>> Ray Cebula: Good afternoon, everybody.
This is Ray Cebula from Cornell University's
Employment and Disability Institute,
and I'd like to welcome you
to today's WISE event;
helping you today so you can succeed tomorrow.
We are here to talk about
your journey to employment.
We have some wonderful speakers to share
experiences with you and to share some
of the services that they'll be able to provide
to you to help you on your journey to work
and to help you make that decision as to whether
or not work might be the right
thing for you at this moment.
Before we get going with the substance
of today's talk I'm going to want
to take you through today's technology.
There is a webinar console in the
upper right hand corner of your screen.
You've been connected using the
microphone and speakers in your computer.
If for any reason you determine that that's not
working right for you or not working well enough
for you, you can open the audio box by clicking
on the plus sign next to the word audio
in that console and it will open
up today's call in information.
Just push the button use telephone
and today's phone number area code,
access code I'm sorry and audio pin will appear.
Those are blurred out in the screen right now
because we don't you to dial
in with our samples.
Your audio information for today
and your contact information
for today will be in that screen.
We also want to have you ask your questions and
while we can't let everybody do that verbally
because we have about 500 of
you out there listening to us,
we can let you do that electronically.
What you can do is click on the plus
sign next to the word questions.
It will open up the question box for you.
Type in your question, hit the word send and
it will appear on our desktop and Jamie's
in the background monitoring
all of those questions.
Now because there are so many people and we
have so much information to get through today,
we will likely only take a few of the
questions and we're going to look for questions
that are going to apply to the most people.
We will, however, give you information
so that you can get your individual questions
answered throughout discussion today.
Now we always want to know about our product
and our product is not only the information
we're sharing but how we are sharing it.
So this webinar is part of that product and
we want it to be accessible to as many people
as we possibly can make it be and
it's important that we hear from you.
If you're having an issue accessing
the information, accessing the sound,
accessing the content, please let us
know and more than just letting us know
that you had an issue if you're aware of
any program, any computer program or any fix
that our tech team can make, let us know about
that as well and we'll be happy to consider that
and make sure that this works better for
the greatest number of people in the future.
Now here's our agenda for today and as you can
see we're talking about a lot of information.
We're going to start with just some introductory
notes that I'm going to cover then we're going
to talk about Work Incentive Planning
and Assistance and we have Kendra
with us from the State of Indiana.
She'll also take us through all of the work
incentives in the Ticket to Work Program
that Social Security sponsors to
assist you in that journey to work.
We have Carla Orr who is an employment
network and a member of your employment team
and it does take a team to get
folks back to work nowadays.
We have Colleen Hart with
us rather than Kristy Cook,
who is with the Vocational Rehabilitation
Agency in Indiana and Sue Beecher,
who is with the Indiana Protection
and Advocacy services.
Now all of these folks you notice are from
Indiana and my guess is not all of you
out there listening are from Indiana.
These programs are federal programs.
They will be available to you in your state and
it might be necessary for you to make contact
in your particular state with a benefits planner
or one of the members of this employment team.
In order to see how things, whoa.
[ Audio difficulty ]
Okay, I think that did it.
All right.
Mike, can you hear me now?
>> Yes, I can, Ray.
>> Ray Cebula: Okay.
Thank you.
All right.
Sorry about that folks.
I'm hearing an echo now.
My headset just went nuts.
All right so let's start the conversation
and what can you expect from today's seminar?
Clearly you can expect some information on
the ticket to work program and work incentive.
We've got a lot of great
information to share with you.
Answers to some of those questions that
everybody has in the back of their minds
about what will happen to their health
care and to their cash benefits and to all
of those other benefits that you may have in
your benefits package if you return to work.
Most importantly where you
can find more information.
Today's seminar is not intended
to give you enough information
for you to go to work tomorrow.
Today's session is to get you interested
enough in work so that you can tomorrow find
out how this will all play out
in your personal situation.
We have a great success story for
somebody who used their ticket to work
and who saw frequent momentum illness
and is now successfully working
and she can explain her story to you
so that you will see what can happen
and what the possibilities are.
Now, why should somebody work?
Why should somebody make
the decision to go to work?
Clearly there's more money involved and
when Kendra starts talking about the rules
that are involved here you'll find
out that there is almost no chance
of having less money if you
decide to go to work.
I'm gaining independence.
It's very, very important that all of the
people that we work with become independent.
Not only independent from
public benefits but independent
in that they can participate in society.
So, gaining independence
from the system, from the man
and getting on with life the way you choose.
Learning new skills.
Part of the work that this employment team of
yours will do in both our employment network
and vocational rehabilitation
representative today will talk
about is how you can learn new
skills so that you can return to work
or gain the skills that you
need to start working.
Meeting new people.
It's a wonderful thing out there and that's
one of, you know, this is one of the things
that people don't really consider
when they're returning to work,
but if you are about to start a new job,
you're going to meet a whole lot of new people.
In my own personal experience, I have
met people all over this country.
I met my spouse while I was working.
So lots of things can happen
just because you work.
Now we have Megan's story so I'm going to
turn this over to Mike and as you can see
in 2008 Megan had a major depressive
episode and turned to disability benefits
and her employment team helped her get
back on her feet and get back to work.
So, Mike, take it away and
let's hear Megan's story.
[ Background music ]
[ Silence ]
[ Background music ]
>> Megan: I believe it was around
January of 2008 I kind of got sick
and I took another position
and from that position I ended
up getting fired, and I had a mental breakdown.
So my disability is a mental illness.
It took a lot of time for me to
get everything back together.
I ended up actually having to file bankruptcy.
It was really great for me that I was
introduced to the Disability Program.
After so many months in the Disability
Program you can get a ticket to work and then
that will help you actually get back
into working, but it also allows you
to get medical assistance, which helps you for
me to be able to see a psychiatrist and doctors
and get my medicine and everything like that.
Staying at home is not as fun as
it looks, but also it's not me.
I'm 27 so I don't want to be at home my
whole life and have a lot of things to do.
So that really made me want to get back to work
because that's what I should be
doing that's what I want to be doing.
The first thing that I received in the
mail was my ticket to work and with
that it included some websites and
pamphlets about what the program was
and places you could go and people
you could give your tickets to
and so I found actually Transcend
and I called them.
>> Hi, Megan.
Welcome, good to see you.
How are you doing today?
>> Megan: I'm doing pretty good.
>> Good. Megan came to Transcend
about a year ago.
She was seeking a job in
the IT DNA synthesis field.
She knew exactly what she wanted to do and
she worked with our employment counselor
in developing her resume, fine tuning her
interview skills, identifying employers
and after only a few months she was
able to obtain employment actually
as a temporary agent doing
what she wanted to do.
>> Megan: One of the big problems or concerns
that I had was would I lose my
disability benefits if I started working
and then I couldn't continue to work and
then I would have to start all over again.
>> So at that point she connected with me for
benefits counseling and I was able to walk her
through how her benefits would
be affected by that work.
She receives Social Security
Disability Insurance.
So she was happy to learn that she had what are
called trial work period months and she was able
for nine months to work at a full-time position
and not have any decrease in her benefits,
she still received full benefits.
After those nine months were over she had an
additional three months called her grace period
months and after those months are
over she has an additional three years
where her disability check will only
be suspended based on her earnings
and if she's not able to keep the job,
she can return to her Social
Security Disability Benefits.
>> Megan: It made me feel supported
that I could do it and I could try
and if it didn't work I could
come back but I could keep trying.
The job that I do is a document
control specialist and the easiest way
to explain that is it's part librarian.
So people return things to
me and I check them out.
It's part teacher because when they return
things to me I check it to make sure
that it's correct and if it's
not, I ask for them to redo it.
>> What made Megan a success in her job
search first and foremost was her willingness
to go back to work and our job after that really
is how can we support her to make that happen?
>> I'd classify Megan as a success story in
that she was able to do what she wanted to do
where she's continuing to work now and
she's earning enough that she's going
to be working her way off the disability
benefits, she's happy in what she's doing
and as long as she's happy,
we're very happy for her.
>> Megan: The impact has been great.
I have a year left to pay off my
car and then it's mine forever.
I can kind of get my life back under control.
I'm looking to move out on my own
and just making a lot of good choices
that are good for me in just moving forward.
[ Background music ]
One of the biggest things I like to do is
competitive ballroom dance and also when I got
in my disability, I gained a lot of weight so
that wasn't as fun for me as it could have been.
So, now it's getting more
fun and I'm enjoying it,
I like the costumes so that's
a big thing that I do.
[ Background music ]
Now I have a lot of focus.
I'm not going to say that sometimes I don't
fall back into the abyss, but now I know
and I've received the tools from Transcend for
myself and from the people that they've put me
in contact with to pull myself
out and to keep going.
I don't think that I will ever
not fall back, but I don't believe
that I will never keep moving forward.
This is a program that can help anyone no matter
what your disability, no matter who you are
or where you live this is something
that can help you move forward
and to continue on with your life.
[ Background music ]
[ Background typing ]
>> Ray Cebula: Okay, everybody.
I want to thank Megan for that story
and Social Security for helping put
that little video together for us.
We have had a few questions come up in the
box and one of them is rather important
and they asked whether or not this session
and the information that we're talking
about only applies to people with mental
illness and the answer to that is no.
This webinar is focusing on people with mental
illness but the work incentives and the Ticket
to Work Plan that Kendra is going to share with
you as well as the information that the rest
of our speakers will share with you apply to
people with disabilities who receive benefits
from the Social Security Administration.
So let's move on from there.
Now we've got common concerns that have to
be addressed and these are the major things
that we've experienced over the years that
people experience when they want to go to work.
Are they going to lose their benefits?
We can tell you pretty much the answer is no,
not immediately and maybe there's a possible way
to put a plan together for you to get off of
benefits at a pace that you're comfortable with.
How do I get the skills and experience
that you need in order to get a job?
How do you explain that gap in your resume?
We have folks coming up who are going to talk
about those very things and what if you have
to stop working after you've started?
Social Security has taken care of that as well
and there are ways depending on where you are
and the progression of your return to
work to get back onto benefits very easily
without a new application, without the hassle
of going before an administrative law judge
for a hearing or things like that.
So right now we're going to move into the
meat and potatoes of today's discussion
and Kendra Berry, who is a CWIC, a
Community Work Incentives Coordinator
with Aspire Indiana Works, is going to
share some information about the Ticket
to Work and work incentive projects.
So, if you would take it away, Kendra?
>> Kendra Berry: Thanks, Ray.
As Ray said, I am a Community Work
Incentive Coordinator with Indiana Works,
which is the WIPA Project,
the Work Incentives Planning
and Assistance Project, for
northern central Indiana.
The WIPA Projects are Social
Security, approved organizations
that provide free services beneficiary.
What we're here to do is help you understand
exactly how working will impact your benefit.
We can help you understand not only how it
will impact your Social Security payments
but also things [inaudible], Medicaid, Medicare,
HUD and other assistance
that you may be receiving.
The WIPA Projects can help you
make informed choices about working
and help you decide what's
best for you right now.
Whether your goal is to work part
time or full time they can help you
to understand how working will
impact all of your benefits.
The WIPA staff, the CWICS that you'll be working
with are trained to provide this information
about both the Ticket to Work
Program and the work incentive
that Social Security has developed.
They'll be able to answer
the questions that you have
and help you find the resources
to achieve your goals.
They can get you hooked up with agencies
such as vocational rehabilitation
and the employment networks and you'll
hear from them later in the presentation.
Next slide.
You guys are obviously ready to
explore the idea of returning to work.
So where do you go from here?
You've made the right decision in joining
today's presentation to get a brief overview
of all of the work incentives
and information available to you.
You can learn more about the work
incentives that apply to you.
You'll learn how to build your employment
team and what agencies can help you get a job
from creating a resume to practicing
interview skills to getting
out there and submitting application.
Like Ray said they'll be able to help you
answer questions that you may feel uncomfortable
about now such as why haven't
you worked in a few years?
Or tell me what's going on with you.
It's important to stay positive
and look for opportunities
and that's what this presentation
will help you to do.
It'll help you get hooked
up to different resources
to help you find employment
and to reach your goals.
Next slide.
Social Security Disability Benefit Programs
are broken down into two main programs.
The first is Social Security
Disability Insurance or SSDI.
This is for people who have worked
in the past, they've paid FICA taxes
and they're receiving this
money based on their work record
or they became disabled before the age of 22
and are receiving against a parent's record.
The other program is Supplemental Security
Income or SSI and this is for people
who maybe didn't work enough in the past
or didn't work close enough to the time
when they became disabled to qualify for SSDI.
Some of you may be receiving both SSDI and
SSI and this is known as concurrent benefit.
The reason we're going over this is because
there are different work incentives available
for both SSDI and SSI so it will be important
to understand which benefit you have.
If you have a question about which benefit
you have, your WIPA Project will be able
to help you understand what you're receiving and
which work incentives apply to your situation.
Next slide.
Some of the most common concerns
that I hear when I'm working
with people are what risks am I
taking by going back to work or going
to school to further my education?
What's going to happen to
my SSI payment or my SSDI?
Will it stop?
What about my insurance?
Will I lose insurance when I go to work?
I wouldn't be able to work without that.
Or what happens if I end
up with an over payment?
Is there a way to prevent that from happening?
We're going to answer all of those
questions in this presentation.
Just as a reminder, this is a brief
overview and there are more work incentives
that what we're going to review today.
Like the bottom of the page says change
can be scary but it's a lot less scary
when you know some of the basic program rules.
Next slide.
The next biggest myth out there is that by going
to work you'll automatically
lose your Medicare and Medicaid.
This is just not the case.
As long as you're receiving a
benefit check either SSDI or SSI,
you'll be able to keep your health insurance.
For those of you who have Medicare,
Medicare can continue for up
to 93 months after your benefits stop.
That's seven years and nine months of
continued Medicare coverage and depending
on your situation you may be able to
qualify to receive it for even longer.
For those of you who have
Medicaid whether you're on SSI
or SSDI Medicaid can also
continue while you're working.
Here in the State of Indiana if you are a SSI
recipient only you can continue to have Medicaid
at no cost to you until your yearly
earnings exceed over $34,000.
So going to work is not going to
cause you to lose insurance even
if you just want to work part time.
Next slide.
The second biggest myth out there is that if
you use your Ticket to Work to go back to work,
Social Security will perform a medical
review and you'll lose your benefits.
While your Ticket to Work is in use,
Social Security will not complete a
Continuing Disability Review or a CDR.
What that is is it's the four-page packet that
you receive every so many years asking questions
like are you still seeing a doctor, are you
taking medications, is your disability the same?
That medical review will not be completed even
if it's scheduled to be while your ticket is
in use or signed and you're making
progress towards your work goals.
So, it shouldn't scare you
to go back to work and think
that everything is just going to be stopped.
Next slide.
The last biggest myth is
I think the scariest one.
A lot of people are concerned that
they're going to go back to work
and maybe they'll even work their way
off benefits let's say three years
down the line their disability will worsen and
they won't be able to work and they'll have
to go through the application process again.
I'm sure some of you had a really hard
time getting the disability benefits
and you had to appeal and it took years.
If you go back to work using these
work incentives, if your benefits ended
within a five-year period and your work
now stopped, you don't have to reapply.
Both SSDI and SSI recipients can
request expedited reinstatement.
Social Security will give you up to six months
of payments automatically why
they re-determine your disability.
So, you won't have to go through that
reapplication or go through the appeals process
and it's basically a safety net for
you that provides you the assurance
to know you have the chance to
go out there and find a job.
Next slide.
The Ticket to Work Program was created to give
you assistance with learning what jobs are
out there and what agencies can
help you and it's a free service.
Next slide.
The way the tickets works is it's free
and voluntary and you're in control.
Social Security created this to
get people hooked up with agencies
like Vocational Rehabilitation and
Employment Networks to you find a job.
These agencies will assist you with the
resume building and the skills testing
and the interview preparation
to help you find a job.
Because these services are free to you,
you should take full advantage of them
and remember that you're in charge.
You get to choose who to work with
and if you find out after a couple
of months it's not a good fit, you can
choose a different agency to work with.
Most with disabilities aged 18 to 64 who
receive either SSDI and/or SSI can participate
in the Ticket to Work Program.
So it's a great option for you.
Next slide.
So what does the Ticket to
Work Program actually do?
A lot of you could have received
tickets within the last few years
and it came in the mail and they were scary.
People thought it meant Social Security
was going to force them to go back to work
and they just put them aside and
didn't worry about them and this Ticket
to Work Program is really a benefit to you
because it helps you get back out there whether,
again, whether the goal is to
work part time or full time.
So, if you're ready to make money, the
Ticket to Work Program can help you
to improve your earning potential
and to reach the goals that you have.
If you feel like you're ready for
some personal fulfillment and you want
to boost your self-esteem by getting a job,
this will provide you with the assurance
and stability that you need to feel confident
but still know that you have a safety net,
you have a support team in the employment
team that has been created for you.
If you're feeling discouraged that your
disability is going to prevent anyone
from wanting to hire you or the ups and downs
of your disability are going to make it hard
for you to learn, this will
help give you the confidence
and the sense of control of your work options.
Again, this is all up to you.
If you just want to start out part
time to see how much you can handle,
that's a great way to go about things.
If you're ready to go out there and
try full time, you can do that as well
and you'll have a big support team to help you.
The WIPA Project can help understand a work
incentive and exactly how different types
of employment will affect your benefits
and the employment networks will be able
to be there one-on-one with you to hold your
hand and to get you through the process.
If you're afraid that you'll lose your benefits
and you won't be able to get them back,
that expedited reinstatement will give you the
peace of mind to know that you won't have to go
through that whole reapplication process and
submitting all the documents and all of that.
It won't take as long as it did the first time.
If you're afraid that you won't
be able to get back on benefits
if you lose your job completely, the
expedited reinstatement will also cover
that because it gets you back on the fast
track to getting the benefits restarted.
Lastly if you're feeling overwhelmed,
you should know that you are not alone.
This is a lot of information and this
presentation is just to give you an overview
and to let you know that
these programs do exist.
It's meant to connect you with people
and the resources that you may need.
Next slide.
As far as the resources go, there are a lot
of them with the Ticket to Work Program.
The first is the Ticket to
Work Helpline at 1-866-968-742
or if you're hearing impaired, at 866-833-2967.
They'll be able to answer
some basic questions for you
and give you a list of the employment networks.
They'll also be able to get you
hooked up with your WIPA projects.
You can visit www.socialsecurity.gov/work
to find the Work Incentive Planning
and Assistance Project near
you and get you [inaudible]
with your Community Work Incentive
Coordinator like myself to figure
out which work incentives apply to you.
No one is going to tell you
what your work goal should be.
So, whether you come in wanting part time,
full time, two hours a week or 40 plus,
we will just help you understand how you can
achieve that work goal using these programs.
You can stay connected using your
new employment team as experts
to help you explore these options and to
understand what options are available to you.
Next slide.
So now that I've mentioned these work
incentives, let's start going over some of them
and understanding how they'll
be able to help you as you get
out there and start considering working.
Next slide.
The work incentives are meant
to be your bridge to success.
They're there to provide a safety net while
you find a job that's a good fit for you.
Next slide.
The way that they work and the many dangers
to them are that they provide training
for new skills if that's
something that you're considering.
For some people their disability has caused
them not to be able to go back to the field
that they used to work in and maybe you
need to further your education or you want
to get training in a different field.
You can use the Ticket to
Work Program to do that.
They will help you improve the skills that you
already have or maybe brush up on some things
like creating a resume or just updating your
resume to sell you better to the employers.
You'd be able to pursue your
education, try different jobs,
start a career and gain confidence.
The starting a career I think is the most
important part of this because, again,
this program is completely built by you.
Whatever your goal is our goal is
to help you reach it and we want you
to find a job that's a good fit for you.
When you assign your ticket
to an agency or start working
with vocational rehabilitation,
they're not temp services.
They're not just going to place you somewhere.
They're going to help you find a job that
you want so that you're happy with it.
Next slide.
These are some of the most common work
incentives and, again, this is where it comes
into play about knowing whether
you're receiving SSDI,
SSI or both because the work
incentives are different.
The first work incentive available to
SSDI recipients is the trial work period.
What this is is a nine-month period that
allows you to earn as much money as you want
and continue to receive your SSDI check.
The way that it works is
that if you're earning more
than 720 gross per month that's
before taxes then you would want
to do trial work period months.
The point of it is that especially
for those of you who want to go back
to work full time you could go back for
nine months and see if you're able to do it
and if you like that job and you continue to
receive your SSDI check just as a supplement
and provide that first safety net.
The nine months do not have to be consecutive
or in a row it's nine months
over a five-year period.
Once you've used this work incentive if you use
it and you only have one available per period
of disability the work incentive available
after the trial work period so, again,
for SSDI recipients [inaudible]
extended period of eligibility.
During the three-year period after the trial
work period Social Security may restart your
SSDI benefits automatically depending
on where your earnings are at.
I mentioned SGA before, which is
the Substantial Gains [inaudible].
Social Security created or they have to decide
on a level at which SSDI benefits will stop
and in 2011 that amount is $1,000 per month.
So if you're receiving SSDI
and your work earnings are less
than $1,000 per month, your SSDI will continue.
This extended period of eligibility
allows your entitlement to SSDI
to continue even if your earnings fluctuate.
So, for example, say you find a job and
you're earning $900 a month gross before taxes
on average but the holidays roll
around and you pick up some extra hours
and in November and December you earn $1,200.
You would not be eligible to receive
your check for November and December
because you earned more than $1,000,
but if you're earnings went back
down to $900 come January, you would be
eligible to receive the check for January
and this is just an automatic
period of reinstatement
where if your earnings fluctuate would depend
on your eligibility to receive your check and,
again, it's the next safety
net for people who are trying
to find the job that's the best fit for them.
For SSI recipients only there's
the earned income exclusion.
Because SSI is a needs-based program any
income you have will affect the amount
of SSI you receive.
In 2011, the [inaudible] rate for SSI is
$674 and that could be different depending
on the state that you live
in so I would encourage you
to contact your WIPA Project in your state.
The way Social Security is going to
look at your earnings is they're going
to count less half of your earnings.
So, for example, if you're earning $885 per
month Social Security does not count the first
$85 of earnings and after that they count half.
So they would count $400.
Instead of receiving a check for $674 in
SSI, you would receive a check for $274.
I think that scares a lot of people because
they just focus on that $400 less in SSI,
but you earned 885 from working and
you're still receiving 274 in SSI.
So your monthly income is over
$1,100 which is a lot more
than the 674 you were receiving
before you begin working.
This is going to be true for 99% of recipients.
So it's worth it to go back to work.
The other thing to consider is that by working
you'll be paying your FICA taxes and paying
into the system to become eligible for SSDI in
the future and to increase the amount of money
that you will be entitled
to when it's time to retire.
As we've already gone over, the expedited
re-instatement is available for both SSDI
and SSI recipients and it's that protection
that if you have to stop working for any reason
within the five-year period
after your benefits stop,
you can request expedited reinstatement
instead of reapplying and going
through that whole process again to
get your Social Security restarted.
The protection from the medical continuing
disability review is also another big bonus
because what it does is it stops
those reviews from happening.
So Social Security won't just assume
that because you're working
you're no longer disabled.
They have created these work incentives and
set certain limits so that they know you have
to have a chance to get on your feet
before they just take everything away.
As I stated at the beginning, these
are not all of the work incentives.
This is just an overview of some of
the bigger ones and the first ones
that you'll see when you begin working.
When you contact your WIPA Project in your
state and in your area they'll be able
to father information from Social Security
about your benefits and about if you've used any
of these work incentives and also explain to you
how working will affect other benefits you have
such as food stamps, HUD, Medicaid,
Medicare, anything out there.
With that I thank you for listening to
me and I will hand this back off to Ray.
>> Ray Cebula: Okay, thank
you very much, Kendra.
That was just great.
Now we have mentioned throughout the
discussion so far that we're trying
to build an employment team and every
member of today's panel is part of that team
or could potentially be part of that team
and we're talking about employment networks
that are private agencies that can help you get
a job, keep a job, prepare for getting a job
or provide you with some other assistance
that you may need to get ready for that job.
The State Vocational Rehabilitation
Agencies that can provide you with lots
of great training, lots of great equipment that
you may need to do that, work incentive planning
and assistance Kendra has already talked to
you about what those agencies do and what
that CWIC can do for you to make a plan
that pertains to your specific situation
so that you will know what's about
to happen to your benefit situation
when it does happen you'll know in
advance when things should happen.
Sue will be talking to us about the
State Protection and Advocacy System.
Now that system is in place
and we hope you don't need it
because it's the legal arm of all of this.
If you do incur a bump in
the road, hit a pot hole
and need legal representation there is a service
available to you free of charge to help out with
that and Sue will explain to us what
types of services you might be available,
that might be available through
that program and the last member
of this team is actually an employee
of the Social Security Administration
and they're called the Area Work
Incentives Coordinators or AWICs.
Now the AWICs are folks who work for Social
Security as I said and provides support
to the Social Security workers about
how to process work related cases.
They are also very helpful to CWICs and all
of us, all of the members of your work team
in making sure that your case
flows as smoothly as possible
through the Social Security Administration.
Now Carla Orr is here to speak with us
today and she is an employment network
and I will let her introduce herself and explain
a little bit about her employment network to you
as well as provide you with some information
that she might be able to help you out with.
So, Carla, take it away.
>> Carla Orr: Thanks, Ray.
Hi, everyone, it's a pleasure to be here
and I just wanted to speak from part
of the employment team that
represents the employment networks.
So, you're ready to go to work.
First of all you're going to locate
an employment network near you.
There are three great resources
that can assist you with this
and you can be as independent as possible.
You can call the Ticket for Work
Helpline and you can request to speak
with a benefits counselor who will list
the employment networks in your area.
They can also provide you with the
WIPA or the Work Incentive Planning
and Assistant Projects in your area.
You can go to your tickettowork.com
to access a list
of employment networks that
are near you on your own.
I also think it's a fantastic idea
to go to Social Security's website
and get a provider list of the benefits
planning, work incentives planning in your area
so that you can make sure to pick the right spot
that's near you that can talk to your needs.
Next slide, please.
Selecting employment networks
that is right for you.
So this is where the rubber
hits the road if you will.
What you want to do is you want to start
the interviewing process by looking
over those agencies that are near
you and asking them questions.
Ask them questions that are important to you.
Take some time to make a list so that you will
kind of hit the ground running and make sure
that your needs will be met
by those employment networks
because they operate differently at times.
We provided a sample list of
questions for you too on this slide
and you can refer to those as well.
Those are great questions.
Next slide, please.
It's important when you're doing the
interviewing and making your selection
that you understand the employment networks
have a certain ethics and responsibilities
and you choose guidelines that
we need to follow and that we do.
First of all the EN Services
are at no cost to you.
We do a great job of helping you
understand the ticket program,
which even after a wonderful wise event
like this can still seem
somewhat confusing to individuals.
We can also outline and explain our services
when we first meet with you so that you kind
of will get a good picture of what's
going on and what you can expect.
We can discuss worries and
express any concerns you may have.
A lot of those are ferreted out in fears but
they can really be talked about and assist you
with your return to work by addressing
and kind of taking them head on.
We can help you with your plan and assist
you in your efforts towards a timely process,
which is what Social Security
looks at while you're ticket
to work is assigned within Employment Network.
Next slide, please.
Your responsibilities as far as
being a partner in this contract
or plan if you will it's real important for
you to be honest about your work history
and your work goals because that will
do a lot to drive toward the success
and overall achievement as
far as your career ambitions.
You'll assign your ticket to an agency
and you'll sign the individual work plan
after you've developed that with that provider.
You'll develop timely progress reports.
You'll keep in contact with
the employment networks
so that we can provide a really good
feedback as far as how well you're doing
and milestones that you're achieving.
We'll also, oh, we'll also
request that once you get a job
that you start sharing those
check stubs with us.
It's real important so that we can
communicate clearly with Social Security
and [inaudible] assist the Ticket to Work.
Also it's important that when you get your job
that you report your earnings to Social Security
and oftentimes the individual will ask me to do
that for them and that's not a problem either.
Next slide.
Oh, there's lots of examples on this next
slide about the services that [inaudible] kind
of offer you and basically it's just helping
you develop a really good job search campaign
and that might be whatever your needs
are as much or as little as you need
to help you get to the next step which is work.
We might help you with resumes, we might
help you with applications, interviewing,
interviewing tips, access to resources so
that you can apply without worry or being
on timed deadlines like at a
library or at the work one centers.
Job leads, we can help you with job leads.
Accommodation information, career development
opportunities, definitely tax incentive
and that's included usually in the
work incentives planning piece.
So, you should have plenty
of information about that.
Referrals to other resources.
Oftentimes there's community opportunities
and resources that will help you right
in your backyard and you just may not know
about it but an employment network in your area
or the VR system or somebody
probably willing can help.
Sometimes with this population in particular
people with mental illness might just be someone
to talk to and to help them
get through the process.
A lot of the time is spent just doing
supportive counseling and communication and kind
of like a life coach or a cheerleader if
you will on your journey to employment.
Next slide.
One example of an employment effort
is, of course, ours and we are a part
of a community mental health center in our state
and what benefit that has for myself and my team
and you because once we're helping you find
employment is that we are fully immersed
on the education protocols for
the clinical staff at our agency.
So we have a lot of training and kind of
know how and hands on experience so that
that helps us build your written work
plan and help us instill some hope.
We are a firm believer in individual placement
services and supported employment best practice.
So, one of the hottest things for folks
typically with a mental illness is
that you need rapid engagement and immediate
job development and job search practice.
You have to hit while the iron is hot.
This population is very unique in that the
quicker you can react to an immediate statement,
I'm ready to go to work, typically
yields to a higher success rate
and we've been real excited to see that.
Another part of our mental
health center is a huge belief
in the illness management recovery
and motivational interviewing.
All of that hope in helping others see hope
and asking the questions in the right way
and helping people come to their own answers
and set their own goals and reach those goals.
The work incentive planning and assist
in opportunities through training
that we've had has been phenomenal
and that is a huge piece to walk you
through each different work incentive
that Kendra explained and, you know,
just kind of chunking away at
it and dealing with it a step
at a time has been really
beneficial and has seen a lot
of folks reach some wonderful
milestones of success.
That's it for me.
Thank you very much.
>> Ray Cebula: Okay.
Thank you, Carla, thanks for
sharing that information.
Next we're going to move on to another member
of the employment team the State
Vocational Rehabilitation Agency
and today we have Colleen
Hart Catowin [phonetic].
I hope I pronounced that correctly.
>> Colleen Hart Catowin: Pretty close.
>> Ray Cebula: Okay.
[laughter] Who is with Indiana
VR who will explain what types
of services the state agency can provide.
>> Colleen Hart Catowin: Yes,
this is Colleen Hart Catowin.
I am the area supervisor for
one of 25 offices in Indiana.
I will speak mostly to overall
what DR Voc Rehab provides
which should be relatively speaking consistent
across all the states and where I think
that Indiana might be more specific
in one area I'll specify that.
Indiana is another version, I'm
sorry, Indiana Voc Rehab or voc rehab
in general is another version of an
employment network in its own way.
There have been changes over the years
about how voc rehab has acted as [inaudible]
and some states do do it differently.
In Indiana, we have what's called
Partnership Plus and so we work
with other employment networks both before
and after services and that may be different
in your state if you're not in Indiana.
So, I will speak to how that's a
little different here so that you know
in your own state how that might work.
In Indiana, we assume that anybody who is
a Social Security beneficiary is also going
to be eligible for services and this should
be true of any VR office around the country.
There's what we call presumptive eligibility.
Normally when someone comes to
vocational rehabilitation for services,
they have to show that they have an impediment
to employment that's caused by a disability
and that that is the reason why they either
can't work or they can't stay employed
or they've just plain never
been able to get a job.
We assume that if somebody
has social security either SSI
or SSDI that they already have been
evaluated and somebody has already said
that they have a disability that has kept
them from working or has prevented them
from being able to continue to work.
It doesn't mean that necessarily you get
carte blanche all services but it says, okay,
we'll say, yes, you're going to be
probably eligible for our services.
When someone becomes eligible for
services, there's a federal requirement
that someone has a plan established
within a certain amount of time
after that eligibility is determined.
So in most cases if you go in and you
apply to vocational rehabilitation
and you have your Social Security letter in
hand or you've got a copy of your deposit
from your check and you can prove that you're
a beneficiary they can make you eligible
pretty quickly.
However, in order to set a plan of services, the
counselor may have to do some additional testing
to determine what kinds of services
you might need, what's your job goals,
what kinds of supports you might
need, any assistive technology,
and there's a whole process of establishing
that plan and that plan is like a contract.
It establishes what the counselor is going to
do for you to help you achieve your job goal,
it establishes what you're
going to do towards that
and it also establishes what
other providers might be involved.
In a lot of cases, voc rehab will
contract out with providers much
like the agency that Carla works for.
Her agency also provides services
on contract with voc rehab
and they will do job placement
services or supportive employment.
In some cases, we can also fund
additional training or education
if someone can't achieve employment because
they don't have the training necessary
and the disability has prevented
them from achieving that job goal
or completing the training and so we
might provide the supports for that
or the assistive technology to achieve that.
All of those things are written into an
employment plan and that's the contract
that you will follow to achieve that job goal.
Once you have applied to voc
rehab regardless of where you are
in the process once your application is taken
we are likely any other employment network
and we have taken your ticket.
Your ticket is going to be considered in use.
If that's the case, you cannot take your
ticket anywhere else at the same time.
So, for example, if you wanted to use voc rehab,
you couldn't also use Carla's
agency to provide other services.
The exception to that would be in Indiana
or any other partnership plus state,
we have an understanding with certain
providers that we will contract with them
and you might get the best of both worlds.
Your ticket is in use with us, but
you can still get Carla's services
because we're contracting with them.
So depending on your state, you may have
exclusively one agency that you work
with all the time or you may have the benefit
of partnership plus where voc rehab works
in conjunction with other agencies
and beneficiaries have a lot
of extra resources available to them and as
Kendra said as long as your ticket is in use
and you're making timely progress and
you're, you know, working through your plan
that you've established you
are going to be exempted
from those continuing disability reviews.
Next slide.
So, as long as you are working with voc
rehab and working towards those goals
and meeting those progress reviews, you should
be able to continue to receive your benefits,
you'll be eligible for your trial work
periods and all those other things
that Kendra was talking about, the
work incentives that are available.
Voc rehab's goal is employment and we
are kind of the middle man, you know,
we're not going to be following
your case forever.
We expect that if you have gotten a job
through our services or in conjunction
with that other agency, that if you've
worked 90 days and you're stable
on that job we are going to close your case.
If that's the case, then your ticket goes out
of use with us and we will at least in Indiana
because we're a partnership plus we
will then help you transfer your case
to another employment network that's going
to provide long-term services to you.
In many cases, for example, you're in supported
employment, if you used supported employment
to get your job, a lot of those
employment networks are already going
to be providing long-term follow along
services, but we now have a system in place
where automatically your ticket is put into use
with another EN once your
case is closed with VR.
Now if at any point in time you're with
VR and you decide you don't want to work
with VR anymore and you only want to exclusively
work with this EN, for example, a college.
Sometimes there's certain training programs
in colleges that will be employment networks.
They want to help ticket holders
to put their ticket with them.
In those cases, VR is required to close
your case in order to transfer the ticket
to that employment network if we don't already
have a contract with them with that other EN.
So just be aware that some employment networks
are exclusive and want to be the ticket holder
and whoever is the ticket holder is the one
who is considered the employment network.
During the time that your case is open with
voc rehab, we will also have you connect
with community work incentive counselor
such as Kendra or whoever is in your area.
Indiana, we have some additional benefits
that's analysis resources that are available
through vocational rehabilitation as well
that they're a little bit more localized,
but we have all of those things available.
I think that is essentially it
from the perspective of voc rehab.
So I'll send it back to you, Ray.
>> Ray Cebula: Okay, thank you, Colleen.
And we will move on now to the protection and
advocacy for beneficiaries of Social Security
with the PABSS Program and Sue Beecher
is here to speak with us today.
So, Sue, if you could take it away, please?
>> Sue Beecher: Good afternoon, everybody.
This is a lot of information for you to take
in, but I think the one thing I would like you
to take away from this is that this
is a fabulous program to allow you
to achieve a career and it's
not just about getting you
to work it is about getting you a career.
The Protection Advocacy for
Beneficiaries of Social Security
as Ray said earlier you hope you don't have to
use us, but we're here if you need to use us.
We are in a sense the complaint department.
It's important for you to know that even
after this call you may have questions,
you may need additional information,
and you can call your PABSS project.
There's one in every state and every [inaudible]
in the United States and
they provide many services.
We can answer questions and it's also important
for you to know that every question you have
or concern is important to everyone
involved with the ticket program.
You can never ask too many questions,
you can never make too many calls.
We are here to serve you as the beneficiary
in your effort to achieve a career.
Our focus is indeed that individuals who are
SSDI and SSI eligible can get back to work,
can go to work, can get those services and
supports they need to be able to achieve work.
All of our services are free.
Every phone call, representation, we will try to
resolve your issue at the lowest possible level
of intervention, which means it may take just
a phone call or providing you with information
to empower you to resolve your issue all the
way up to legal representation if heaven forbid
that is needed for you to
get your issue resolved
as you return back to work and achieve a career.
You don't necessarily need
to have a ticket to call us.
If you're at the earliest stages of considering
working, you can give PABSS call, again,
no question is too unimportant
for us to find an answer for you.
Again, the ticket doesn't necessarily have
to be assigned either for us to be involved.
If your question or your concern revolves
around your desire to return to work,
as a beneficiary then PABSS
is the place to call.
We can assist you in many ways.
We can advocate for you to have the work
place accommodations that you need to keep you
on the job once you're employed, we can assist
in coordinating services as you seek employment
from the various employment networks.
You heard from Indiana Vocational
Rehabilitation Services,
there's a vocational rehabilitation
agency in every state and territory
or any other employment network
much like Carla's employment network
that serves individuals with mental illness.
So, again, we can at times just kind of be
the, we kind of calm the water sometimes
and oftentimes beneficiaries will worry
that if they cause waves or they call
with their concerns that they will burn a bridge
between that employment network and themselves.
We are experts at assisting you
and resolving issues and we will do
that in a manner that's professional and in
a manner that allows you to continue working
with that employment network as well
as us continuing to work with them.
We're all on the same page.
We all want you to achieve a
career if that is what you want
and so that common bond takes us all
a long way and it's to your benefit.
We can provide services anything
from giving you information.
We can refer you to other entities.
In Indiana, the PABSS Program falls with
the Indiana Protection and Advocacy Agency.
We have two or three other
programs that can assist people
with mental illness in non-work related issues.
So, we're very good at referring
you elsewhere even
if the issue does not pertain to employment.
We don't do direct benefits counseling
in Indiana but some PABSS Programs do
and although we don't do direct
counseling, we know where to send you
if that is something that you desire.
So, we can as I said before any question
you have, any concern, any issue you want
to discuss PABSS is available for you and
it's free and you can use it as many times
as you feel you need to as you gain a career.
We can assist you also in
removing work barriers.
We can assist you possibly with discrimination
issues if that is something that comes
up in your pathway without
achieving your career.
We can also address over payment issues
whether we do that directly or provide you
with information on how best to deal with Social
Security in relationship to an over payment
that relates to your return to work.
Keep in mind that, again, everyone that has
talked today is supporting you to gain a career.
This isn't just about plugging you into
any job or treating your request lightly.
You have people absolutely
dedicated to assisting you
in finding and maintaining a career.
And, Ray, that's it for me.
>> Ray Cebula: Okay, thank you very much, Sue.
Before we get to some of your
questions we're going to just point
out a few of the other resources for you.
As I said, there are hundreds and hundreds
of people participating in today's webinar
so we're not going to possibly be
able to get to all of your questions,
but where can you get more information?
Socialsecurity.gov/work will allow you to find
everything that we have just talked about.
You'll be able to find your local WIPA Project,
the employment networks that serve your area,
your state VR agency and lots and lots of
resources and information about both Ticket
to Work Program and all of the work
incentives that Kendra talked about.
If we don't get to your question today, the
Ticket to Work helpline at 1-866-968-6842
for voice and TTY is 1-866-833-2967.
That line is staffed with folks who can answer
all of your questions and make a referral
to your local CWICs so you can sit down with
somebody face-to-face and get the specifics
about what will happen to you and when
along this journey to work as well
as who you might want to pair up
with for your employment team.
Now, we've got lots of questions
and let's just start with,
how about we start with one for Kendra.
Kendra, we have somebody who
wants to know how long they need
to receive benefits before they can begin to
participate in the Ticket to Work Program?
>> Kendra Berry: You can being
using the Ticket to Work Program
as soon as you are receiving benefits.
The best thing that I would tell people to do
is to contact that [inaudible] phone number,
the 866 number that is listed
on the Ticket to Work helpline
and they can assist you with
gathering that information.
The next thing to do would be to get
in touch with your local WIPA projects
because they'll be able to tell you which work
incentives apply to you as you begin the process
of going through and finding employment.
>> Ray Cebula: Okay, Kendra.
I want to ask you another question
and it seems to be a general question
from lots of people out there today.
How am I supposed to survive
without my benefits?
>> Kendra Berry: The point of this
program is that you don't have to survive
without your benefits if that's not your goal.
The goal of this program is to
help people find employment,
and again whether it's part time or full time.
For those of you who want to
come off of the cash benefit,
these work incentives will help provide
a safety net while you achieve that goal.
If you need the insurance, you can continue
to carry that Medicare for up to seven years
and nine months automatically and
longer depending on your circumstances
and although Medicaid differs in different
states for SSI recipients in Indiana
until you're earnings are above $34,000 a year
Medicaid will continue and SSDI recipients
in Indiana can also have Medicaid and we
have a program called Medaworks [phonetic]
which allows people to pay a monthly
premium to keep Medicaid and that continues
until earnings are above $70,000 a year.
So, this question is it's kind of difficult
and there are a few different answers.
You don't have to come off of your benefits,
but if your goal is to do that working
with the WIPA project and the employment
networks and the other agencies that we heard
from will help you to achieve
whatever your goal is.
By going back to work, again, you're
contributing back to the system,
you're paying the FICA taxes so you'll
become eligible to receive more benefits
in the future should you need
to go back onto disability
or when it comes time for you to retire.
>> Ray Cebula: Great, Kendra.
Thank you very much for that.
Okay, and Sue, it looks like
I have one for here, too.
Do I have to tell my employer that I have
a disability or that I receive benefits?
>> Sue Beecher: I'm not an attorney
and I'm not an expert on the Americans
with Disabilities Act, but I do know that if
you call your protection and advocacy agency
that they can give you more direct information.
Most PABSS Programs, in fact, every one of
them have an attorney associated with that.
I do know that you cannot be discriminated
against in terms of hiring based
on your disability or being a beneficiary.
I would encourage you to get in
touch with your PABSS Program
and ask for more specific legal information.
>> Ray Cebula: Okay.
Thank you very much.
Okay, and for Carla and Colleen, I've
got a bunch of questions for you.
What types of training and educational
opportunities might be available?
>> Colleen Hart Catowin: Carla, do you
want to speak to that or do you want me to?
>> Carla Orr: I think that would
be better with you, Colleen.
>> Colleen Hart Catowin: Okay.
[laughter] Training and education.
It's going to be different for an employment
network than it will be for voc rehab.
Vocational rehabilitation can provide
a pretty broad spectrum of services.
We provide automatically for anybody that comes
through services we provide
vocational counseling and guidance.
So we can do some career assessment with
people and do some real basic counseling
and what is an appropriate job
goal and those kinds of things.
We can also provide or contract for
training such as on the job training
where if somebody knows what they
want to do and they have a job offer,
that either somebody comes in and wants
to, somebody either actually comes in
and provides the coaching on the job
with the person, which is usually done
through job placement or
supported employment services
or in some cases the employer is provided with
financial incentives to provide extra training
and support to the individual and that's a
service that can be done through voc rehab.
In some cases we can actually do some funding
for school, you know, we can help depending
on the job goal if somebody needs an
associate's degree or bachelor's degree
to actually achieve the educational
requirements for a job and they can't do
that without some kind of accommodations
or support, then we can actually assist
with those costs and help somebody
get through the educational experience
that would then get them into the job.
It could be something like a trucking
school or a certificate program
that is a very short-term six-month, nine-month
program that gives you a certification
or a licensure to provide services.
Those are all things that voc rehab can fund if
they are related to the job goal and necessary.
Then, of course, there's
accommodations or assistive technology
that might go along with those kinds of things.
I think other employment networks and
I'm speaking from a general perspective,
most employment networks when they provide
training, it's more job preparation skills,
you know, resume writing, interview
skills, those kinds of things.
Feel to jump in here, Carla, but a lot of
times when voc rehab contracts with agencies
to provide placement services, those things
are part of those placement services.
>> Carla Orr: That would be an
accurate assessment, Colleen.
I think the only training programs or
schooling opportunities that I've even touched
on with the ticket holders I've worked with
are those that they want to apply for an ID
or a savings account or a pass plan
through the WIPA Project and they want
to save their own money and do it their own
way and those are some resources that are done
but other than that you're
pretty much right on it.
Job preparedness, going to the work once
and learning how to build your own skills
and develop a really good job
search campaign for yourself
so that you can use that on an ongoing basis.
>> Ray Cebula: Okay.
Thank you for that and please excuse
the beagles in the background.
[laughter] We have another question for the
voc rehab person [inaudible] on board here.
Is it possible for somebody to develop
a job that they can do from their home?
>> Colleen Hart Catowin: Absolutely.
This is Colleen from voc rehab.
We actually have a number of employers, not
a whole bunch, but we do have employers here
in Indiana that have work-at-home jobs,
and we have had success with getting folks
in those jobs with the right accommodations,
with the right assistive technology,
as long as they're able to do the job
and meet the requirements of the job.
I mean some of them are, they're not
your I work when I want to kinds of jobs.
It's like I work from 8-12
because that's when I'm scheduled
to work on the phones from my computer.
In some cases on a very individualized
basis, we might do small businesses
or self-employment enterprises, but that's
a pretty complex process but it can be done
and it's done on a case-by-case
basis with a lot of counseling
and guidance and, Carla, feel free to chip in.
>> Carla Orr: I would agree.
I think there are those work from home
opportunities out there and I believe
that the right fit goes with the right
person but they are so hard to find for me
from my standpoint, but I definitely
when someone says that's what I
want to do that's what we look for.
>> Ray Cebula: Okay.
Thanks a lot.
Kendra, we're going to go
back to you for this one.
How does all of this happen?
How do all these work incentives happen
when somebody is working on commission?
>> Kendra Berry: What do you mean
when someone is working on commission?
>> Ray Cebula: A car salesman
or real estate agent.
Somebody who is getting paid as
a house is sold or by the car
that they sell rather than a regular wage?
>> Kendra Berry: If it is not wage
employment and is considered self-employment,
there are different work incentives that apply
to that and your WIPA Project and your CWIC
such as myself would be able to walk you through
how Social Security looks at self-employment.
They're going to look at things such as your
net earnings from self-employment and the number
of hours you're working to determine how
your trial work period is being used.
It's a little bit more complicated
in some of the things,
but some of the work incentives are better such
as being able to use things like unpaid help
that you may be receiving from a spouse or
a friend and doing some aspect of the job.
Like if you need help accounting and someone
helps you with that, but you're not paying them,
you can account for some of those things .
So, there are a few different
work incentives associated with it
and by contacting your WIPA Project they would
be able to assist you with that along the way.
>> Ray Cebula: Okay, great.
And we just had one come in,
Kendra, do I need to use my ticket
or can I just find a job on my own?
>> Kendra Berry: You can find a job
on your own; that is completely fine.
The main benefit of using the ticket is you
don't need help finding a job is the continuing
disability work reviews.
The medical reviews would not happen and
if you look for some employment networks
when you look them up, you'll not
only find local ones that can help you
with the day-to-day work, but there are
also national employment networks out there
that you can assign your ticket to.
There are some other benefits
associated with that.
So it's worth looking into
different employment networks
and giving a few a call to assign your ticket.
If you choose to assign your ticket or not,
you can still contact the WIPA Project to find
out which work incentives
apply to you and by working
with the WIPA Project you would not
be assigning your ticket or not.
>> Ray Cebula: Okay, thank you.
Colleen, we have a question specific to VR.
If you're on a waiting list at your VR agency,
is your ticket considered to be in use?
>> Colleen Hart Catowin: Wow,
that's a really good question.
I'm guessing --
>> Ray Cebula: -- I thought so, too.
>> Colleen Hart Catowin: If
you're saying a waiting list,
I'm guessing that that means
-- I'm sorry, Carla?
>> Carla Orr: I was just
going to say no it's my guess
because the individual work
plan has to be signed.
>> Colleen Hart Catowin: Right, well,
I'm thinking these are states
that are in order of selection.
>> Carla Orr: Oh, okay.
>> Colleen Hart Catowin: That would be my guess.
>> That would be my speculation, Colleen.
>> Colleen Hart Catowin: Yeah, and if that's
the case, usually when somebody applies
for vocational rehabilitation services,
the application itself we use the Social
Security Number from the application.
That's how we assign somebody's ticket.
So I'm betting they would be of use
but that's a really good question.
I'm not sure that I'm qualified to answer that.
>> Ray Cebula: Yeah, and I think where we have
so many different states being represented
by our audience that it's the whole notion
of waiting lists may differ
from state-to-sate as well.
One easy way to find out certainly as both
women mentioned if you have signed a plan
with VR then your ticket is
going to be considered in use,
but you could always contact Maximums, you
know, yourtickettowork.com in order to determine
if they have your ticket listed as assigned.
So that might be one way to find out, but the
best way I think and the most direct way is
to talk to your VR worker and ask them straight
out whether or not that ticket has been assigned
or not given the notion of waiting lists.
>> Sue Beecher: Ray, can I do just
a quick [inaudible] for Indiana.
If Indiana goes on an order of selection
through their state Vocational
Rehabilitation Services Agency,
individuals beneficiaries can grieve or
appeal their placement on that waiting list
with the assistance of PABBS as well.
So that may be something, an issue that
your PABSS Program can also assist you with.
I agree with Ray that you
call whom he suggested first
but your PABSS Program may also be
very involved with those issues.
>> Ray Cebula: Great.
Thank you very much.
Now, I kind of have one that's a very
general question but very important.
I want to just send it out
there to the entire panel.
Somebody wants to know how they can find out
what their disability is without being judged?
>> Without being judged?
>> Ray Cebula: Yeah.
I think we have somebody who
hasn't been diagnosed yet
and is a little bit afraid of the process.
>> Well, if they're a beneficiary, I
would assume they had been diagnosed.
I guess judged in what sense?
I'm not sure I understand the question.
I would say that you can
contact Social Security.
If they are receiving benefits already,
they could ask Social Security
what the disability on record is.
>> Ray Cebula: Yeah, and I think that
if it is somebody without benefits,
somebody who might be participating
today who has not received benefits
and might be a little hesitant to talk to
somebody, a community mental health center
or even your treating physician, a general
practitioner that you might be associated
with right now is a great place to start,
but those community mental health
centers are generally wonderful,
very open and very accepting places to begin
if there is not a diagnosis at this point.
>> if there is a disability that is interring
work and they apply for Social Security,
Social Security will also send them
to a doctor to get a diagnosis.
>> Ray Cebula: That's a true thing.
Okay. And lastly I think we're
back to the EN and VR for this one.
Kendra, I would like you to weigh in as well.
What types of services might be
available to help kids start planning
for their future either education
wise or career wise?
>> Colleen Hart Catowin: This
is Colleen with Voc Rehab.
I don't know actually if this is national
for voc rehab but I do know it is true
in Indiana; I suspect it's true elsewhere.
Indiana has some pretty active transition
programs I place and when I say transition,
I'm talking about kids who are getting
ready to graduate from high school.
Typically we would look at someone who
is either late in their junior year,
most often in their actual senior year
like the fall and we're going to look
at what's their plan for completing high school.
Is this someone who is diploma track?
Is this someone who is going to be
getting a core 40 diploma and expects
to go on to college and get a career?
Or is this someone who has really,
really struggled and has been
in special education services,
significant special education services,
and is getting a certificate of completion,
you know, each state is different
on how they qualify their
graduation for lack of a better term.
Are they getting a GED?
If you have a student who is probably not going
to get any kind of diploma and is just kind
of riding out their time, generally speaking you
can apply for services whenever they are ready
to go to work, and I say that very subjectively.
Usually again we're looking at
late junior, early senior year.
If this is someone who's going to be a
professional or with the right supports
and services could get a job that's going
to require some higher level education,
then we're going to need to start with
them sometime in their senior year
to start getting the eligibility done,
to get their plan of services written
so that once they graduate, they've
got their financial aid stuff in place
and if they have any assistive technology
and support that need to be in place
by the time fall comes around, it's about
a year-long process to really get it all up
and going, but it's as long or as short
as it takes and every state is different
with requirements on what
the schools are required
to provide up until the student graduates.
In Indiana, the laws are very clear
that until the person finishes
or they turn age 22 it's the school's
responsibility to provide a lot
of those services, those vocational
planning services, but if they're not going
to finish their high school education, maybe
it's appropriate for them to apply to voc rehab
and get some placement services right off the
bat or go to another EN and get those services.
To this is going to differ a lot
state-by-state depending on what the laws are,
but I mean anybody can go to an EN
as long as they're a beneficiary.
If they're not, they don't have to be
a beneficiary to come to voc rehab.
Anybody who has a disability and that
disability is impeding their ability
to work can apply for voc rehab.
It's not exclusive to Social
Security beneficiaries.
A Ticket to Work or Employment Network
Services are exclusive to beneficiaries.
So that would be the difference.
That's a long answer for that question.
>> Ray Cebula: [laughter] It's an
important one so it deserves a long answer.
Okay.
>> Kendra Berry: This is
Kendra I have something to add.
>> Ray Cebula: Absolutely.
>> Kendra Berry: The WIPA projects are
grant funded to work with people aged 14
through their natural retirement age.
So, if you do have a student who is working
with a transition program or training programs
in high school receiving benefits, we can
assist with understanding the work incentives
that will apply to kids who are working
in high school to maybe learn a trade
or things like that and that is national.
So, it's not just state specific
for us, but they would have
to be receiving either SSDI or SSI.
>> Ray Cebula: Okay.
Kendra, just one more question for you.
Somebody just wants to know
how to get this ball rolling.
How would they get started?
>> Kendra Berry: The best thing to do is
either to visit one of the websites provided
or just call the 866 number and you'll be put
into contact with your local WIPA Project.
I think that's going to be
the best place to start.
You'll also be given contact
information for the employment networks
in the vocational rehabilitation so that
you can start deciding what your options are
and exactly how work will affect your benefits.
>> Ray Cebula: Great, great.
Thank you very much.
We did have somebody ask a question
about Veteran's benefits and what I want
to let everybody know by way of preview is
that on November 16th we will be having
a WISE event focusing on Veterans.
So please tune in on November
And I just want to give you that Ticket
to Work Helpline number one more time.
That is 1-866-968-7842 or if
you're using a TTY 866-833-2967.
I'd like to thank all of our panelists today
for the great information they
shared and hope everybody enjoyed it.
In about a weeks' time, you'll be getting a
link to this webinar if you do choose to listen
to it again or need to hear parts of
it again or just need the information
to contact Social Security or the
call center to get yourself started,
you'll be able to link in and get that again.
So, please, everybody have a great afternoon.
Thanks, speakers.