>> Ray: Good afternoon everybody, this is Ray Sabula, from Cornell's University's Employment and Disability Institute. And I want to welcome you to today's Ticket to Work Webinar. And what we are doing today is a bit unusual for a webinar. We are going to take you through some real specific details about what social security programs might assist you, get back to work, and how those programs work and can help you gradually make your way to independence. Today's webinar format might be new to you, so what I'd like to do is take you through some technical information before we begin. Then we're going to talk a little bit about some accessibility issues that hopefully won't exist for anybody, but we want to mention them anyway. And then I have some questions for you. So we'll spend the next hour and a half having some good fun and getting some good information out there. I do want you to know that we are really talking about some specifics this morning, as opposed to the general discussions that we've had in the past. So remember that there is an archives available and we'll let that, we'll make that website known to you. Jamie if you can type that website into the chat box, everybody will have access to that. If you're a little overwhelmed with today's information because it's the first time you've heard it, don't be overwhelmed. We're going to give you a link where you can get some basic information. But today you'll have, I think some really good quality information, and a good time listening to it. So right now you've been connected, automatic your mike and speakers through your computer. If for any reason you have difficulties listening, or hearing, and you want to switch to telephone, click on the audio box, click the plus sign next to the word audio in your webinar console in the right hand corner of your screen, and that's going to open up and give you today's information. If you click on use telephone, it will give you the dial information, the access code and the audio pin. Now just remember that if you do need to switch to your telephone you may be making a toll call, and we are going to be on the phone for an hour and a half. We want to hear from you and we want to answer as many of your questions as we possibly can. We will have time at the end for questions and answers. And we will also be following this with a Facebook chat, which will give you information and connection information. And we have [inaudible] around the country who can specifically respond to your questions during that session too. But for today's webinar, if you have a question click on the plus sign next to the word questions. It's going to open up this question and answer box. Type in your question, hit send and that question will appear on Jamie's desktop. Jamie will then pose the questions to me at the end of the session. And during the session, because we have so many people attending, what we're going to do is strive to answer the questions that pertain to the greatest number of people. And we're going to let you save your specific questions concerning your own situations for the Facebook session afterwards. Now accessibility is very important to us, and we want as many people as possible to be able to successfully participate in today's session and in all of our sessions. If anybody experiences any difficulty, we want to know about it. And more importantly than just letting us know that you're having an issue, if you have a solution, if you know of a specific program or a method that we could use to avoid that issue in the future, we want to know about that too. So please do not hesitate to let us know if you're having problems and particularly if you know a way to fix it, let us know that as well. Oops I went ahead to it. Here's a toll free number. 1-877-739-5903. That's going to get you a toll free call for today's webinar if you need to use your phone. The access code for today's session is 327161937. We also have closed captioning that is available, and Jamie do we have a new link for closed captioning today, or are we using this link here? I think there's a new one coming. >> Okay. >> Jamie: We will get that out to folks via the chat box in just a second. Thank you. >> Ray: Okay. Jamie's, Jamie, we had a little bit of difficulty arranging for closed captioning for this webinar. So we will have a new link for you that Jamie will get out into the chat box. >> Okay Ray that has just been sent out to the audience. >> Ray: All right, there it is. It's the new chat box. Now on your webinar console, if it has been compressed and all you're seeing is a little row of icons. Click on the red arrow and that's going to open up that box for you. So you can see a lot of the functions that we've just talked about. Now a webinar presentation transcript and audio recording is going to be available as I mentioned there is another webinar that talks about the basics of the issues we're going to discuss today on the website. And that is the website, www.ilr.cornell.edu/edi/m-wise-webinars.cfmdodge. Now during the webinar question and answer period you can submit your questions through that chat box that's in your webinar console or if you'd rather use email send those questions to chooseworkquestions, one word, chooseworkquestions@gmail.com. If the webinar's done and you have questions later, or something dawns on you that you need discussions, you can always get an email to support at chooseworkttw, one word, chooseworkttw.net. So there will always be somebody here who's going to be able to get you an answer to your questions. And now that I've got you through the technical stuff for today, we've got some questions for you because we, we want to know who is listening to us, how you heard about us, and we also know that there are at times one person sitting in a room and we just like to get a sense of how many are with us today. So the first question is how did you learn about today's webinar? If you can just pick the method that you learned about today's webinar, email, Facebook, website, family, friends, or the WIPA. And we can give you a minute or so to answer that. Got a lot of emails. Email seems to be the way to go. [ Background sounds ] >> Ray: All right. Thank you for that information. Now when you signed up for today's webinar, what did you hope to learn from the session today? What did you come here to hear about? Did you come here to hear about the Ticket to Work, SSI Incentives, SSDI Employment Networks, or Legal Protection and Advocacy? [ Background sounds ] >> Ray: Got a lot of action on that Ticket to Work, Jamie. [ Background sounds ] >> Ray: Okay. Thank you. This one's easy. What is your gender, male or female? [ Background sounds ] >> Ray: All right. Thank you for that. As usual we are overwhelmingly a female audience today. Now which one of these age groups do you fall in? I get sad every time I see this because I'm about to change. [ Background sounds ] >> Ray: Jamie, I think in September we're going to have to change the age groups. That's what I think we should do. >> Jamie: Talk about it then Ray. >> Ray: Okay. All right. Thank you very much. We've got one last question. How many people, other than yourself, are sitting in the room with you today? This is going to allow us to have more of an accurate count as to how many people are actually listening to us today. [ Background sounds ] >> Ray: And we got a couple of big groups. All right. Thank you very, very much people. That helps us a lot. And I believe, oops I'm going the wrong way. Wouldn't you know that. I'm going to ask you to bear with me a little bit today because I am suffering from a little bit of bronchitis today. So what can you expect from today's session? I'm going to talk to you, for the hour and a half, about today's work incentives, and just so you know who I am, I've been doing this stuff and working with Social Security Recipients for about 32 years now, and focusing on return to work issues for a, oh a good long time, since the mid-'80s is when I started working with people who wanted to return to work. And there were a lot of things to consider when somebody's whose receiving Social Security, SSI, is about to return to work. And there are a lot of stages. There's the stage of thinking about it. There is the stage of preparing for it. There is the stage of actually being ready to work. So we're going to pretty much focus on folks who are ready to work today. What we're going to talk about is most certainly that ticket to work. The ticket to work and work incentives improvement act is what started all of this. It at least organized it and put an emphasis on return to work for the Social Security Administration. So we'll talk about that ticket, ticket to work program. We're going to talk about timely progress reviews when you are using that ticket, you need to meet certain criteria. We'll talk about that and what you, what activities might help you do that. Substantial gainful activity is a term that lots of people hear about, and it scares lots of people. But we're going to try to define that for you and let you know what substantial gainful activity really is. Trial work period, a great work incentive for those of you who receive social security disability insurance. Earned income exclusions. When we're, if you are an SSI recipient, there are going to be a lot, a lot of exclusions and deductions that are taken from your income before Social Security determines how much of your income counts. Now when somebody on SSI works very basically less than half of your income is going to be counted which means you can't lose, you're always going to have more money. Expedited reinstatement is a fantastic work incentive because that actually helps people after they've returned to work and have been terminated from benefits. There's still a safety net that will allow you to come back in to the system, very, very quickly. We're going to talk about that extended period of eligibility, student earned income exclusions, and these are fantastic programs. And unfortunately that student earned income exclusion is one that not many people take advantage of, and it really phenomenal. Resources, what can you do with your resources? And the SSI program has limitations on resources and we need to talk about that and how we can protect some of those resources or potentially use them to help us get to work. Then we're going to take our question and answers, Jamie as I said, will take questions from those that you submit to the question box. And I will make every effort to answer them correctly. And then we'll talk to you about getting hooked up to that Facebook session. And for those of you who are wondering whether you want to participate in that Facebook session, please know that we do have some very, very fine experts from around the country who are going to be waiting to help you with your specific questions. So I'd encourage you to do that. Now if you're receiving Social Security benefits, and you're receiving a limited income, if you're receiving SSI benefits, it's a fact that you're receiving monthly income that is below the poverty level, in every state. Now why choose work? There are lots of reasons to go to work. Earning more income is clearly the obvious. That's the most obvious. And you know often times one of the least significant parts of going to work, but having more money and not living in poverty is a good thing. Gaining independence, not only do you become independent from the programs that you've been reporting to, but having more money allows you to make more choices. And that is independence. Learning new skills. Not only are you going to learn new skills while you are at your job, but the whole process of returning to work, we're going to talk about ways that ticket to work, that an EN, that a vocational rehabilitation agency can help you learn those skills that you might need to get that job. And here's, you know, meet new people. What's that all about? People think that that is something that's fluff, but it really not. If you think about what might happen, or if those of you who have had jobs understand what came along with that jobs, new friendships. I met my spouse at work, I mean there are lots of things that happen because people work. I can't tell you how many people I know from across this country because I am working. And that, to me, is one of the extra benefits of returning to work. So that is why people choose work. It not only the financial benefits, it also the social. And just the self benefits, the self worth, the value that you can, that you place on your own being is enhanced by working. Now Megan, Megan has a great story that she's let us share with you, and she, in 2008 had a major depressive episode and had to resort to disability benefits to keep herself financially stable. She did decide she was ready to return to work and used her ticket to work, and used it successfully. And now is back at work, and has begun to once again compete in competitive ballroom dancing. Something she was not able to do while she was trying to keep her life together on disability benefits. So Mike, if you'd share Megan's story with us? [ Background sounds ] [ Music ] [ Background sounds ] [ Music ] >> Megan: I believe it was around January of 2008, I got of got sick and I took another position, and from that position I ended up getting fired. And oh I had a mental background. So my disability is a mental illness. And 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 psychiatrists and doctors and get my medicine and everything. Staying at home is not as fun as it looks. But also it not me. I'm 27. So I don't want to be at home my whole life and I 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. 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. [Inaudible] here. How are you doing today? >> Megan: Pretty good. >> Good. Okay. >> 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 what, how her benefits would be affected by that work. She received 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 she's, her disability check will only be suspended based on her earnings, and if she's not able to keep the job, she can go 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 as a document control specialist. And the easiest way to explain that is it part librarian, so people return things to me and I check them out. It part teacher because when they return things to me, I check it to make sure that it correct, and if it 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 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 if she's earning enough that she's going to be working her way off of 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 mine, forever. And 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. And just moving forward. [ Music ] >> Megan: One of the biggest things I like to do is I like to competitive ballroom dance. And also when I got into my disability I gained a lot of weight, so that wasn't as fun for me as it could have been. And so now it getting more fun and I'm enjoying it. I like the costumes. So that's a big thing that I do. [ Music ] >> Megan: And 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, from 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 is. No matter who you are or where you've been, this is something that can help you move forward to continue on with your life. [ Music ] [ Background sounds ] >> Ray: Okay everybody. I wanted to thank Megan once again for letting us share her story with you all, because she is truly a success story. And I'm on the road right now and missing my home puppy so I know how she feels about that puppy. Okay. So you ask, we answer. That's the motto of these webinars. What if I'm ready to work? As I said, there are several stages that people go through. And these stages can take as much time as you need them to. Nobody is in the business of forcing you to work here. We want you to do this when you are comfortable. So think about it. Plan for it. And now when you are ready, take some of the steps that we're going to discuss and use some of the incentives. But just be sure that this is entirely voluntary on your part. No one is forcing you to do anything. We want you to make your own choice with the correct information that you need to make that choice. Now what we need to do, of course, is gather all kinds of information. And all kinds, all of this information you've probably already told other people, you're going to need to tell somebody else because we need to take all of the tools we have at our disposal and all of your information in order to build a plan specifically for you so that you will then have a very firm idea about what will happen and when it will happen as you return to work. And that knowledge is power. If you know when something is about to happen, you are in control of that. So I think that's a very, very important thing to understand. That we are gathering information and resources to build a plan for you so that you are in control. Now the ticket to work, and work incentives are only there to help. And as you'll find out soon when we start talking about this process, it can take a very long time. And that's good because it only means that you are protected for a very, very long time, during this journey to work. Now building an employment team is critical. And I really do mean an employment team. There are going to be lots of people out there that are going to be able to assist you, because there's so much going on that one person can't take care of this. The person that builds your return to work plan is not the person that's going to provide you with vocational rehabilitation services. Or on the job supports. We're going to need all of those people. We may need doctors involved, we may need counselors involved, but we'll build that team. Now how do you start building a team? There's almost no wrong way to start building a team. We've really tried to create a no wrong door approach. So you can talk to an expert that's a ticket to work line, the help line. 1-866-968-7842. Or for TTY users, 1-866-833-2967. The Social Security website, www.Socialsecurity.gov/work, is an invaluable site that's very user friendly and if you do click on that forward slash work section, you'll be able to find the work incentive planners that the community work incentive coordinators that serve your area. These are free services from experts who have been fully trained by Social Security funded people, and who have technical support. Who can help you build a plan to work, based on how quickly you want to do that. So that's a very good thing. And again Socialsecurity.gov will give you all of the information we're talking about today, but you'll be able to find that project just by clicking on your state. You will then find the project that serves your area. And learning about the ticket to work. Here's a blog, watch more success stories like Megan if you feel you need encouragement. It not just Megan. She did a great job for us. But there are thousands of people out there who have success stories. So if you want to hear more, www.choosework.net, and get some more encouragement that way. Now as we continue, you're going to meet with one of those benefits counselors. Now we have lots of acronyms in this world. We have lots of alphabet soup. The work incentive planning and assistance organizations, the WIPA projects, are there to discuss your option. And each individual counselor is known as a CWIC, a community work incentive coordinator. Now when you meet with that person, they're going to get all kinds of information for you, from you. They're going to verify all of that information with all of the agencies from which you receive benefits. Your foods stamps, your housing, your social security, you Veteran's benefits, your workers comp, your unemployment. They're going to want information about all of it. And then they will begin to discuss with you, what do you want to do? How much do you think you'll earn doing that? How many house a week do you think you'll be able to work? And their job is to then put together a plan, if I choose to work 20 hours a week earning $10 an hour, working at Wal-Mart as a sales associate, that plan will tell me what will happen to my benefits. And when. And it's a very customized plan, so that if all goes well I will know exactly when things will begin to change. And I'll know the outcome at the beginning, I will know that going to work makes sense, because the numbers are going to be show to me. I will know how much money I'll have each month. Now finding an employment network or a state VR agency. They're in this with us to. Now the state VR agencies, we all know. They're big agencies who provide services to disable people, whether they're on benefits or not. But in this situation, they can function as part of your employment team. An employment network, on the other hand, is a private organization. It may be a very small organization, it may be a big agency like Goodwill who can provide job coaching services, or it could be, as I said, a tiny agency that can provide you with some resume prep, some interviewing skills, and some job leads. This is your choice. Find out what you need and who can provide it. And then make them part of your team. And most certainly, stay connected. As I said earlier, this can take a very long time. It can take as long as you want it to. If you're ready to go to work tomorrow, and you're ready to run, then we can run with you. But if you just want to stick your toe in the water and see what it feels like, we can take our time with you as well. But we need to stay connected, and keeping this team in place with all of the right information is going to be critically important to your success. Now the ticket to work program. We're looking at the ticket to work program that started, was signed by President Clinton in 1999. One of the final things he signed. And it does impact both the SSDI, Social Security Disability Insurance, and the SSI program, Supplemental Security Income. Now we have hundreds of people on the Phone right now. I'm going to talk about both sets of work incentives. What I need you know before we start is that SSDI work incentives are very different than SSI work incentives. So if you receive SSDI listen hard when I talk about SSDI. And don't pay any attention when I talk about SSI. And just the opposite. If you're receiving SSI, pay attention when I'm talking about SSI work incentives and not so much. [ Silence ] >> Ray: It can do endless things. It going to be able to help you improve that earning potential. It can provide you with rehabilitation services. It can provide you with education, vocational training, there are endless possibilities. But it can give you what you need in order to work. If you want to return to the same job, but need adaptive equipment, there's a way to use your ticket to get that equipment and the training you need to get back to the jobs that you used to do. Need the personal fulfillment that comes from working. There's a lot of that. People don't give that enough emphasis. You just, I think you just feel [inaudible] when you're working. [ Silence ] >> Ray: Plan. And every time you approach that team member, or your work incentive planner, there's encouragement there because you've moved to the next step. You have taken a step. You have succeeded, and now let's move on to bigger and better things. You want to be able to get benefits back if your job doesn't work out. What happens if you take all of these steps, take a significant risk of going back to work, and placing your benefits at risk, what happens if it doesn't work? Well if it doesn't work, you can get back on benefits. At some stages simply with a phone call. At other stages, you may have to fill out a piece of paper, but it going to be much quicker than getting back on by reapplying. As I said, there are even work incentives that are going to apply and help you get back onto benefits after you've been terminated and we'll talk about that. If you're completely overwhelmed and don't know where to turn, that's what your employment team is there for. You can connect with any member of that employment team to help you get through those rough spots. And we all have them. You know that's, not only is that part of life, it very much part of work, and you'll connect with people, talk it out, get through it. You know this is very much a team that will transition from your employment team to the team of people that you work with. Now the goal of the ticket to work program is certainly to help you get to work. To earn your own living. And by earning your own living and becoming self sufficient, I can promise you that you will have more money than you have now on benefits. And I can promise you that. And that is the job of your employment team, to show you how that all works. The ticket program is free, you will not pay for any of these services, from benefits planning to employment network to VR services. You will not pay for any of it. Your only obligation are to take the steps necessary to allow the employment network or the state VF agency to collect your payments from Social Security. Now SDI and SSI disability benefit shares who are aged 18 through 64 are eligible to participate in the ticket program. Now if you are a team, you have to go through what they call the age 18 review. You have to move from disabled child status into disabled adult status. You have to make that switch before you get your ticket. Now you may not have a paper ticket. You know everything is virtual nowadays. You don't need a paper ticket. If you want one you can contact Social Security, you can contact Maximums which your employment team can help you locate. Or you do that via Social Security's website, and they'll send you one, but you don't need it. It is really virtual. Everybody should be eligible for a ticket. And the first thing your employment team is going to do is determine whether or not you do have a ticket and whether or not it assignable to an employment agency. The work incentives. Work incentives are great things. You know work incentives come in many forms and every public benefits program has them. And the question is of a positive work incentives or are they negative work incentives. And I can tell you that Social Security has put a positive spin on almost everything thing. You know you cannot help make your situation better by working with Social Security. They're going to allow you to keep some of those cash benefits and your healthcare while you are making that gradual transition from receiving benefits to employment. Now it's very important to look at Medicaid and Medicare. Because in my experience most people are more concerned about their healthcare than they are about the money that they receive. Nowadays given the work incentives, and given the options that are available in many, many states, it really, really hard to lose the access to healthcare. It really, really hard. You know again it going to depend upon your situation and the state you're in. But I think you can really take that off your worry list. Your healthcare will be around for a good long time. And that again is planned that your employment team is going to build for you. So you'll be aware of when something might happen and what steps you need to make to take to keep things in place. And we said that anybody ages 18 through 64 is eligible to use the work incentives as well. You know under that ticket to work program. Do you need to use your ticket? No. You don't. All of these work incentives are going to be available to you anyway. The ticket only enhances your chances of success because it does allow you to build that employment team by using an employment network. The VR agencies going to be there, but if you do need employment network assistance you're going to need to use that ticket. You choose the employment team. This is a situation where not only is this voluntary, but you are in charge. You choose the players to suit you best. You can choose to work with Idaho Rehabilitation. Or you can choose to work with Jamie's self employment workshop. Whatever is going to be best for you. You are in a situation where you can interview these agencies and discuss what services they'll be able to provide to you. And then make a decision. Make a decision based on what they're going to do for you. What's the benefit of using that ticket? Well we talk a lot about building that team and the support that's going to bring, and the fact that it completely free. But if you do use your ticket and assign it to Jamie's self employment workshop, Social Security is going to suspend your continuing disability reviews while you're actively working towards your work goal. So the threat of having Social Security say that you have medically improved and you're no longer eligible is completely removed if you are actively participating in your plan. And we'll talk about what that means in a bit. But that removal of continuing disability reviews is a very, very significant part of this program. Now here we go again. Another question. Substantial gainful activity. You're ready to work and substantial gainful activity, SGA, is going to become an important factor in your life. Now we have two different programs. SGA is very important to the SSDI program. SGA is only important to SSI when you are applying for benefits. So if you already have SSI, SGA no longer means anything to you at all. So you don't have to pay attention to that. So if you're receiving SSDI, Social Security sets a dollar number every year as the substantial gainful activity figure. Now it's a way to determine whether or not you have the ability to work at sufficient levels so that you are not considered disabled. Now what you have to understand that Social Security has a functional definition of disability. It not simply a medical condition that they're looking at. They're looking at your ability to work. Substantial gainful activity has to be, isn't this funny, activity which is both substantial and gainful. What that means is substantial. You're actually performing significant physical or mental work for an employer that has value. And it can be fulltime or part time. If you're working at Wal-Mart as a sales associate and you're being paid $10 an hour. [ Silence ] >> Jamie: Ray are you out there? [ Silence ] >> Jamie: Okay Mike let's give it a minute. Can you take the site back from Ray please? [ Background sounds ] >> Mike: Yes, give me just one moment to get the slides up. >> Jamie: Okay, thank you. This is Jamie Pendergrass. We apologize for the technical difficulties. Just please bear with us for a second. [ Silence ] [ Background sounds ] >> Jamie: We are going to go ahead and try and contact Ray to see if we can get him back on the phone and we'll also have Mike get control of the slides for us so that we can keep going on our presentation in just a minute. [ Silence ] >> Jamie: And Mike do have those slides up yet. >> Mike: They'll be up in one more moment. Just getting to the right slide here. >> Jamie: Okay, thank you. Great. [ Silence ] >> Mike: Okay Jamie, you should be all set. >> Jamie: All right, great. Thank you Mike, and can you try and give Ray a call for me? And let's go ahead and go on to the next slide. I'll let Ray talk a little bit more about SGA when he returns. So Mike next slide please. [ Silence ] >> Jamie: And again, as Ray was explaining, the definitions of substantial and gainful. So substantial work means that you are performing significant physical or mental or both full or part time worker activity. And gainful work does mean that your work is or generally considered for pay or for profit and that's even if you don't make profit. So SSA will look at the level of work you're doing and whether or not it does meet substantial gainful activity. Mike next slide please. [ Silence ] >> Jamie: This slide includes information about what substantial [inaudible] SGA is for 2012. So this year if you earn more than $1,010 a month, and you're not blind, you're working at SGA. If you are someone who is blind, and you earn more than $1,690 a month, you're working at SGA. And as the slide mentions, it does depend on the nature of your disability and your actual work activity. So those are the numbers of, that's the number of earnings that SSA will look at to determine whether or not you are making SGA for this year. Next slide please Mike. Our next section is on family progress review. And this is a work incentive that does apply to both SSDI and SSI recipients. Next slide please. [ Silence ] >> Jamie: This is another work incentive that measures your success in achieving your work goals. So this is when SSA will see how you're doing at work. And they'll check in with you. And during the family progress review process, you're, you and your employment team will create an individual work plan. And this plan includes your work goals, your education goals, or both, or any goals for training as you want to go back to work. Family progress is a process, progress you make towards the goals within your individualized work plan, and it is reviewed every 12 months. So that makes sure that you're on the right track going to work, or working. And when you assign your ticket, and again that goes, your ticket gets assigned to either employment network or the VR agency. And you report your work activities to Social Security and make progress towards your employment goals, your continuing disability review is postponed. So as Ray mentioned earlier that continuing disability review, or CDR is when SSA takes a look at whether or not you should still be receiving benefits based on your health condition. So again if you are making timely progress towards your goals and working, your continuing disability review is postponed. Next slide please. This is an example that comes from the Redbook, which is Social Security's guide to all things related to benefits. And it available online. And here's kind of a walkthrough of what family progress looks like. So you go into your 12 month review, and we find that you've worked three out of the 12 months as a trial work period earnings level. So that means that you're making SGA. And that you, or that you've completed 60 percent of the full time course load for one year toward a degree or certification in any type of program that we've talked about in your individualized work plan. So that means that you've made timely progress. And the number of numbers per year that you work, and the amount of completion towards your [inaudible] certification technical trader vocational program increased with each 12 month review. And at this point I may have heard Ray joined back on? Ray are you out there? >> Ray: Yes I am. >> Jamie: I can hear you. >> Ray: Thank you very much. >> Jamie: You're very welcome. We are on timely progress review and feel free to explain that example a little more. >> Ray: All right. I think you actually did a great job Jamie. The one thing that I wanted to point out about that slide is that as you can see, we're talking about Social Security giving you a gradual progression back to work, and requiring, as Jamie said, three out of 12 months at trial work levels. This year that's $720. Completing 60 percent of the full time course load. That's an option here. You know Social Security is now looking at not only work, but other activities that can help you fulfill the goals of timely progress. And that's great progress, at least for those of us who are used to working with this program think that that's great progress, that there is acknowledgement that you might be doing some training, and that's going to count towards your timely progress. So Jamie I think. >> Jamie: [Inaudible] with you again. >> Ray: Oh did you lose me again Jamie? >> Jamie: It sounds like you dropped off for a minute, but now I can hear you. >> Ray: Oh okay. All right. Yeah I got to tell everybody, I'm in [inaudible] and the volcano's exploding and we have all kinds of volcanic dust everywhere, so that might be causing some of this. But let, Michael if you can give me control of the slides? [ Silence ] >> Ray: Or Jamie if you still have control if you can? >> Jamie: They'll be coming back from Mike. [ Silence ] >> Ray: Jamie, can you hear me? >> Jamie: I can and Mike will have the slides. >> Ray: Okay. Mike has control, okay. >> Mike: Yes I just gave you presenter control. >> Ray: Now I have control. I am back in control people, and I apologize for that. Okay. So we talked about that. Let me get my slides caught up to where you were. Now trial work period. We're talking SSDI as you can see. So for those of you who are on SSI, take a little breather. We're going to talk quickly about the trial work period. This is a great opportunity to test your ability to work. And I do mean that, you know, the trial work period allows you nine months to do whatever you want and work as much as you want and earn as much as you want, with no affect on your benefits. Now the trick is these months do not need to be consecutive. They do need to be within five years. Yeah and I think that, you know, during, we talked about those stages of work. If you're ready to go to work, saving these nine months until you're ready, gives you nine months to see if you are able to sustain work activity that will allow you to replace your benefits. So I think these months are great. As I said, you work, you earn $720 gross wages, you have used a month. Now if you work and earn $3,000 in gross wages, you have used one month. So the threshold is $720, but there's no upper level. You'll continue to receive your SDI check and your full healthcare. Now that nine month work starts the first month you are entitled to an SSDI benefit. And being entitled means you have actually received a check. That you actually have received a check. Now before this ends the only way, and this is kind of Social Security's trump card. The only way you can possibly lose your benefits is that Social Security says you've medically improved. You know short of that you get all of these work incentives. And that medical improvement issue is a big concern for people, but I can tell you it real hard for Social Security to prove that. Now after you complete those nine months and I said it may not be consecutive but it, you know it may take a while. Ideally it does give you those nine months in a row to test your ability to work. Your trial work period ends, but that's not the end of the game. You now have an extended period of eligibility, the EPE. And this is 36 consecutive months. So it another three years. And the evaluation of your work changes a bit here. Social Security is not looking at $720 a month anymore. They are looking at SGA, substantial gainful activity. For this calendar year, 2012, substantial gainful activity is $1,010 for people with disabilities. For people with blindness it $1,690. And that's not gross income, that's countable income. Because we're going to talk about a lot of ways that Social Security will reduce your wages using other work incentives. So if during this period, this three year period, your wages, your countable wages exceed $10,000, I'm sorry, $1,010, you do not receive a benefits check that month. If your wages drop below that level, you do receive a benefits check for that month. Now how does Social Security keep on top of that? You and your employment team continually report your income. It critical that you let Social Security know what you're earning every month so that these payments can be turned on and turned off. There is no impact on your healthcare during this period of time. Again, this is the extended period of eligibility and it pertains only to SSDI. Only to SSDI. Now look at this. We've talked a lot about this, but look at the last bullet, the bullet here. During the EPE, Social Security can restart your benefits, with no application, with no disability determination, and with no waiting period. It is simply based on a report of wages. If my income in the month of February is $1,200, I'm not entitled to a check. If it $1,200 next month, I'm not entitled to a check. If in April it drops to $900, all I have to do is report my wages to Social Security and I will get a check. It that easy during that period of time. The hard part is remembering to report, report, report. You have to let Social Security know. [ Background sounds ] >> Ray: I think we've pretty much covered this slide. Those are the limits. Again we're not talking about a situation where you have lost eligibility. You are still an SSDI recipient. You may not be receiving a check, but you're receiving your healthcare. And any time your wages, your countable wages, drop before either that 1010 figure for people with disabilities, or the 1690 figure for people with blindness, you are entitled to have your checks turned back on. Now the EPE ends three years later. So let's add up the months now. We had nine months of trial work. We have 36 months of EPE. So for 45 months, for almost four years, you have been able to work and still remain connected to Social Security. So you're still protected. You are still a recipient. You may not have received money every month, but you still receive your healthcare. And you are working. Now after the 36 months, the first month of substantial gainful activity results in a termination of benefits for the SSDI person. Now when you are terminated your connection with Social Security has ended. But does that mean that they don't care anymore? That's far from what's going on here. EXR, expedited reinstatement allows you a fast way on to benefits should your work attempt and/or drop below substantial gainful activity. And that period begins the month after termination month, and lasts for another five years. So you have a five year window where if you lose your job, you can contact Social Security, you know or if your income drops below substantial gainful activity, you can call Social Security and request expedited reinstatement. Now we're at the end of February now. So it not going to be possible to get your checks turned on in March, but if you request expedited reinstatement today, you'll likely get a check in April. And your healthcare will be reinstated. It works for the SSI population as well, but I want to talk about that later when we talk about SSI. You will receive up to six months of provisional benefits while Social Security is making the decision as to whether or not you're entitled to be reinstated. They will be doing a review. Does your medical condition prevent you from being able to earn SGA, to earn substantial gainful activity? Is it the same medical condition that gave rise to the earlier period of disability, or is it something substantially related to that disability? So while Social Security is making up their mind, they will give you benefits for up to six months, and they generally make that decision within that six month time. If they say you are entitled, you're put back on to benefits. If they say you were not, you can then file a new application, but these six months will not be considered an over payment. So there's another safety net. They will not consider those an overpayment. Now let's move to the SSI world. So we just took the SSDI folks through almost four years, nine and, nine years, nine years worth of work, and there are still protections out there available for you. So that's a pretty good long safety net. You know I wouldn't be overly concerned about anybody who says you're going to lose your benefits immediately if you go back to work. Because I just told you about nine years worth of safety nets. Now let's switch to SSI. SSI work incentives actually are wonderful things. They're great programs. We have the earned income exclusion. You know we treat earned income much better than we treat unearned income and SSI. This is specific to the SSI program. When you work, your income is going to go up. Your Social Security, your SSI check will decrease. However, the way Social Security does the math always means there is more money at the end of the month. Always. Now the figures at the bottom are only really going to apply at application. You were just going to use the regular Social Security formula and we've got all kinds of examples, in the red book and on these slides that are going to talk to you about how this works, but very generally as your earned income increases, your SSI is going to decrease, according to a very specific formula. Now here's one example. Ed is receiving $850 of wages each month, and has unearned income. Let's say he has some kind of insurance policy that's paying him $13 a month. Now this is general income exclusion. The first $20 of income doesn't count. So Ed's used some of that, but he has $7 remaining, and we never lose that $20. We will never lose it. But look what happens when we get to earned income, and you'll see how Social Security treats this in a very preferential way. $850 in earnings, we're going to take that $7 away, because we had it left over from the top calculation and we have $843 remaining. The first $65 is the earned income exclusion. So $65 of earnings don't count, $778 is remaining. Then we divide by two. So less than half of Ed's earned income counts. What he has four countable wages is $389. Now he earned $850. Social Security only cares about $389. [ Silence ] >> Jamie: Mike did we lose Ray again? >> Mike: Yes it looks like we have lost Ray. Let me pull up the slides on my computer again. >> Jamie: Okay. [ Silence ] >> Jamie: We do apologize again for these technical difficulties. As Ray mentioned he's dealing with some bad weather, he's at a training in Hawaii right now. [ Background sounds ] >> Mike: Okay Jamie I have the slides up on my screen, so take it away. >> Jamie: All right. Great. Ray was just about at the point where he was describing the federal benefit rate for SSI, and that is $698. So what we do is we're going to subtract your countable earned income from that federal benefit rate. So and that will result in your SSI payment. So your payment will still, will be $309. And remember you've actually earned $850. So Mike next slide. So this shows your available income. And look at how much better you are. You have $850 in earned income. You have your $13 in unearned income, and then you have your SSI check which is another $309. So for this month, where you worked and earned $850, you're actually going to have an income of $1,172. So it is certainly great that you've gotten that income and that you're working, and you're still able to get your SSI check. Next slide please. Now we're going to talk about the student earned income exclusion. Next slide please. This work incentive is for people only for people who are on SSI. And it is for folks who are going to school. And if you are regularly attention school and under age 22, you can exclude up to $6,840 of your earned income, or, of your earned income per year, pardon me. So this brings us into about $1,700 of your earned income per month and again that's if you're under age 22 and you're going to school. And as Ray mentioned in the beginning of this presentation, this is a work incentive that a lot of people don't know about and don't take advantage of. This is a fantastic opportunity for folks under 22 who want to take some classes while in college to get some help paying for that. Or get some help succeeding at that as they go back to school. And if you'd like to find out about that, talk to your local service providers and it looks like, did we get Ray back? Or Mike the slides were moving a little there. [ Silence ] >> Jamie: Okay I have to go to my computer, I apologize. So again, if you want to find out about the student earned income exclusion, talk to your local WIPA or your VR or you EN, to find out about how you can, can benefit from that. And Ray do we have you out there? >> Ray: You have me out here again. I apologize. >> Jamie: That is okay. And now back to you. >> Ray: Okay. Now, and you were just talking about student earned income? >> Jamie: I was. Did you want to start anything about the calculations table? >> Ray: Okay the only thing, actually the calculation I think are pretty self explanatory. But the one thing I do want to say about student earned income, because we are coming up on our time. The one thing I wanted to say about student earned income, it is critically important that if you are under the age of 22 and regularly attending school, that you let Social Security know that you are a student. You know, Social Security is not going to know that unless you tell them. And this is a very commonly missed exclusion. And you can see, as Jamie told you how powerful it can be. Because it excludes an awful lot of money. Now let's see if we can get through this without a volcano interrupting me again. The ticket to work and work incentive resources. You know we talked about building that team. We're going to have a WIPA representative right? That's CWIC, that community work incentive coordinator who is going to help you through this process and is going to begin to have, to talk to you about this stuff. To sit down and answer your questions. Be there ready to talk to you about your concerns, your individual concerns, and how all of this stuff is going to impact you. You know that's something we're not able to do today because there are hundreds of you out there. But what we can do is make sure you can get in touch with somebody to do that. Do you want to work with an employment network? And which one should you pick? You know the Social Security website can give you a list of who's out there, and what types of work they're able to do. Because some employment networks might not be able to help you. You know if some employment networks work only with people who have mental impairments, there's no sense of going there if you have a physical disability. You know so you need to have a good match. The CWICs, the WIPA programs, can help you pick the best employment network, or help you at least direct you to a few to limit that search. But that employment network match is going to be critically important to your success. And it up to you, you have to remember that you're in charge of basically hiring this person. Is the state VR agency necessary? You know if you need a long educational plan, if you need some expensive herbal medical equipment, or a van that has to be modified, the state VR agency is likely going to play a part in your rehabilitation plan and your employment team. And last on the list here is protection and advocacy. Now the PA's program, protection and advocacy from beneficiaries of Social Security, provides you with the legal safety net as well. Because often times, along this journey, you know like you do when you're driving down the road, you hit a pothole. You have a flat tire. And when that happens on your return from work, the protection and advocacy which is available free in every state, and can be found on the Social Security website, Socialsecurity/work, will be there to assist you. It could be an overpayment of Social Security. It could be a hiring issue. It could be a reasonable accommodation issue. It could be negotiating with the employment network or the VR agency. But that agency is there to help you and remember once again those services are free as well. So locate the WIPA and the VR and PA's near you. That ticket to work helpline is always a great place to start. 1-866-968-7842. Or for TTY users, 1-866-833-2967. Somebody there can give you some very basic information. And point you in the right direction. Or you can do this on your own at www.Socialsecurity.gov/work, and you will find all of the participants in your area. Now after today's session, you know you'll finally be rid of me, you will have access to some really exceptional benefits plans. Some really great CWICs who have a lot of experience and a lot of years worth of time working with folks, and it going to run for an hour from 2:30 to 3:30 eastern standard time. And to get into that Facebook session you're going to want to get to www.Facebook.com/choosework. One word, choosework. Again, www.Facebook.com/choosework. You'll be able to participate, ask your questions during that session and get some direct answers to your specific issues. Now if you need to create a Facebook account because you don't have one, just get on to Facebook. It real easy. I was able to do it, so I assume the rest of the world can do it. www.Facebook.com/help/createaccount. It will only take you a couple of minutes. So if you have to do that after we're finished with the webinar, please do that and you'll be to join in within five minutes. Now if you have any accessibility issues for using assisted technology with Facebook, contact www.Facebook.com/help/accessiblity and you can use Facebook's help desk for those issues. Now there are lots of ways to participate, via TML, at HTTP://m.Facebook.com/choosework# !/choosework?V=Feed&, or plus sign, underscore, user=0. If you cannot access Facebook, experts will still be able to help you. Use your email account and send your questions to Chooseworkquestions@gmail.com. And remember, check out the transcript, visit the choosework blog after the session. We've given you the links to the archives. It never too late to contact somebody to ask your question. So if tomorrow afternoon something springs to mind, just contact one of us. Again there is no wrong door here, you will get an answer and you'll be directed to services in your area. And that, I believe, gets us to the question and answers. And we have a couple of minutes Jamie. So if you want to take a couple of questions? >> Jamie: Certainly Ray we'll go ahead and do that. Our first question is how do I find out if I'm on SSI, or SSDI or both? >> Ray: That's a great question. You know, there are a couple of ways to do it. If you are the recipient you really only have to call the Social Security Office or even their 1-800, ask them. If you do have a notice from Social Security, it will tell you right on that notice. It will say, supplemental security income. It will say disability insurance or OASDI. Excuse me. But the best way is to request what's known as BPQY. A benefits query. And that is something Social Security can very easily and quickly send to you that will give you a breakdown of all of the benefits that you've received, along with all of your wages that you have reported, or that they've found out about from the IRS. And any work incentives that you've already used. So there are many ways to do that. But it might be as easy as a simple phone call. And most certainly if you do go to a benefits planner, and you're not sure, one of the first things they're going to do is help verify which program you're on. >> Jamie: Great, thank you Ray. Now what if I lost my ticket to work? Do I have to have the copy of it? >> Ray: Nope. You don't need a copy of it. You know, as I said, you know everything's becoming virtual now. So we, we should really be referring this as the virtual ticket to work program. You don't need that paper ticket. You know if you want a copy of it, maximums is there to provide that to you and you can go to Yourtickettowork, one word, dot com. And they will get you a new ticket. But you don't need it. You know you can still assign that ticket to an EN or a VR agency. You do not need the paper copy at all. And the first thing that the VR agency or the EN is going to do is contact maximums to make sure there's a ticket available to assign. So that paper ticket doesn't really matter in this process. >> Jamie: Thank you Ray. Now one final question to wrap it up. How do I get started? >> Ray: Oh any way. Any way at all. As I said there's no wrong door here. We can go to that help line that we've talked about, right here on the bottom, 1-866-968-7842, or for TTY, 1-866-833-2967. And they'll be able to talk to you about the programs generally and get you in contact with your local agency. If you do contact an employment network in your area, or the state VR agency, they are also going to be able to get you back to a benefits planner. Or go to Socialsecurity.gov/work. And they will get you a list of who in your area provides these services, you know. Or send somebody an email, you know. Jamie and I will get you in touch with the right people if we need to. There's no wrong way to do this. >> Jamie: Okay and with that Ray, I'll let you go ahead and wrap it up. >> Ray: Okay. Thank you for joining today. Please stick around for that Facebook session because I know there are some great experts for you to talk to. I apologize for my little connection issues, but I have every faith that Jamie got that information to you. And please everybody have a great day. Take care.