everything you need so that is 
a great place to start.
It will help you find your local WIPA project, employment networks 
that serve your area, it will help you find a 
PABSS agency for your area.
Another place you can start is by calling the Ticket to Work 
helpline and that number is 866-968-7842 for the voice and four TTY 
it is a 66-833-2967.
As you can see there is really no wrong way to begin this process.
Once you make contact with one member of his employment team, the 
other people will fall in line because as we said earlier, the 
entire team is necessary to protect your rights and ensure that your 
journey to work is as comfortable as possible.
So, let's look at that Q&A box.
Jaime is giving me quite a few of them.
I am going to look towards the EN ant VR expert for this one.
What about someone's to be self-employed 
or to start a home-based business?
This is Sharon with the VR, and in our state there are opportunities 
with self-employment and we encourage people to connect with the 
small business administration within their area which helps with 
business plans and other resources that may be available.
At that point we kind of see what the small business will entail to 
determine if there may be other resources within the area that are 
available to help fund a small business, or maybe something that the 
VR agency can find.
As far as the work at home, that is a pretty popular question and I 
get that daily here in our state.
We do have several.
The thing about work-at-home is finding something that is going to 
be legitimate and we do have some work at home positions within our 
state.
Another every state is going to be different.
There are some EN's that assist with working home positions as well 
so that is definitely an opportunity to just get connected with a 
right organization that can assist with that.
Okay, thank you very much.
Someone has a job opportunity ready out there.
How can they get their tickets assigned quickly?
[ Silence ] 
This is Sharon again.
Okay.
I just want to make sure that I understand, they have a job 
opportunity they are wanting to go ahead and assign their tickets to 
an organization just to put it so they do not get a medical review?
That is what the question says that lets assume that they need some 
on-the-job supports.
Okay.
In that situation they can definitely apply with the state VR agency 
and there may be some other things that individual will be needing 
for employment.
We would be able to lay out everything to see what we can assist 
with.
I think in that situation where they already have a job lined up, 
but local employment network may also assist in that as well and 
helping them and advocate them and getting started with that 
employment.
I think either the state VR or EN would help in that situation.
Great, thank you very much.
I think this one will be for Jill.
What happens if my benefits stopped because I'm making money, and 
then I can no longer work because of my disability?
That would be the expedited reinstatement, that is where that comes 
in.
If it's within that five year window we had talked about.
You would need to let Social Security know or your CWIC know that you 
have stopped working and we would get the ball rolling that way.
Okay, thank you very much Jill.
And I think this one is for my VR and EN again.
I got my ticket a long time ago, does it expire?
No it does not expire you can use it at any time you find an EN you 
want to apply it to.
We have an unusual question for PABSS, how do I approach an advocate 
and how or where do I find them?
And our protection and advocacy system you need to find the location 
of the one in your state and let me give you the website for the 
national Association for our offices because it's easy for me to say 
to you here.
It is www.mdrn.org intended to the Social Security website and there 
is a list of all our offices and you can find the one for your state.
You can call them on the phone because we provide a statewide 
services so even if you live in the most remote area of the state, 
you can connect with an advocate and our protection and advocacy 
offices.
So call them up on the phone, we are at tourneys and we can keep all 
of your communications confidential so you can tell us anything.
You can tell us that you're really nervous and scared and you don't 
have to talk to advocate and you want someone to just make you feel 
more comfortable and at ease and find out what we do.
If you state it that way, we will respond to that address what your 
needs are.
Like I say, because we are a tourneys we can keep your secrets and 
we do not have to tell anybody that you didn't even know how to call 
in or what to do.
We keep a secret for a living and so we are happy to work with you 
and in most confidential manner and to figure out a plan on how we 
are going to confront and figure out way to go where you want to go.
Thank you very much Kayla.
And now for Liz, Sharon, or Jill, are there any transportation 
assistance available?
This is Jill.
Within the WIPA, the transportation issue comes up in a form of what 
we call impairment related work expenses.
These are out-of-pocket costs that pertain to your disability and 
the work they could be transportation and Social Security looks at 
that, they expenses that you pay out of your own pocket towards 
transportation.
They take that into effect when they are calculating possibly your 
new check, are looking to see if you're earning substantial gainful 
activity amounts.
That is what the Social Security team has to offer on transportation, 
it's a way to reduce, or, a way for you to keep some of your money 
as an expense.
Okay.
And Liz and Sharon, what can the other members of our employment 
team do for that?
This is Liz actually have a fund where we all our for about a 
month's worth of gasoline which we provided.
Never bought a car though.
We can provide us their.
-- We can also provide bus fare or also a bike until a person get 
going back on their feet and that is all we have done in the past.
This is Sharon and on the VR side of it, as far as here in our state, 
we also assist individuals with bus passes.
We also look at if the individual has their own transportation, and 
they just made -- and they may just need assistance with gas money 
for them to job search and things like that, that is definitely a 
possibility.
They can get with a counselor in the counselor can see how much of 
that individual will be traveling and can assist them with that as 
well.
In other states I would suggest that other individuals get what 
their state VR agency, some agencies may be contracted with 
different transportation resources in their area that might be able 
to assist with that.
Also, can I jump back, someone had asked if their ticket could 
expire and Liz indicated they could not expire, but we also suggest 
that you contact the Ticket to Work helpline to assure that your 
ticket is assignable before you get out and assign it to an 
employment network or a state VR agency.
Thanks an awful lot.
That is a great example of how each member of your employment team 
can provide you with different services.
Remember they can all help at the same time.
Ray?
Yes.
This is Kayla.
I thought of one other example we might add to transportation.
I would encourage people to not forget that you might have a legal 
right to transportation that is not being provided in your community.
For example, we had one sort of suburban area where they had a bus 
that only had three accessible seats on it.
As a result, only three people, and they were close to a major 
metropolitan area, and so increasing the number of accessible seats 
on a bus or in another major much appalled and area -- major 
metropolitan area, some of the buses were available of some of them 
were not, to figure out how to get your local area to have 
accessible transportation that you could use could be a legal issue 
that you want to address as well.
Great Kayla, thank you very much for that.
How about Liz aunt Sharon again, what kind of training and 
educational opportunities are available?
This is Sharon.
This question comes up a lot as well.
Usually I let individuals know that each individual is basically 
going to be individualized.
Individuals that call into our office, I usually let them know that 
once you connect with your vocational counselor you can discuss with 
them and in our state what type of work you want to do, and the 
counselor can look at what type of training may be needed for that 
decision.
I'm not going to necessarily put a limit on it.
We work very closely with our vocational technical schools across 
the state, worked closely with our universities, but it kind of 
depends on what kind of training will be needed for each individual.
Okay.
Thanks very very much.
Hey, Jill, how about this one question were very interesting Western.
What if I have a chance to work with the military as a civilian 
worker, will that help or hurt when I am using a ticket?
It but definitely not hurt any job that you get.
If you use your ticket.
It's not going to hurt.
I would say go for it.
That sounds exciting, that would be an awesome job, to be able to be 
a civilian employee.
I thought the same thing.
[ Laughter ] 
That job is not looked at in a different than any other job.
Go ahead and use your ticket.
Thanks a lot.
I have another one for you.
Someone is curious about how all of this impacts their Medicare 
benefits.
Well, if you're talking specifics for Medicare, that would be SSDI 
benefits.
And if you want to know exactly how it's going to affect you, then 
you really need to get in touch with your local WIPA.
Again it is www.socialsecurity.gov/work, that is the website you 
would need to go to to find your local WIPA NDP get a -- and you can 
get a CWIC to work with you.
That Medicare issue is tricky because as Jill eluded everyone's 
situation is different.
Everyone's situation will be very different in terms of at what the 
needs are from the VR and EN's and to be -- and the PABSS so it's 
very important to go to the helpline at 866-968-7842 or 866-833-2967 
in order to get started and folks like Jill can sit down with you 
and help you get started and get your employment team together.
Kayla, here's a quick question for you.
Don't have to disclose my disability when I get an interview?
No.
You are not required to.
However, you may have a need to address it in order to request an 
accommodation, and how you go at that, and the manner in which you 
go at that is something that you should learn.
There are some excellent materials on the yellow Sea -- in the EEOC 
website and you can also ask your protection advocates the office if 
you cannot find some of those and out on the website or other 
websites.
Ask them and they can help you locate those things to read it 
because I think it takes a while to be able to read those and 
understand what an employer can and cannot do, what you should or 
should not do, and what you must do, and then what choices you have 
and which way you want to proceed on that.
Thanks a lot a lot -- thanks a lot Kayla.
I have one that I'm going to send to Liz and Sharon.
Someone said no if I have to work for a state VR agency or do I just 
work with a EN work I worked with both?
You can work with definitely just a EN, I don't think you can work 
with both, maybe, I am not sure.
Maybe Sharon knows the answer to that.
This is Sharon.
Yes, you can does work either with the employment network or the 
state vocational rehabilitation agency and the ticket cannot be 
assigned to more than one organization at one time.
If the ticket is assigned to the employment network you specifically 
assigned to them, or if it is assigned to the vocational rehab you 
work with the vocational rehab.
In some cases or state the two have partnerships and so they kind of 
worked together and as I mentioned earlier once the case is closed 
out, there is generally a partnership where the ticket goes from the 
VR 2-D -- to the EN edit some cases it might work the opposite.
I would suggest that you get with your state representative, whether 
it is the EN aura the -- or the VR and see how that is worked out.
Thank you very much.
Jill, are the nine months for the trial work period consecutive are 
they spread out over time?
They are not consecutive, but they has to happen within a certain 
window.
It's a rolling 60 month window and that is really hard to explain on 
the phone.
But no they do not have to be consecutive.
They can be, but they don't have to be.
And what qualifies as a substantial gainful activity?
There are two amounts.
One for people whose disability is visual impairment or blindness.
There are SGA amount is $1640 for the year 2011.
For those individuals with a disability that is not blindness or not 
a visual impairment, that SGA amount is $1000 in 2011.
Okay.
Remember, if you do have a question, please it into the Q&A box.
Right now the question box is empty.
So if you do have a question, get it to us right away please.
We will wait a few more minutes.
Okay, Jill, you're going to be put on the spot again.
How does that PASS program works that you were talking about?
Wow! 
[ Laughter ] 
The PASS, I like to look at it as a business plan really.
You are telling Social Security what you're wanting to do.
You set the vocational goal of the -- you set a vocational goal of 
the indoor lighting -- a vocational goal up and/or time Social 
Security you want to attend college and you don't have the money up 
front, but if you're working, and you set some of your earnings 
aside into a PASS, it allows you to save money for the school 
perhaps.
Whatever is written into this PASS plan that allows you to achieve 
your work goal, that is how it works.
It is an SSI work incentives only.
SSI.
You cannot set SSI money aside.
It has to be earnings you set aside.
But this is really a complicated work incentives that I am going to 
say that you need to talk to a CWIC about.
They are liaisons between you and Social Security, and they work 
with Social Security and writing the best PASS plan for you that 
will allow you to become successful when you're using that PASS plan.
Great, thanks Jill.
I have an interesting one for Liz and Sharon.
What if I have never worked or I have not worked for a long period 
of time, how do I get started in regards to references and 
experience?
This is Liz.
At the Clubhouse we have a unique situation where we also have pre-
vocational type of training during the day and it gives the person 
back into the work environment without the stress of actually 
working and having a boss and all of that.
However, we do still run our agency as though it was a business.
We've also put down on some of resumes volunteer work.
Volunteer work can help as well when you're writing out a resume.
References?
I have actually given people references after I have known them for 
a while.
And maybe Sharon has other ideas.
This is Sharon.
It's funny, I hear this question because of someone asked me this is 
a question just yesterday.
Everything that Liz mentioned is basically my response as well.
You may have some previous skills like Liz said some volunteer work 
and you might want to do is kill to resume to basically -- you might 
want to do a skills resume to outline those and maybe we had someone 
who did not work because they maybe had to take care of a family 
member or they were raising children during that time.
You can kind of get with the EN or the state VR agency to help with 
that and a lot of workforce offices within your state will help with 
resumes and employment information.
That is a really tough question, but you can get with someone who is 
a little creative with the can help you put a twist on that.
Of course, employers are going to want to specifically know, there 
might be some things you may not have thought of that you can come 
up with with the help of some resources in your area, to help better 
into those.
Thanks.
While I have you Sharon someone lost their ticket, can they still 
use it?
Sure.
Previously individuals had to have the ticket in order to receive 
the service, but currently you do not.
The phone number was given out earlier for the Ticket to Work 
hotline is an excellent resource.
You can contact them and tell them that you can either take it 
anymore and I just want to know if my ticket is assignable?
If it is, you do not have to have the physical ticket, you can go to 
the organization and they can do all the work for you to find that 
information out.
If you feel you would like another copy of the ticket, call the 
hotline as well and they can definitely get your hopes up with 
another ticket.
But the physical ticket is not necessarily to initiate -- is not 
necessary to initiate the service.
Thank you very much.
Jill, I am coming back to you.
What is the difference between EPE and EXR?
Okay, EPE is extended period of eligibility and that is at work 
incentives that follows the trial work period, it's a 36 month 
period of time and earnings are looked at.
That SGA amount is looked at and that EPE period of time.
And EXR, expedited reinstatement is when you come off of benefits 
due to earnings at one point, but they need to stop working because 
of your disability.
And then you would go to Social Security to get back on benefits 
while they are determining whether you are still disabled or not.
One is the extended period of eligibility, when you are on benefits 
receiving a check right after the trial work period and EXR it was 
him, off benefits due to your earnings and you possibly need to get 
back on benefits because of her disability.
Ray, do you have anything to add on a?
I think that was great.
I think it was actually very telling, because it even those of us 
who work with these terms every day can still get a little bit mixed 
up with all of the alphabet soup were thrown around.
I think that is all the more reason why you.
There were looking to begin to go back to work, you need to contact 
a CWIC, a EN and A.
VR and PABSS in order to put the team together because it's going to 
be very difficult to navigate for all of this by yourself.
Jill, one last question.
How do you get started?
Well, a few different ways.
If you know your WIPA already in your state, give them a call.
That will start the ball rolling.
If you do not, you need to call the Ticket to Work helpline at 866-
find the WIPA in your area.
There is not the wrong way to get into this program.
That brings us to a little after four: That brings us to a little 
after 4:30 Eastern time and I want to thank all of the speakers were 
there excellent job speaking today and thank you Michael for your 
excellent technical support.
Have a great afternoon everybody and have a great day everybody, 
take care.
Thank you Ray.
[ Event concluded ]