>> 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 webinar event. We are going to be talking about support services that are available to young adults in transition and how you can make that move from school to work. And hopefully make it seamless and easy. We have some great presenters for you from the state of California, but don't fear just because they are talking about California does not mean it does not apply to you. We are talking about nationally available programs. Let's take you through some of the technical slides that we have today. You've been connected today by default to the mic and speakers in your computer. If at any time during today's presentation you're having problems hearing, you might want to switch to using your telephone. In order to do that you'll be clicking on the plus sign next to the audio. It will open up this box here and you'll receive today's dial in information, the access code and the audio pin. In a minute we will give you a toll free number for you to call in on and you can listen to us over the phone as the slides progress. We also want to hear from you. We want to know what you think. We want to know what your questions are. And the way you can ask a question today is to click on the plus sign next to the word questions in that audio consult, and it's going to open up this box that you see here. Type in your question, hit send and it's going to appear on Jamie's desktop and she will be funneling the questions to me. Now, there are a lot of you online out there and I can promise you that we will not get to every question. But, we will provide you with information as to how you can get your questions answered. Now to just talk a bit about accessibility; we strive to make all of our events fully accessible to the greatest number of people, which means everyone I hope. And we want to know whether we're successful or not. So, if you have any problems today hearing us, watching the webinar or getting the information you need, please let us know. And along with letting us know that you have a problem, if you know of a solution, if you know of any type of computer program, any way we can present differently that will allow you to get the information you need, we want to know your suggested solution as well. So, you can send that to us via email, use that question and answer box to let us know what you think or we'll give you some information at the end where you can make personal contact with us. Now today's toll free number if you do need to call in is 1-877-739-5903. The access code that you'll want is 180106670. Again the toll free number is 1-877-739-5903 and the access code is 180106670. If you need closed captioning there is an active link right there on the computer or if you want to type it into your browser it is http://www.ilr.cornell. edu/edi/captons.cfm?activity_id=3814, so you can get the closed captioning for the event. The presentation, transcript and audio recording will be available in about two weeks' time and if you want to listen to anything else or if you have friends or relatives out there who may need this information. So, please give us those two weeks and then you can get that webinar transcript at www.ilr.cornell.edu/edi/m-wisewebinars.cfm. Now, during the answer, question and answer period or at any time during today's webinar you can use that question box that we showed you or if you do have access to the chat function that would also be in our webinar console. You can use that or you can send an email if that's easier for you. The email address is chooseworkquestions, that's one word, chooseworkquestions@gmail.com. And after the webinar is over you can email any questions, any of those accessibility concerns and any comments you happen to have at support.chooseworkttw.net. That's support at chooseworkttw.net. Now, you know me. I'm Ray and I will be doing some introduction and later we'll be talking to you about both rehabilitation and the protection and advocacy programs. We have with us Terry Chang who's from the Career Connection at the Whittier Union High School district in California and her colleague Julie Johnson and they'll be talking about the Ticket to Work Program and employment networks and what those two programs can do to help you make that transition from school to work. As you can see, at the end we'll be giving you some other resources. We always want you to have as much information as you possibly can. We'll give you lots of internet sources to get to and we'll be taking questions once Terry is finished with her presentation. Then we'll stop again once Julie is finished with hers and give you a chance to ask some questions. Then we'll go right to the end and ask questions again at the end. Right now we have a short video welcome from Bob Williams, who's the Associate Commissioner at the Office of Employment Support Programs at the Social Security Administration. So, Mike if you could cue up that video for us.

[ Setting up video and music ]

>> Bob Williams: Hello and welcome to today's webinar. My name is Bob Williams and I am the Associate Commissioner for Employment Support at the Social Security Administration. We run the ticket for the self sufficiency program, which affects persons ages 80 through 60 who are on FFD or SSI who want to improve their life and future by becoming employed. My view is in this webinar you will learn how you can receive [Inaudible] become employed and reduce the order of your life on disability benefits and eventually earn a better living by becoming fully self supporting whenever possible. The ticket program is now for everyone. This is why the choice of whether to take advantage of it is yours and yours alone. I know first hand that people with significant disabilities face many barriers to becoming [Inaudible] employed. This is especially true in today's economy. The major reason you'll receive disability benefits is that social security determines that you were not able to work enough to support yourself. But I also want you to know that having a significant disability no longer has to be the lifetime [Inaudible] and greater financial security. The ticket can offer you the choices, raising opportunities and support you need to go to work and gain financial independence. I hope today's webinar begins your journey towards greater self-sufficiency. Your life and future can be better. Thank you for joining us.

[ Music and silence ]

>> Ray Cebula: Okay, thank you Commissioner Williams. What you thought you were getting into today was a free webinar, but as you'll all learn nothing in this world is free. So, what we want from you right now is some information. We have a few short questions for you that we'd like you to answer so that we can better circulate information about our programs. They're real easy questions, so you don't need to worry about passing or failing. Right now I'm going to ask you the first one. How did you learn about this national webinar? Was it through email, via Facebook or Twitter, the website or family or friends? A lot of good participation real quick, I appreciate that. Thank you. Alright. Great thank you very much. What do you hope to learn today? What do you hope to learn from this webinar? Do you want to know about the Ticket to Work, work incentives for SSI, work incentives for SSDI? Do you want to know about employment networks and vocational rehabilitation or legal protection and advocacy? What's the most important to you today? We should just add all of the above Jamie, because they're all important.

[ Silence ]

>> Ray Cebula: You guys are great. I got to thank you again for your participation. We have a lively group presenters, look out. Okay, thank you for that. Now, some real simple questions. What is your gender, male or female? And there they go again Jamie. The women are always first on the button on that one.

[ Laughter and silence ]

>> Ray Cebula: Alright, that was really fast, thank you. Now, what is your age? Pick one of those groups.

[ Silence ]

>> Ray Cebula: Alright, thank you very much. And last but not least we know that there might be more than one of you sitting in front of your computer screen. So, how many other people are sitting with you. This gives us a great idea as to how many folks are actually listening in today.

[ Silence ]

>> Ray Cebula: Alright and I got to tell ya that was one of the quickest polling sessions with some of the best participation we have ever had. So, thank you very much for taking the time to do that. Alright, and let's begin our session today. What can you expect today? Well, you're certainly going to get information on that Ticket to Work incentive and the work incentives that can help you make that transition from benefits to independence and to earn income. We're going to talk to you and hopefully answer you're frequently asked questions. You know some of us who have been doing this work for many, many years still hear the same questions asked over and over again and its not that they're not important questions. They're very important questions but we hope to provide you with answers to all of those questions and hopefully in a way that's going to encourage you where to find more information. You're spending an hour and a half with us today and the decision to begin to work, the decision to begin to think about work can take a long time and you may need a lot of information. We're going to give you phone numbers and websites so that you can talk to people about your specific situation in order to make that decision or to help you begin that journey to work. We've got some success stories, our presenters will share their success stories with their own experience and we have a great little video for you from Meagan who is-- can tell her own story and is a true wonder. She's just a great woman. Now why choose work? Earning more income is a great motivating factor here. People who are on benefits are limiting themselves. They're limiting their financial ability. I can promise you that people who plan a return to work and take the proper steps to make that return to work a smooth one will always end up with more money in their pocket. We know public benefits aren't meeting all of the expenses and/or are keeping lots of people in poverty and we don't want that. Work is the quickest route out of poverty. Gaining independence, you'll not only gain independence from the agencies that are requiring you to make reports about getting married, about living with people, about how much money you're making but you're also in particularly this group of people we're talking about youth in transition. We're talking about getting independence to get out of the house, get your own apartment. Make your own decisions. That is very, very important and working is the way to do that. You're not going to get your own apartment unless you get yourself a job. At least that's what my mom told me. Learning new skills, you may be graduating from school whether its college or high school or a community college or a technical training school. You are still going to learn more skills when you begin to work. Maybe you are graduating from high school and need some technical training. The Ticket to Work can help you find that program that you need to learn the skills to get a job. Learning new things is going to be a lifelong endeavor and right now is a time to focus on learning new skills that can earn you some money, get you the independence so that you can continue to learn. Meeting new people is a great thing. And Jamie is going to say, "Oh, here comes Ray's story again." Yea, I met my spouse at work. You know I know lots of people all over this country who I consider good friends who I met because I work. You know, we meet people from everywhere, all kinds of people, people with all different skills and it's a wonderful thing to meet new people. It stops that sense of isolation, gets you involved in your community, in your world and its just one of the benefits that you can't even put a dollar amount on. Now, here comes Meagan. In 2008 she had a major depressive episode and was forced to apply for social security disability benefits because she was beginning to have financial difficulties. After a while of surviving on benefits and getting her health in order, she decided it was time to return to work. And she is now much happier than she was on benefits and has been enable to engage in one of her passions, which is competitive ballroom dancing. And with that introduction, Mike, if you'd cue up Meagan's video, she can tell you her story.

[ Music and setting up video ]

>> Meagan: I believe it was around somewhere in 2008 I kind of got sick and took another position. And from that position I ended up getting fired and I had a mental breakdown. So, my disability is 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 actually help you 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 like that. Staying at home is not as fun as it looks, but also it's not me. I'm 27 and 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 get back to work because that's what I should be doing. That's what I want to be doing. The first thing 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 Meagan. Welcome. It's really good seeing you. How are you doing today?

>> Meagan: I'm doing pretty good.

>> Good. Meagan 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.

>> Meagan: One of the big concerns or problems that I had was would I lose my disability benefit 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 through that work. She received social security disability insurance, so she was happy to learn that she had what are called child 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 here 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.

>> Meagan: 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 its part librarian, so people return things to me and I check them out. It's part teacher, because when they return things me to me I check it to make sure it's correct and if its not I ask for them to redo it.

>> What made Meagan 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've classified Meagan 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's she's doing and as long as she's happy we're very happy for her.

>> Meagan: The impact has been great. I have a year left to pay off my car and then its 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 ]

>> Meagan: 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's getting more fun and I'm enjoying it. I like the costumes. So, that's a big thing that I do.

[ Music ]

>> Meagan: 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 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 is, 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.

[ Music and setting up mic ]

>> Ray Cebula: Okay, thanks Mike. Now as you can see Meagan is doing quite well for herself and is truly a success story. And the biggest message that we can take from Reagan, Meagan, I'm sorry, is her statement that she may fall back a bit. But she's going to constantly be moving forward and I think that's a great message for her to share with us. So, what do you do when you're ready to go to work? People are in all different stages of their journey to work. Some might be sitting here wondering whether or not they can. Some people may be ready to go to work tomorrow or some people are trying to get information to make that decision. But, most certainly gathering information and resources is going to be incredibly important when you start planning that journey towards employment. When you hear that old adage information is power, you really need to multiply that by 1000 because information in this neck of the woods is truly powerful. And the more information you have the more guidance you have in how to use that information, the smoother that journey is going to be. The Ticket to Work and the work incentives that are available through social security are going to provide you with that information to help make that journey a smooth one. We're going to be talking a lot about building and employment team. And I do mean team. We're going to have all kinds of people involved with you in your efforts to work. We've got a couple who are going to talk to you today. We've got an employment network. You know we have a benefits person who's going to talk about the benefits and so we have all of these people. When I start doing part of the presentation later, we might be looking at someone from the state BR agency or somebody from that protection and advocacy agency. If we're talking specifically about students in transition we might be talking about parents, teachers, guidance counselors as many people as you can bring into that team, the stronger your team will be. And so, when you're beginning to start, where do you go? Well, fortunately there's no wrong way to start. You can speak to an expert at the Ticket to Work helpline and that number is 866-968-7842 or if you're using at TTY or TVV its 866-833-2967. And we'll be repeating that number a lot during the course of today's event. If you're not ready to make that phone call, check out this website, www.choosework.net. You can watch other success stories, read the blog about people's success stories and just check the situation out in a very, very safe way. Remember what Commissioner Williams said, "This is your choice." In order to make that choice we want you to get as much information as possible. Find an employment network. Know there are employment networks out there or know that state location rehabilitation agency can start this process for you. Okay, we're going to talk about both of those entities and they are most certainly going to be able to get the ball rolling. And stay connected. Most certainly staying connected is key. This isn't going to be a short journey. It's going to take a while and you need to be constantly connected with all of your team members and any of the service providers that are helping on you that journey to work. And remember that you're building a team but you are the coach of that team. We're here to help you make decisions that are best for you and then help you implement those decisions so that you can get what you want. Now, very briefly we're going to talk about the social security benefits program before Terry tells us about some of the work incentives. There are two major programs that social security administers the first one being the social security disability insurance program or SSDI and this is a program that people receive because they have worked and paid FICA taxes or they may have a parent who is disabled, deceased or retired and they may be receiving off of a parent's record. But it is an insurance program. This is the program that Meagan was receiving when she became disabled. The other program is the supplemental security income program, the SSI program, and this is a needs based program. Now, because its needs based all kinds of income and resource issues are going to spring up and impact your benefits significantly. So, the first thing that you need to know is what benefit do you receive? Because we have more incentives for SSDI and we have more incentives for SSI, and they all work very differently and very separately. Then we have a group of people who are out there who received both benefits. They received both SSI and SSDI and they're called concurrent beneficiaries. These folks really need that team behind them because it can be very confusing to balance work and manage those benefits when you have all of these different programs impacting your benefits at different times. So, those are the three different programs that we have. Now, let's talk about some myth. Now, the first myth that we have is if I tried to go to work I will automatically lose Medicare or Medicaid. And we're here to tell you today that that is wrong. That is something that millions of people out there believe. But in today's world with expanded Medicare eligibility with the 1619 program that Terry's going to mention for Medicaid and with the 44 states now that have Medicaid buy-in programs it is actually very hard to lose your medical coverage. So, that's really not something that I even want you to worry about. I want you to worry about getting ready to work, getting a job and working for a while before you start worrying about what might happen to that healthcare. That second myth that we have, if I use my ticket to go to work, social security is going to perform a medical review and I might lose my benefits. Well that couldn't be further from the truth, because its exactly the opposite. If you do decide to use your ticket to work, social security is going to suspend all of those medical reviews. The last thing we want to do is pull the rug out from under you when you're getting ready to return to work. So, in fact social security will not perform a medical review if you are using that ticket and making progress towards your work goal. And the final myth, the final most final, the third of the most common myths, if I go to work and have to stop working I will have to reapply for benefits all over again. And if it took a long time to be approved the first time, what happens if I have to wait that long again. And remember Meagan said that too. She said she was afraid of what would happen if she went to work and it didn't work out. Well, I can tell you that's wrong too, that social security has provided a safety net even after you have lost or have been terminated from the program because of work. You know and terry will tell you about expedited reinstatement. So, the work incentives that we have pretty much debunk all of what people believe will happen if you try to go to work and make this a very, very easy and safe transition. But remember once again, it's going to take a team and the first member of our team today is Terry Chang, who's with the Career Connection with the Whittier Union High School district out in California. So, Terry take it away.

>> Terry Chang: Thank you. I am what is called the CWIC, a Community Work Incentive Coordinator. I was trained by the CU to be a benefits planner for a grant that we got with the social security administration. So, I've been a CWIC for eight years and it helped a lot in EN, next slide. But because Ticket to Work is free and voluntary, we try to make sure that the people we assign to our EN is ready to work. It's really a program that is designed for people who want to go work and having a benefit counselor we have actually two. We actually tell people exactly what's going to happen when they go to work and depending on how many hours and what they do. So, it's very good to have our people front loaded and know exactly what's going to happen when they go to work, next slide, next slide please. Okay, the Ticket to Work program is there ready for you if you want to go to work and earn money. Like Ray said you just don't get a lot of extras in life if you're just on your benefits. And so going to work can improve your earning potential and take away some of the limits on getting SSI or SSDI. Personal fulfillment, we work at a school district so we get a lot of students that don't want to go to work or they're afraid to go to work. By working and learning how to do work they have a sense of fulfillment and a sense of worth and it makes them want to go to work and makes them very proud of themselves. So, it's just that little push they need. The EN holds their hand a little bit. We give them, we let their parents and people know what's going to happen to their benefits, when they'll lose it, so it's not scary. And that has to do with being overwhelmed. I mean we truly give them benefit counseling so that they know what to expect. We teach them how to work and how to ask for accommodations if they need it, okay, next slide. When you-- when people are ready, really ready to explore work then they should find an employment network that suits their needs and assign your ticket. A lot of times in California we get calls from people that are maybe 50 or 60 miles away from us. And we tell them that we're not the closest to them. It would be harder for us to get to them, so we always tell them to try and find someone closer to them, but we always give them the chance to come back to us if they need it. So, you can always call your Ticket to Work helpline and-- or visit socialsecurity.gov and-- to find or an EN or VR near you, next slide. Okay, like they said to build your employment team is the best way to begin. And you talk to your Ticket to Work helpline and they will give examples of who to call and where to call. And that's how they, they-- you get to work. If we find that they really want to do a lot more training than we can afford to give them, we bring them over to our local VR agency and then when that's over, their training is over, they always, they can always have the opportunity to come back to us. So, the main thing that we tell people is to stay connected, so that we know what they're doing and how they're doing and so we know how to help them. Okay, next slide. Three incentives were designed for young adults in transition. The first one is [Inaudible] income exclusion. And that one is for students who are still in school, under the age of 22 who want to explore work. The other waiver is the student earned income exclusion. It is a way for you to save money for something that you need to do for work, to get to work to get skills and to let you save more than 2000 dollars that's necessary. The section 301 is to continue benefits. If you have a medical recovery, if you are with a VR agency or you have an IAP with a EN or with the department of rehab and you have those plans in place you can keep your benefits until your plan is okay or you can no longer support the plan, next slide. Okay, the student earned income exclusion, we've used that a lot and we really use it as a venue to teach our young adults to report wages. We had a student who's name was Miguel and he came into our EN unit. His dad didn't want him quite to go to work yet, but we told him this job was perfect for Miguel. So his day said, "Okay." So, I never had anyone hit the annual maximum and Miguel was such a good worker that he actually hit the maximum at the end of the year. And so I had the great honor of telling his dad that I lied and that it was the new effective benefit, but his dad said it was okay because he became so independent and mature that his dad saw the value in him going to work. The student earning income exclusion is applied before your general income exclusion so it takes it right off the top, next slide. And these are the times, what they call regularly attending school. In college its at least eight hours and in our case in a training course to prepare for employment so that would qualify them for the student earning income exclusion, next slide. Okay, there's also regular attending school if you're at home, if you're home taught because of your disability or because of the home school law in your state or jurisdiction. There are some rules with it and each case I believe is almost you know you need to investigate each case because it goes case by case. And you can always make your case, I think; next slide. Okay, a planted [Inaudible] support is called a pass and a pass allows you to save income other than what you're getting from SSI and there has to be a specific time period and you have to have a work goal. When social security figures out what your payment amount is they don't have that increment you set aside under your pass plan. So, an example would be let's say you had a pass and out of your income which is anything other than SSI, you put it into your pass plan. Social security looks at it and says, "Oh look, they don't have their full amount." But they then pay you money in your benefits, next slide. The pass has to be in writing and done especially for you. There is a little packet that you could fill out. You have to have a specific work goal that you are capable of doing. There is a time frame for reaching your birth goal, and you have to show what income you're going to do other than your SSI and have that it will help you to reach your work goal. It also has to be approved and reviewed by tax Chaudry, which actually is a safety net for you because they're watching how you're using that money and its-- they modify and do things for you that make sure you're staying on your plan, next slide.

>> Julie Johnson: Can I add something to that. This is Julie and I just wanted to say that for the pass plan the--when you look at the paperwork you need to complete, sometimes it seems daunting because it is quite a bit, but it is definitely doable. But the wonderful thing is that the tax Chaudry allows you to write it up and if there's something they don't like or if it's quirky, they don't just turn you away and say that's it, you cannot have it. They'll help you correct it so that you can get your pass plan. So, it's really a wonderful opportunity for you and very doable.

>> Terry Chang: One of our participants was, graduated from our adult school. She got a job and wanted a car, so she-- we told her we'd write her a pass plan. She was so excited. Her boyfriend was a used car dealer. They found a really good car and she bought it. And we were like oh no, we were excited and we wanted to do the pass anyway. So, we went ahead and wrote the pass and because she was receiving, she was concurrent. She received SSI and SSDI. The past Chaudry gave her the money so she could pay off part of her car. And then they kept the pass going for her for a year and let her do her car maintenance with it. So, they kept in touch with her and told her when to put money in and how much she could spend for her car maintenance. So, it was really a nice thing for her to get this whole pass for her. The social security section 301 is continuing benefits and if social security determines that you know longer have a disabling condition your benefits will generally stop. But, if your ticket is assigned to an EN or a VR agency your benefits may continue. Normally, social security has to know-- approve it and they have to know that your goal in that work plan is doable and that you are making progress toward that work goal, next slide. Tips for avoiding an overpayment, okay this is a big one; next slide. An overpayment is when you receive more money for a month than you should have been paid by social security and the amount of the overpayment is the difference between the amount you receive and the amount that you were due. So, technically an overpayment starts pretty much the first day you start working, because social security pays your SSI benefits on the first of the month. So, you start working on the first of the month, you have an overpayment. The best way to deal with it is to know about it and know what to do about it. So, what we suggest is that you should know in advance that you're getting this because you're working with your counselor and we suggest that you put the money aside knowing that social security will ask for you to return the money. It's not a good idea to return it automatically because social security is not sure where that money is coming from and sometimes it gets lost in the mail, next slide. Learn about what work incentives that apply to you, how they can help you. That's a great one. But you also should learn about what the work incentives will do to your benefits. So, by using most work incentives it will cause you not to have an overpayment, but every work incentive works differently, so you should know what work incentives will do towards your benefits, next slide. Keep in touch with social security. I don't think there's anything that we could say that adds more emphasis to that. You want to report all events that can affect your benefit. That would be getting married, moving. When you work and when you stop working is just as important. Every benefit that social security pays has a specific list of events that the beneficiary is required to report. Pretty much it's all of those that I just listed. So, unless there's a specific one you should be aware of the effects to your benefit. Okay, next slide. Normally we tell our beneficiaries to report their wages once month before the 10th. They report their wages in writing. We have a form that we use that has their name, their social security number on it because it's no longer on the paystub. We have a check off form that says what benefits their on and what work incentive they're using. We ask them to put their-- a copy of their paystub and attach it to that when they report their wages. We also ask them to get it stamped and to keep a copy of it. We give all our participants the best I can say it is like a briefcase. It has different dividers in it. We asked them to keep all of their paystubs, any official notices, letters from social security and to keep in there for the year. On December 31st they can take it out, put it in a little brown envelope, put the date on it and start with your book again. It has become such a good tool for our beneficiaries that they still bring that in when they come in and find that they keep themselves really organized that way. Okay, next slide.

>> Ray Cebula: Okay, thank you very much. We got a few questions for you that came in while you were making your presentation. The first one is if I don't fall into that transition age group can I still use the Ticket to Work.

>> Terry Chang: Absolutely. You can still use your Ticket to Work.

>> Julie Johnson: It's good to 65.

>> Terry Chang: Yep.

>> Ray Cebula: Alright. So, we're talking today specifically about transition, but for those of you who are outside of that age group that ticket is still available to you. And how much does it cost to talk to you about my benefits?

>> Terry Chang: That's a benefit that you get by coming to our employment network. We always talk about the benefits because I think that's one of the most important parts of going back to work is that people really need to know that they have a safety net. And they want to know in advance how they're-- how they're going to plan for going back to work. It's also good for us so that we know and we tell our beneficiaries how to avoid that overpayment, which occurs pretty much when they go back to work.

>> Ray Cebula: Okay, we got two more for you. Is a pass only for SSI recipients?

>> Terry Chang: Yes. It is right now but they could, they-- don't forget they need to have income from some other source so that could be like if they're concurrent and their getting SSDI. Or, if they're getting SSDI, if they can put enough of that money into the past that will make them qualify to get SSI and qualify them for getting a pass.

>> Ray Cebula: Okay and one last one about the student earned income exclusion. This person is over 22 but is still in school. Could they take advantage of that?

>> Terry Chang: No, they can't. They have to be under 22 years of age while attending school.

>> Ray Cebula: Oh.

>> Terry Chang: I often thought that it should be more but [Laughter]

>> Ray Cebula: Yea.

>> Terry Chang: But let me, I got so excited that I forgot to tell you when you are giving the student earned income exclusion, we write our letter to our social security department and tell them that they are going to school and that they are receiving it, a student earned income exclusion. That way social security knows that they're getting that so they don't get overpayments or underpayments or whatever it is that occurs by having that student earned income exclusion letter. They know how to modify the benefits so it's not changing and it's a good thing that they can teach. And it has really worked well with our social security office.

>> Ray Cebula: Alright. Great, thank you very much.

>> Terry Chang: You're welcome.

>> Ray Cebula: Okay and we're going to change channels now and talk about employment networks. And Julie Johnson, who is also with the Career Connection is going to talk to us about that. So, take it away Julie.

>> Julie Johnson: Hello everyone. My name is Julie and like Terry said at the beginning of her presentation I am also a CWIC, a Community Worker Incentive Coordinator working at the Whittier Union High School district and I just kind of wanted to say that Terry and I have been here a long time; me about 20 years and Terry a little bit longer. So, we're old first of all. Secondly, we-- our job at the school district is to work with young adults to try to help them find jobs. So, when the Ticket to Work program came about, our director and we decided this is something we're already doing and we're passionate about. So, Ticket to Work would really work for our school district because that's what we're doing. We're trying to help young adults with disabilities to find employment. So, we work with a lot of young adults in the Ticket to Work program and some that are not. But we pretty much work with a lot of people. So, when people call me about the Ticket to Work program, most-- I'm going to say most of the people that call me are older adults, younger than me but still older adults. They tell me that they have gotten our names from either Maximus or out local social security office that we have a great relationship with. Sometimes they will refer people over to us. So, typically my calls are from older adults. The younger transition age youth a lot of them are high school graduates that we have worked with in the past. And they know that we are an employment network so a lot of times they get a hold of us that way. It's just kind of like by word of mouth, but definitely you can look on line or call. Many, many employment networks are available to call. Yea, we get calls all the time from Florida, different states, but that's it. That's a great way to get a hold of them is by looking online. Oops, next slide please. Okay, actually I was talking about this slide. So, Terry did good and said, "Next slide" and I forgot already. Thank you. Okay, now how to select your employment network. That is something that's really important. I think it's whatever your goal is you need to find out what is the best thing the employment network you know what they can offer you. A lot of the adults that call me are looking strictly for work and you know I'll talk about that. We talk about you know what they want to do where they live, you now can they drive. A lot of different things that are important to them, I mean that are important about getting a job that maybe they haven't thought about. And, as a matter of fact, a lot of people who call me just want to talk about the Ticket to Work program. They really aren't ready to go to work and that's nice, because we figure that out when were talking on the phone and they don't need to come down and you know we need to spend more time. You know a lot of people aren't really ready to work. They don't have transportation. They don't have the time. They just want to know and that's fine. You know I talk to everyone. But I do always like to say to all my adults that the goal of the Ticket to Work program is to work-- is to work and work your way off your benefits completely, not immediately but that is the goal, whether you reach that goal or not I always like to say that that is the goal of the Ticket to Work program. Now for my transition aged youth, typically they're starting out part-time jobs, minimum wage you know so they're probably not going to reach that goal if they're just wanting to work. Usually we're wanting to go to school, college, community colleges or some other type of training program. So, we talked that too. And also when I'm dealing with transition aged youth the parents are typically involved, very, very much involved are the legal guardian. Because the young adult that we deal with, many of them have an intellectual disability and they have support from regional center and from other services. So, we have a lot of people involved, but we answer a lot of questions. Next slide please. We do all of these services you see up here, resumes, interview skills, just yesterday a young man came in, spur of the moment, needed some help. So we went over some questions, you know some difficult questions, came up with some brilliant answers and everything was going wonderful and actually his interview was like within a half hour, so that was a little nerve racking for him. And he was you know, it was no big deal. That's how young people are you know, just ready to go. So, he came back about an hour later and said they didn't ask him a single one of those questions which we have talked about. They might not ask you this, but at least he went and he was prepared and had a lot of great answers and felt pretty confident. So, we do all of these things you see listed and in addition to that we do the social security benefit planning that Terry had talked about because that is one of the most important things. You need to understand what's going to happen. And in fact, when we're talking to transition aged youth and the parents are involved, because a lot times the young adults don't understand everything, the parents are, you know they definitely do not want their child to lose their benefits. They definitely don't want you know certain things to happen. So we need to explain everything and if they're in that age range between 18 and 22, the student earned income exclusion is the perfect way to kind of ease the parents in because the students do not have their benefits reduced due to earnings as long as its under the-- I even forget the amount, 1700 amount I believe a month. And most of-- none of my students have ever earned that much a month. Anyway, please, next slide please. Okay, so it looks-- okay so when, after I have talked to different, the young adults and parents and my adults typically and over the phone I can see that they want to work. They are able to get to work. If they don't drive they can take a bus. They have-- you know they've thought of a lot of these things or if they want help with that but they definitely are excited about working, those are the people I want to work with that are excited about working, because they have to want it more than I do for them. And typically I get all excited and you know I'll call with a job or something and if someone isn't interested then I feel terrible. So, I like to get people who are more excited than I am. So, we offer these services. I explained that you know we're going to help you with the pre-employment, the resume, you know interviewing skills, the social security benefit planning. You know we talk about the work goals, the short and long term work goals and there are, you know when we write the IWP you have write that-- for a short term goal you plan on at least earning 720 dollars in long term, at least over 1010 or the plan wouldn't be approved. So, always explain that. I explained-- well explained everything but also that the timely progress guidelines, that's very important to understand that and to know what's expected and answer any questions. But the individual work plan takes a while to complete, where we explained all of the goals of the Ticket to Work program, what's required, what our particular EN requires and what the participant or potential participant is thinking you know that they want to get out of it. So, it takes a while and then I, of course, I explained about the continuing disability review, how they're going exempted as long as your meeting does timely progress guidelines. Next slide please.

[ Silence ]

>> Julie Johnson: Okay, like I said I liked my participants to be excited about working and whether or not they're able to meet the goals of the Ticket to Work program you know even if they're not able to earn as much as the ticket program wants you to, even if they can't you know do it as fast as you know its required. If someone is very excited and has a passion for working, we'll definitely try to work with them. So, I want somebody to be honest with me. We signed-- we signed a plan. We keep in touch. You know we-- I try to contact them regularly. All the rules are written down and its, as a matter of fact one of rules just to let you know, while our-- me, Terry and our job developers are out looking for jobs, that the need to be out looking for jobs on their own independently looking for jobs. And if they need help filling out applications or doing an online application, which could be terrible especially those assessments go on and on, if you need help with that come in and we can do it. You know but you need to show me that you're interested too and that is one of our requirements. So, one of our requirements also is that they provide social security, you know, let them know they're working. I'd show them how to report their earnings like Terry had said. For students, what I do is I made up a form that they send in with their paystub that says their name, their social security number. You need to report once a month, so you might have four paystubs that you need to send in the paystub, not the paycheck, copies of that. Mail it into social security and also have what benefit you're receiving, even on the outside of the envelope you know write down SSI wage recording. And even sometimes that doesn't get into the social security records. So, as long as you have a record that you sent it in, you know write down a record and try to keep everything up front so that everything will be taken care of that they're working, they're reporting to social security and they're keeping track of it themselves, as well as I am as long as they continue to contact me and send me copies of paystubs. That's very important too. However, I will say the most important thing is reporting to social security. I mean I always want them to report to me, but social security is very important. And I see last year the last one says EN report. I used to help people and report to them. I don't do that any longer because when I did it on my own a couple of times supposedly the records didn't make it to social security. So, I make sure I will help someone. I will help them write it. I'll walk over there and help them mail it, but I will not, individually by myself mail in a report to social security. We can do it together but I just had a bad experience. So, other than that, a lot of hands on help; next slide please.

>> Ray Cebula: Okay, Julie thank you very much. We've got some questions that came in for you too. Somebody wants to know how do I put a resume together if I've never had a job?

>> Julie Johnson: Well, what I like to do with my young adults is think about what you've done and let's talk about some transferrable skills. So, maybe if you babysat we can turn that into, even though it's a volunteer job, you learned some skills. If you did yard work you got some skills there and we can just fix that up into a resume that has you now some really good skills and hopefully transfer to the job, whatever the requirements are that you're-- you know that the job that you want to apply for is looking for. So, that's how I try to help people who are-- and most of my people don't have a lot of experience and that's what we do. We change it to transferrable skills from what they've done at home into what they-- the job is looking for and we turn into a resume where it looks like a resume where they have experience.

>> Ray Cebula: Great that sounds good. That sounds real good. Okay, my granddaughter is graduating in May of 2013. When would be the best time to get her in contact with an employment network?

>> Julie Johnson: She's graduating from high school?

>> Ray Cebula: Yes, she's graduating from high school in 2013.

>> Julie Johnson: Well, you have to be at least 18 and you have to be you know receiving SSI or SSDI. You know that, that would be required. You would definitely have to, I mean if it were mean and I have had parents and grandparents and call me, and call me about the Ticket to Work program and I'd gladly do that, but I always want to hear from the person, the young adult because quite often maybe they're not ready to work. Maybe they don't want to work, but the grandparent wants them to work or you know the parent wants them to work. And you know I'll do whatever I can to help, but if the student doesn't want to work, it never, you know it just doesn't come-- it just doesn't work. So, they certainly could contact an employment network and they're 18 and they continue to be on the benefit. Maybe they've had their adult review and then at that point they could contact an employment network and talk about some services.

>> Ray Cebula: And the final question we have for you today is does SSI end when my education ends?

>> Julie Johnson: No, no absolutely not. Actually SSI that benefit, well I mean I should say it could for certain reasons, but no it does not. SSI is a benefit that you have become eligible for because you were deemed to have a disability and that disability, that it is so severe it limits your ability to find employment. So, until you have been reviewed and considered either to no longer have a disability or you're working and earning so much money that you're cash benefit has gone to zero, then you know you could continue to receive SSI and even when you're cash benefit does go to zero, you're still on the SSI benefit. It's just that you're earning too much to receive a cash benefit. You're still eligible for Medical-- I mean Medicaid sorry. In California we call it Medical. You could still be eligible to receive that up until you know 1619-B that Ray had talked about until you earn about, gosh about 36,000 dollars at least in California. So, SSI will go up and down, the benefit you're receiving depending on how much money you earn and social security does a calculation and depending on how much you earned, let's say in May two months later, June, July, August they will say okay, you know this is how much he earned. This is how much the benefit should be and there's no way for them to be you know, to have that in real time. It takes them too much to get that. So, no after that long, I'm sorry lengthy-- then, no you will not lose your benefits. That's the short answer.

>> Ray Cebula: [Laughter] Okay, thanks Julie. Alright, I guess it's my turn. We're going to talk about vocational rehabilitation services from this state agency. Now, when you use that ticket to work for services through your state agency there are a few advantages. You know, Julie who was an employment network can pick and choose who she decides to help based on her experience, based on the population that their agency is focusing on.

>> [Inaudible comment]

>> Ray Cebula: Because the state VR agency is a little bit different. Because you're receiving social security disability benefit or an SSI benefit based on disability, you're presumptively eligible for services from the state agency. So, the state agency really doesn't have much of a choice but to help. What happens is that you and your individual vocational rehabilitation counselor will develop an employment plan and it sounds, doesn't this sound similar to what Julie is doing with her clients, putting a plan together to get people back to work. Now you're not assigning your ticket to state VR and this is a wonderful thing. Because what that assignment does, is as I said very early on is prevent social security from doing those medical reviews while you're trying to go to work. Now if you're not assigning it from VR you're saving that ticket, but because you're working with VR and are trying to make progress towards work, social security considers in ticket in use. And when your ticket is in use they will also not perform those medical reviews. So, you'll get the same protection but you don't have to use your ticket. And you might be wondering, why are you saying that Ray? I'm saying that because once you're finished working with VR if you need assistance with resumes, with some interview skills with help finding a job or help while you are working. You can then take your ticket to Julie or to another EN and assign that ticket and get services from that type of agency as well. So, if it sounds like double dipping, it kind of is free for you although it's not for the state agencies and it's a great deal. It's sometimes called partnership plus and it allows you to really put those services to work for you. Now, as I said those CDRs, those continuing disability reviews are deferred as long as you're making timely progress. And what's timely progress. Well that plan that you have with either Julie who is your EN, your employment network or with your state agency is going to have certain things that you'll accomplish. You will finish a semester of school in six months. You will finish this training program in nine months. You will begin to earn income at a certain level in the next three months. If you're complying with each of those goals and meeting those goals you're considered making timely progress. Now, you're employment team, the team that you build is going to help you keep track of that. So, when social security does decide to look at your case and see if you're making timely progress you'll be all set to do that. You won't have to do that on your own. Now you need to also decide what you're going to want from your vocational rehabilitation agency. And it's the same type of decision that Julie made. Are you ready to work? Are you thinking about working? Do you want to know what services are available or are you ready just to jump right in? You know there are all sorts of stages of the thought process that have to be completed before you get to the decision that says yep, I'm going to go for it. And everyone of those stages in consideration is very, very valid. So you need to discuss with your counselor the opportunity to have any services that you need. Maybe VR is not the place to go. Maybe the EN is the place to go. As this first bullet says, maybe vocational rehabilitation can provide you with some great services. When their services end you'll need Julie and an employment network to help you get placed in the job that you want. That type of transition again is possible. When VR closes your case because you have met the state rules for case closures, you may still take your ticket and assign it to an EN for follow up services. And again, that might be, let's prepare that resume. You know somebody had a great question about what do I do if I've only been in school. Well, Julie can help you prepare that resume. She might be able to give you a few job leads and give you some interview practices, because practicing for those interviews is very important. And what if you need assistance or somebody to talk to while you are working? Those services can all be provided in tandem by using your ticket to work. So, it truly has become a very complete program and very thorough program. Now I have to tell you there is also a road, it's a long road and there's a road that has some potholes in it. And every once in a while you're going to hit one of those potholes and get a flat tire. When that happens, the protection and advocacy agencies that are located in every state have a program that's known as PABS, protection and advocacy for beneficiaries of social security. And this is sort of the legal arm of the whole ticket to work program. As I said every state in U.S. territory has a PABS, has a protection and advocacy agency. You know in states like Rhode Island there is one office because there's a little tiny state. In states like California there is a main office that you can call and that office happens to be in Sacramento, but they'll refer you to the office that's closer to you. So, in your larger states, don't worry about it. You don't need to travel that far. Somebody will be in your area that can help. Now this program, which is funded by social security is specifically designed to help SSI and SSDI beneficiaries how are disabled to return to work. And they are in the business of removing barriers to work. Their services are completely free like every other service that we've talked about today and what you need to do in order to qualify is to receive the cash benefits from social security or continue to receive healthcare. As Julie indicated as your income goes up, some of those cash benefits go down, but if you're still receiving health benefits because of your disability. You're still eligible for these services that are absolutely free. Now what can a PABS agency do for you? They can do lots of things, but again remember that these services are available to remove barriers to work. So, there has to be some kind of work element. They can advocate for accommodations. You know Julie mentioned that in the EN presentation as well. What if you need a reasonable accommodation? When is it right to tell your employer that you have a disability? When is it the right time to tell them that you receive social security benefits? Do you have to tell them at all? The PABS advocate can help you answer those questions. They can advocate for vocational services from employment networks or vocational rehabilitation agencies. Now, if the vocational rehabilitation agency does something that you don't like, they'll have an appeal process under the rehabilitation act that you can go through. Well, PABS can help you with that. If Julie provides you with a service and you're not happy with it or she wants you to go to work at McDonald's and you just don't want to do that, she'll have a dispute mechanism. And if you want help talking to Julie about issues, the PABS agency can do that. Now, the more important thing for me to say rather than the lawyers and the advocates at the P&A's can help you fight for your rights, is that before you end up fighting, the protection and advocacy people can help you talk to your employment networks and the vocational rehabilitation agencies to smooth out any wrinkles. You now it doesn't have to be a big bite and everybody involved on that employment team prefers that it not be. Now, if you have social security benefits, there are chances that you have other benefits. You at least have a medical benefit. But as Terry can tell you, she's probably dealt with people who have food stamps. She's probably dealt with people who have public housing, probably dealt with some TANF households, all kinds of benefits. PABS can provide you with information and referrals to figure out how all of those benefits are going to be affected or if there's an issue with those benefits, that your food stamps have been reduced and you don't think its right. PABS can help you look at that. Now assisting other barriers to work, and before I started working here at Cornell I was actually an attorney working at the PABS office in Massachusetts. And I'm going to tell you about a gentleman who went to work using his ticket at one of the big box construction stores. And he was a wheelchair user and every week his supervisor hosted the weekly schedule at the top of the bulletin board in the break room. And every week this gentleman asked to have the work report put lower on the board so that he could see when he was supposed to work. Well, they never did that. His supervisor never did that and constantly put it up where he couldn't see it and the first time he missed a shift, he was fired. Now the reasonable accommodation there was simply removing that thumb tack and putting it in lower. So we talked, we helped that person talk to his employer and got that back, and got him his job back actually. Addressing overpayments, now both Terry and Julie mentioned overpayments, and they do happen. But that should not scare you from going back to work. There are many things that can be done to help resolve those overpayments and determine whether or not they really happened or whether or not you have to pay any of it back and PABS is one place that can help you. Now, we need to talk about other issues because we got lots of things coming up and other resources for you. Now lots of these have already been mentioned and if you want to check out this in a very safe way, check out the social security website at socialsecurity.gov/work. You'll find out some basics about the program. You'll find out your local employment networks are and you'll get lots of information about the work incentives and that ticket to work program. If you want to talk to somebody about your particular situation, and if we weren't able to get to your question, because we're running out of time, all the Ticket to Work help line at 866-968-7842 or for TTY users 866-833-2967. Now right after today's webinar there's going to be a question and answer session on Facebook.

>> Jamie: Ray, this is actually Jamie. Can I cut in for just one second?

>> Ray Cebula: You certainly may Jamie.

>> Jamie: Okay, sir I did just want to mention that that Ticket to Work call center won't be replacing our community work incentive coordinators, but they can provide information to you about social security work incentives and the ticket program. So, we do strongly encourage you to call that help line if you have any questions. Okay thank you Ray.

>> Ray Cebula: Okay, so we're going to be hosting a question and answer session and our experts Julie and Jamie are going to be with you for a while. And here's a little format. If you can get into Facebook real quick, I'm sure most of you have your own little accounts. Sign in and join us. Let me see what else I have you here. Here we have the directions. I knew they were in here somewhere. If you want to participate in this session its going to run from 4:30 to 5:30, so you'll have an hour to talk to our experts and ask them questions. And you can get there by going to www.facebook.com/choosework#!/ choosework?V=feed+_user=0. If you can't access Facebook and you still have questions for us by all means what I want you to do is send your questions to chooseworkquestions@gmail.com. And I made a mistake guys. I have to apologize to you. If you want to view that Facebook session I gave you an address that was way too long. And so, I'm going to give you a shorter one, www.facebook.com/choosework. Yea, and that's nice and short for you; www.facebook.com/choosework. If you need to create an account you can do that real fast at www.facebook.com/help/createaccount. And if you do need accessibility or assistive technology questions or issues dealt with check out www.facebook.com/help/accessibility. Okay that longer address that I gave you that I'm not going to give you again, was to participate via html. Once again, if you don't want to hang out with us for a while or you have questions afterwards, send them to chooseworkquestions@gmail.com and remember that we will have our webinar transcript and audio up on the webinar site in about two weeks. And I believe that's going to do it Jamie. We're going ready to move right into that Facebook session. So, I am going to thank our presenters Terry and Julie, thank Mike who's in the background and Gloria who's in the background making this webinar work for us and thank you all for participating. Have a great afternoon and please check your email or your Twitter accounts or that Facebook account for future webinars. Again, one more time that Ticket to Work help line for questions specific to your own situation is 866-968-7842 or for TTY users 866-833-2967. Have a great afternoon everybody, take care.