>> Good afternoon everybody or good morning, wherever you may be in the country. This is Roy Cebula from Cornell University's Employment and Disabilities Institute and I want to welcome you to today's Webinar. We will be discussing the Ticket to Work which is a free support service for folks with disabilities who are receiving Social Security Disability insurance or other Title Two benefits or SSI, Supplemental Security income. And want to get back into the work force. Before we get into today's session I want to tell you a little bit about the technology that we're using today so that you can participate with us. You've been connected automatically to your mic and speakers built into your computer. If at any time during today's session you're having a problem with your computer please click on the plus sign in front of the word audio and it's going to open the audio box. You can push the button to use telephone and it's going to show you today's dial in information, the access code and the audio pin. And you will be able to follow along with us on the telephone. We will be providing you with a toll free number in a couple of seconds. We do want to hear from you today so if you have any questions we have a question box for you too. Click on the plus sign in front of the word questions and it's going to open up your question box. Type in your question, hit the send button and that's going to appear on Jamie's desktop and Jamie is going to ask the questions on your behalf. Now, please know that there are lots of folks on today's Webinar and we are not likely to get to every question. We're going to focus on the questions that pertain to the general audience and we also want you to get answers to your questions so throughout today's Webinar and at the end we're going to be providing you with links and phone numbers so that you can get your particular question answered. Now we always strive to make our Webinars as accessible as possible and we do believe we have a fully accessible product. However, you folks are experiencing the Webinar and you are our participants. If you do have any problems today please let us know and more important than letting us know what your problem is, let us know if you're aware of some kind of program or system that we can use and investigate to make the sessions more accessible that they are now. Now today's toll free number, if you do need to dial in is 1-877-739-5903. And the access code is 180106670. We also have a closed captioning link and that is HTTP [inaudible] . And we do have the Webinar Power Point accessible pdf and text located at the URL link you received with the confirmation of your registration for today's session. So we hope that everybody can access all of this information. Of the transcript of today's presentation along with the presentation itself will be available in about two weeks time. Mike, our technological wizard behind the scenes will be posting it to the Website and that Website is www.ilr.cornell.edu/edi/m-wise-webinars.cfm and you'll note that Jamie is posting all of these websites for you. The Webinar question and answer period at the end, you have several options during the session to ask questions by using the question box that I pointed out. If you're not able to do that you can send an email to chooseworkquestions@gmail.com and if you have any questions after today's Webinar please email those questions to support@chooseworkttw, that's one word, chooseworkttw.net. And again, I can assure you that all of the questions that you pose will be answered through one of these sources today. Now, before we start talking I have some questions for you. We want to know who you are, how many of you are out there and how you heard about us. So we've got some real quick questions and let me ask the first one. How did you learn about today's Webinar? Is it email, Facebook or Twitter? The Web site or a friend or family? Just make your selection. Okay, great participation, thank you for that. [ background noises ] see and nobody else what nobody knows what Twitter is either. I'm not the only one. All right. Thank you for that folks. Let me get the next one. Let's hide that. What do you hope to learn from us today? Do you want to learn about the Ticket to Work? Work incentives for SSI? Work incentives for SSDI? Employment networks and vocational rehabilitation or legal protection in advocacy? Which of those topics is the most important to you today? [ background noises ] And it's looking like they're all pretty important. [ background noises ] All right. Thank you very much. Now we want to know what is your gender? Male or female? [ background noises ] All right. Thank you very much. You guys are being great with participating here. Now what is your age? Which age bracket do you fall into? [ background noises ] I'm getting lots of good information today Jamie. [ background noises ] All right, and the final question. We know that you may not be alone today so how many other people besides yourself are sitting at the terminal or in the room with you? [ background noises ] We've had several people hold viewing parties for these Webinars where we've had a lot of people in the rooms. All right, thank you very much. That was very helpful and you gave us a lot of good information and some real good participation. So today we have two speakers, myself, who is with the Employment and Disability Institute at Cornell and Linda Singleton who is with Ticket to Success as well as an employment network to Laub County Office of Education. She is going to give you more information about herself when she begins making her presentation. We have the Ticket to Work Program we're covering. We're covering work incentives, we're going to talk about employment networks and what they are. We're going to talk a little about state DR agencies and what they can do for you. We're going to cover protection and advocacy for beneficiaries of Social Security and we're going to give you a bunch of other resources and throughout when we take breaks and are about to switch presentations, Jamie will ask some questions and then at the end we'll use what time we have left to get some more questions answered. First thing we want to do today is share a message from Bob Williams who is one of the associate commissioners at Social Security. Very much involved with the Return to Work Office. As you can see he's with the Office of Employment Support Programs and Mike if you can cue up that video that would be great. [ background noises and music ] >> Hello and welcome to today's Webinar. My name is Bob Williams and I am glad I can be a Commissioner for Employment Support at Social Security Administration. We were [inaudible] self sufficiency program which at [inaudible] on SSDI who want to improve their life and future by becoming employed. By viewing this Webinar you will learn how you can receive training to become employed and increase your earning and reduce your [inaudible] on disability benefits and eventually earn a better living by becoming fully self supporting whenever possible. [Inaudible] Program is not for everyone this is why [inaudible] take advantage of [inaudible] and the [inaudible] and I know firsthand that people with significant disabilities face many barriers to becoming and sustaining employment and this can especially proved in today's economy a major reason you receive disability benefits is when Social Security determines that you were not at all able to work and then to support yourself. But I also want you to know when planning a significant disability no longer [inaudible] be a lifetime [inaudible] employment and greater financial security [inaudible] can offer you choices [inaudible] opportunities and support you need to go to work and gain financial independence. I hope today's Webinar begins your journey toward your self-sufficiency. Your life and future can be better. Thank you for joining us. [ background noises and music ] >> Okay. Thank you for that message, Commissioner Williams. And we are going to move into today's session. What can you expect from today's presentation? We're going to give you lots of information on that Ticket to Work Program and the work incentives that Commissioner Williams mentioned and explain to you how some of those work. And again, always emphasize that this is a program that you run. That you are in charge of, it is your choice to proceed or not to. I'm going to answer all of those, or some of those frequently asked questions. There are lots of questions that those of us who have been working in this field for a long time hear over and over again. So hopefully we can provide you with some answers to those questions. Where to find more information? That's going to be very, very important because we're not going to be able to address the individual situations of everybody who is participating today. We're going to give you some general information and you're going to want to know, we hope, how all of this matters to you and what it means to you. We will most certainly let you know where you can find that information. And we have success stories from people who have used their ticket. We'll share one success story with you from Robert who is Veteran and used his ticket to get back to work. These success stories are just from folks who decided it was time so they're not people that we pick. They are people like anybody else who is listening who wanted to use their ticket and get back to work. Now, why do we choose work? More money, that's the bottom line here folks. There is more money and particularly for those on SSI, I can assure you, I am no math whiz but the math works no other way than to provide you with more money at the end of the month. The SSDI side we need to balance a little. But the goal here, as Commissioner Williams pointed out is to make sure that you are making a better living for yourself. To gain independence. The more money you have the more independent you're going to be. So we want to talk about gaining independence both from the benefits programs that you're receiving. Benefits both financial and in health care from as well as gaining independence to be able to do what you want to do when you want to do it. And to be able to make a living in a way that you think is best for you. Not to learn skills or you may be in a situation to relearn to do some of the job skills you've done in the past. As you can see from the pictures there, there are some computer skills that might be necessary. There may be some education that might be necessary or some training. Some technical training. I could most certainly benefit by using -- by learning to use some of those tools in that tool box there. There is always something we can learn and the more we learn the more active we become. And to meet new people. if you're working you are always meeting new people and I always like to tell people that I met my spouse at work.. So I got married because I work. and I know people from one end of this country to the other end of this country and have gotten to see a lot of that country because I'm working. So it brings along benefits. Work brings benefits that can't be measured in terms of money. It just makes life more worth living. So with that said let's move into a real success story. Now Robert's a veteran who spent seven years serving in the Army and he had surgery after a mishap in 2000. He had sustained a spinal cord injury that left him with limited mobility. He used the Ticket to Work to discover his passion for helping other veterans navigate the transition back into civilian life. And we know now, you know, that that's a tough road to hoe, coming back from one of the wars and getting back into civilian life after what they've experienced. So Mike, if we can cue up Robert's video? [ background noises and music ] >> Coming straight out of high school from Chicago I have a strong interest for the military. I joined the service and I went into the Army. And my job that I went in the service for was a communications and I was a communications specialist. I spent two tours in Europe, in Germany and I spent over -- about seven years total in the military. Once I completed my time in the service I continued to work for the government as a United States postal carrier. And after 13 years of this work it began to take a toll on me health wise and it led to some medical issues that I started to have. I became disabled from a surgery kind of mishap where a disc ruptured and it paralyzed me. The Ticket to Work program was introduced to me throughout my rehabilitation time period and the VA was assisting me. The even offered me the ideas about if I ever thought about going back to work. So they introduced me to a representative from Social Security board who told me about this Ticket to Work program. Well, as the representative explained the program it was obvious that there was some safety nets there. Some of the things that I was worried about I really didn't have to, there was no worry at all. Now it wasn't until the Voc Rehab representative for paralyzed veterans who again introduced me to the Ticket to Work program and I told them I had heard of it and I was aware of it but at this time as years had went by I felt a little bit more stronger about actually accepting it this time because I knew that I was at a level health wise and I thought it was time for me to make some serious decisions and not be living on a fixed income when I had such a desire to want to do much more. The program had told me all the things like, well, if it don't work out it was still enough of a security net there to say that you don't have to worry about that. They even gave me a year even while I was working that I was still covered under Social Security. They make sure that they are there to assist you and help you in all types of ways. Not only to put you back in the work force or give you the skills that you need to get there, but to follow you once you're there. After being part of the Ticket to Work program I started looking again into the availabilities positions for national service officer. At that time there just happened to be some available positions. >> He put in the ticket, the position that he had to apply for the position normally, that position came up and he shortly thereafter he was selected as a candidate to be a national service officer in the Chicago office. >> After the interview they immediately told me that I was very much qualified and I could prepare to just begin to come to work. I became a National Service Officer for the Paralyzed Veterans of America. Paralyzed Veterans of America of course is a service organization dedicated to helping those veterans with spinal cord injuries, spinal cord disease as we assist all veterans with VA benefits and we advocate for veterans health care. >> [Inaudible] The National Service Officer with the Paralyzed Veterans of America I greet and meet with especially the new veterans or new patient that had just come in and look for a sign. Coming back to work as probably built up my independency, the self pride and you know, I'm an achiever again. You know, I got something to offer society and, you know, it's almost like you're, you know, regaining a good portion of dignity back. It's even coming back to work and I was highly interested -- got interested in some of the disabilities sporting events. The wheel chair games. I used to participate in that every year and it was a big event for me. The Ticket to Work, it helped open up the door and put me back to where, you know, it's almost like it put my life back on track. [ music and background noise ] >> Okay, thank you Mike and thank you Robert for sharing your story with us. Folks there are lots of stories out there like this. Lots of people who have had successful journeys from disabled, disability benefits back to work. So this program can work if you make a decision to give it a shot. Now, when you're ready, when you think you're ready to work, what needs to be done? Clearly we need to gather a lot of information and resources before you start this journey to work. You're going to want to know what is going to happen. So there is some planning along the way as well. Throughout today's Webinar we're going to talk to you about the information that you're going to need, the resources that are available to you and the planning services that are available to you. So that you can make sure that you can use this ticket and all of the work incentives to make the transition to work a smooth one. If it can be done with the least interruptions all the better. Now, the first thing that we need to do is build an employment team. And you're going to hear a lot about that employment team. It's going to take a lot of people to get somebody to work. And that's a great way to begin. And you need to remember that you are the boss in this program. So we're not picking an employment team to do things for you, you are picking a team that you will be the coach of. How do you start to build this team? Well, the Ticket to Work help line is one way. That number is 1-866-968-7842 for voice or for TTY 1-866-833-2967. There are lots of ways into this program and they are all the right way to start. If you want to explore without any obligation whatsoever to see what this program is all about, to read the blog and check out some more success stories, log onto www.choosework, one word, choosework.net. www.choosework.net and you can explore at your leisure in order to make a decision as to whether this program might be something you want to try. Find an employment network and Linda will talk to you about her network, they're located all over the country. That's a great way to start as well. Or, utilize the services of your state Vocational Rehabilitation agency. Whichever suits your needs. That's the wonderful thing about this. Your employment team will be built with people who will meet your particular needs. And stay connected. That you are leading this team so it's important that you stay connected with every member of the team so that you're on top of it and everybody else is on the same page. Now to talk about the benefits program just a bit. It's very important that you know what type of benefit you're on. There are two that we're going to talk about. Social Security Disability Insurance, which is exactly what it says, it's an insurance program. If you have worked for an employer and had FICA taxes withheld from your paycheck you have been purchasing insurance from Social Security that can be accessed when you become disabled. Another program and a completely separate program is the supplemental security income program. Now SSI is a needs based program. It's like a federal welfare program. You, it's payable to people with low income and low resources who have not necessarily worked or worked enough to buy sufficient insurance from the other program. Two very different programs. And then you have folks who are called concurrent beneficiaries who receive both SSDI and SSI. Now why I tell you you need to be sure as to what program you're receiving benefits from is that Social Security Disability has work incentives and SSI has work incentives. And they only work for that program. Somebody who receives both benefits is going to be utilizing both sets of work incentives at the same time. So its really critically important that you are sure and your employment team is aware of what benefit you're receiving. Now, I told you we were going to talk about some of those frequently asked questions and we like to call them the most common myths about this program. The first one is. If I try to go to work I will automatically lose my Medicare or Medicaid. Now I'm here to tell you that there is nothing further from the truth than that statement. But in today's day and age with extended Medicare and the 1619 program under Medicaid and many states with Medicaid buy in programs, it is very, very difficult to lose your health care. Health care will be with you for a very, very long time. So much so that I like to tell people not to worry about that. Worry about getting to work and making that successful. And then in a few years we can talk about what might happen to you're health care. The second myth. If I use my Ticket to Work Social Security will perform a medical review and I will lose my benefits? Well, that's not true either. Those medical reviews happen to everybody but if somebody uses that Ticket to Work and is making progress, Social Security will suspend the medical review. So you don't have to worry about having the rug pulled out from under you. Social Security, if you are making progress, will support your efforts by not performing that medical review. And the last very common myth is. If I go to work and then have to stop working, will I have to reapply for benefits all over again? And we know that for many people it took a long time for that to happen and you can't afford to wait so it's better not to try to work. That's not the case anymore either. With the Ticket to Work program came expedited reinstatement which is an easy way back on to the program after you have been terminated because you go to work. So Social Security pretty much has your back even after you have worked sufficient amounts to leave the program completely. You'll have a five year period where if something happens you can come right back into the program. And so all of those things are false and there are protections built into this program to help you make a success of your efforts. Now, I want to see if Jamie has any questions so far. >> All right. Just one more time, I won't lose my Medicare and Medicaid right away? >> No, not at all. I can assure you that, you know, your Medicare if you're familiar with the trial work period will last for about seven and a half years after that. Medicaid with the 1619 program will go on and on and on provided you remain medically disabled. But it will go on and on and on in the state of Minnesota for instance until you are earning more than $50,000.00 a year. >> So how do I find out about what happens in my state? >> How do you find out about what happens in your state? You can call that Ticket to Work call center. Again, that number is 1-866-968-7842 and for TTY users 866-833-2967 or you could contact Linda who is an employment network or an employment network near you to find out what those limits are. But finding out what those individual limits are and how they apply to you is part of the planning that we mentioned and part of the stuff that we're going to cover from here on out. >> Great. Thanks Ray. One more question. How do I find out if I'm on SSI, SSDI or both? >> Well, you can call your local Social Security office. You can look at the last notice that you received and in great big bold letters at the top it will tell you Supplemental Security Income or SSDI or retirement disability benefits. It will tell you on the notice. The local office can tell you or Social Security's 1-800 number can give you that information. >> Okay, thank you Ray and that's it for now. >> All right, thanks Jamie. Linda, I'm going to hand it over to you to talk about the Ticket to Work Program and have folks learn about your services. >> Great. Thank you. So am I on air? Can you hear me? >> Yes I can, you're all set. >> Laughter. Okay, great. Yeah, my name is Linda Singleton and I do work with an employment network. I actually manage it in California but we became national. So I'll tell you a little bit more when we get to the employment network portion. For now what I'm going to do is go ahead and cover the Ticket to Work Program and how that works for you. If we can go to the next slide. We're going to kind of review some of the information that's given to us in the Power Point. I'm going to highlight some of those main points. A lot of individuals don't realize this is a free program. As and employment network we hear it all the time. Individuals call and they say, well, how much is it? It's free and the way that you qualify is you're either receiving SSDI or SSI and you're between the age of 18 to 64 and you want to go to work. That's the basic way of being able to see if you're eligible for the program. The other way is you can call an employment network and you go to that Website that was mentioned to you, choosework.net. You can look up by your zip code and find out who is available, ask them if you're eligible for the program. The volunteering, it's up to you to use the program. You know yourself best. If you're ready to go to work and to take that step and you want to use the services available that's provided through the work incentive program, then by all means. Contact them and say I'm interested in [inaudible] you're the coach of the program, you're building that team. So it's voluntary. It's up to you if you want to use it, definitely take advantage of it. This is a program that wasn't available when I found out about my disabilities and I wasn't eligible at the time. So I've seen so many people take advantage of the volunteer service, free service, for them to get all of the job readiness and job placement out there to get you back to work. Okay, the next slide. When you're ready to work. How would you know if you're ready to work? Well, if you are ready to earn more money then the Ticket to Work Program or the work incentive that's available for you may be able to help you earning the amount of money that you're looking for. You're looking to advance that personal fulfillment. A lot of us want to be out there and we want to contribute. How would the ticket program help you? Well it's going to assure some stability. Helping you with the confidence that you might need. The support that you might need to get back out there and find employment and you have that team helping you out. So you're not going to do it all by yourself. So if you want to be able to get benefits back, if your job does not work out because of your disability, again, the Ticket to Work Program gives you those work incentives that's going to help you get back on track, help you keep your benefits going for a longer period of time. Gets you right back on your believe if for some reason that job doesn't work out. So there's a lot of safety nets there available for you. And if you are overwhelmed and don't know where to turn, again, you contact the people and the resources that might be able to help you. The Ticket to Work program, the employment network or the vocational training, or, rehabilitation service will be able to connect those services for you. It's kind of like having your personal resource team that's available for you to get to the right point so you're not having to do all of these things on your own. I usually tell people it's a partnership and that goes back to the team. If you're ready, willing and able then we're ready, willing and able to help you to meet all of those goals. Okay, next slide. And how does the Ticket to Work Program work? Again, it gives you an opportunity to use a safety net, use those work incentives. You want to find an employment network that's going to suit your needs and to be able to assign your ticket to them. You want to make sure that you explore all of those employment networks and one way that you can do that again and if you go to choosework.net you pull up the employment network so that vocational rehabilitation services in your area by the zip code or by the state. However you want to do it. You're able to pull up a report card. They actually have report cards on every employment network that's out there to see how their doing, what their performance is and you get to pick and choose and then you call them and see if they are the right fit for you. They are connected to the employment network as you explore the work options so if you're out there and you're looking for work and you're not sure yet if you want to sign up for an employment network, keep in touch with them because you want to make sure you have those work incentives in place with the Ticket Program. As far as getting ready to get started, you can call the Ticket to Work Helpline at 1-866-968-7842 and they would be able to let you know. They can actually send you a list of employment networks of vocational rehabilitation services in your area. You can also visit www.socialsecurity.gov/work to find an employment or Vocational Rehabilitation services near you. So any of those resources are available to find an employment network that meets your need or Vocational Rehabilitation service that's near you that would be able to help you. Next slide. Okay, when you're ready to work, building that employment network, employment team, again, is the best way to get the results that you want. You want to use your options as far as getting started by calling, speaking to an expert at the Ticket to Work Helpline. Again that number is 1-866-968-7842. Contact them, let them know that you're interested in the ticket and they will send you a list and tell you how to get started plus they will give you a kind of heads up on the information that you need on how your benefits might be affected or not. And learn more about the Ticket to Work by reading information and success stories at the [inaudible] I really love the way that they set this site up, it gives you plenty of information and again, you have resources at hand where you can research each of those employment network are, what their success rate is, what their placement rate is and see if they are a good fit for you also. You want to find an employment network, you know, an EN or state location rehabilitation agency that suits your needs. Again, it's all in your ballpark. You get to choose, just like an employer gets to choose who they're going to hire, you get to choose what team your going to have that is going to help you reach your successful goal. Another thing is, you want to stay connected to the employment team. So when you start working it's not the time to walk away from that team, you want to continue that support, especially when it comes to the work incentives and the benefits and the communication with Social Security. Those kinds of things, an employment network or a rehabilitation can help you with. Items change. As we go to work or we're looking for work housing situations or transportations and these are situations that come up but if you don't stay close to that employment team then you're not going to be able to access those resources or have that available to you. Well, make sure that you do stay in touch with them. And I really advise you to go ahead and look at those success stories, how people have used the program and individuals like yourself use the program to reach success. And I think that's it for this part. If you have any questions please let me know. >> Okay, Jamie, do we have any question for Linda at this point? >> We do. Linda, what's the age range for the Ticket to Work Program? >> It's 18 years of age to 64 years of age. >> Okay, thank you. And then can I use the Ticket to Work Program for self employment? >> Yes, absolutely. Some agencies I know like ourself we try to connect you again. It's with resources we may not specialize in self-employment as far as being able to set up your business but we can advise you that there is some resources in the community and there are some employment networks that actually do specialize in self-employment opportunities. So yeah, definitely you can use the Ticket to Work Program for self-employment. >> Okay, great. Thank you Linda and Ray, back to you. >> Okay. Thank you Linda. All right let's move through some of the work incentives that are going to help you along this journey. And as Linda said, the work incentives and the Ticket to Work Program are a bridge to success. Our goal is to make you a success. We don't want anybody to fail and partly what we do is make this completely voluntary as Linda said and you are the team leader. So you are somewhat responsible for that success as well as having us desire you to be successful. Work incentives have lots of advantage. It provides you with some great opportunities and with lots of safety nets. So that if you do end up stumbling there is a net to catch you. You can receive training for new skills that might be necessary. Can improve the skills you already have, some folks when they incur disabilities may need to learn to do skills in a different manner. That type of training can be provided as well. Pursue an education if you need an education that's not out of the realm of possibility with the Ticket to Work Program. In fact the Ticket Program allows people to go to school to get an education. And pursuing that education can be seen as using that ticket to protect you from those reviews. Try different jobs. You know, there are a lot of folks, myself included who had no idea what they wanted to do when they grow up. Well, you can try a couple of different jobs this way to make sure it's the right fit. You know, and state Vocational Rehabilitation agencies and employment networks can also provide assessments that will lead you in the proper direction so if you're not sure what you're able to do, what you're interested in doing. There are ways to steer you by taking some little assessments that will help provide that to you. Start a career. You know, maybe flipping burgers at MacDonald's is not what you want to do forever. But you want a real career. You want to become a teacher. That's perfectly permissible as somebody asked Linda, you can start your own business. This is all up to you. Gain confidence. The work incentives are a safer way to play this game and they allow you to gain confidence. If you're using that Ticket, and I keep coming back to that example, but if Social Security suspends those medical reviews you've got time without worry to make sure you're able to work. And gaining that confidence is only going to make that work effort more successful. Now we're going to talk about some of the most common work incentives. And we're going to do this real quick. And I can tell you that this can take a week to learn and it can take years to get used to but that's why we have experts in work incentives as part of your team. But some of the most common ones are trial work periods. Now you'll notice that this applies to SSDI recipients only. Now this is a period of at least nine months where you can work at whatever job you want to, earn as much as you want to and have absolutely no impact on your cash benefit or health care. You do have to report the work activity to Social Security but it's simply won't count. That gives you nine months to try to work to see if you're physically able, if you have the stamina, if this is the right job for you without any impact on your benefits. Now the next one is the extended period of eligibility. Again, only for SSDI recipients. This is a three year period that immediately follows that nine month trial work period. So for three years if you are earning at a certain level that we call substantial gainful activity, you are not entitled to cash. You keep your health care but you're not entitled to your cash SSDI benefit. If you're income at any time during that three years, in a month drops below that SGA level you just contact Social Security and your benefits are turned back on. Now that goes on for a three year period where benefits can go on and off depending upon how things are going. That's a long period of time to test your ability to work. Now if we switch over to the SSI program, for SSI recipients we have an earned income exclusion. Social Security is not going to count all of the money that you earn. In fact they're going to count less than half of it. The first $65.00 doesn't count at all. And at the very least one half of what's left is not going to count and when you work it with your own situation there may be other deductions and exclusions. So we're giving you a great deal of earned income that will not impact the amount of SSI that you receive. And so I said earlier, on the SSI side of things you cannot lose. You will always have more money at the end of the month. Now expedited reinstatement, I mentioned earlier, is also a great work incentives. And it works for both programs. If your benefits stop because you are working and you work to the extent that your benefits are terminated Social Security starts a period called expedited reinstatement and for five years after your benefits are terminated, should something happen and you have to stop working or your income drops below a specific level, you can request to have your benefits reinstated. So for five years if you put those periods together we're talking a long time. If you do request expedited reinstatement Social Security will next to immediately turn on your benefits for a period of six months while they do a determination to see if you're eligible for reinstatement. And the last one we have here that also applies to both SSI and SSDI recipients is protection from medical continuing disabilities reviews. And we've talked about that a lot. If you are using your Ticket or working with the Vocational Rehabilitation agency, a state Vocational Rehabilitation agency and making progress in accordance with your plan, Social Security will not review your medical situation. They don't want to pull the rug out from under you while you're making progress towards that work effort. That's a very, very important thing. Now where do you fit into this? I don't know. You know, we're looking at almost 300 people today. So it's important for you to contact Social Security, call that Ticket to Work number, talk to an EN, talk to your state VR agency and figure out what this chart means for your situation. And where you're beginning, you might be beginning at the very beginning and you might be able to utilize all of these work incentives. That's what the planning part of this is all about. Now when you're ready to use that Ticket to Work, once again, you need to build that employment team. That is an employment network, it may be a state Vocational Rehabilitation agency, and it might be a protection and advocacy person. A PABS program. The Protection and Advocacy for Beneficiaries of Social Security. We're going to talk about that program in detain in a bit as well. But right now Jamie, do we have any questions before I turn it back to Linda? >> I just need to take a quick look. Are there any education benefits available and if there are is there an age limit to it? >> You know, there are certainly educational benefits available. The only age limit is the 16, or the 18 to 64 age range that Linda had pointed out earlier. But if somebody does need to secure an education what they need to do is start this process, make contact and find out whether or not they need an employment network or the state Vocational Rehabilitation agency involved in order to get that education. But yes, that's a possibility. >> What if I'm trained in one area and I need to learn another field. Can I get help with that? >> Absolutely. That technical training would also be available. Or if you decided you wanted to go back to the job that you had in the past, learning, relearning how to do those tasks differently because of your disability would also be possible. >> Okay. Switching gears a little. Can you explain SGA a little more? >> Yeah, I guess I can. SGA stands for substantial gainful activity and it's dollar amount that Social Security uses every year to determine whether or not you're able to work. and there are exclusions and deductions that are taken from your income but if the income that counts after all the exclusions and expenses are considered is more than $1010.00 in a month you are considered to be performing substantial gainful activity. Now if you happen to be a person with blindness that figure is $1690.00 a month. And as I said, you need to sit down with an expert because this is not the amount that you're paycheck says. It's totally different. You need to talk about some exclusions, you need to talk about some possible expenses that might be reducing that countable income. But it is a countable income figure that people, that Social Security uses on a monthly basis to determine whether or not someone has the ability to work. >> So what's an example of one of those expenses? >> Okay. An example of one of those expenses, what if I have a prescription medication that I have to take in order to go to work? You know, if I use my own situation I have cholesterol and blood pressure medication. I have to take both of those in order to work and I pay a co-pay for each one of those. And my insurance pays for some of it but I have an out of pocket expense of $10.00 apiece for those drugs. That $20.00 would be a deduction from my paycheck when Social Security considers how much of that paycheck actually counts towards that substantial gainful activity figure. >> Okay, great. Thanks Ray, that's all at this time. >> Okay. And Linda, I'm going to turn it back to you so you can talk about employment networks. >> Great. Okay, employment network. Actually our agency is called a Ticket to Success and we're in California, I'm actually under the umbrella of [inaudible] County Office of Education but we've been contracted as an employment network since 2003 and actually it's been very interesting because my history is I had a lot of family that were on Social Security and I had a knowledge from that point of view of what the Social Security system was. But when I started working with employment now, I was like, okay, now it's from a different perspective. You know, helping individuals get off Social Security by using these various work incentives and keeping communication with Social Security going in a different way. So from that prospective I'm going to kind of give you highlights of what an employment network is, how our program has worked and the best way to look at it's is each employment network has it's own personality, own structure as far as how it works and operates as far as to help you with your goals. But each one has the same goal in mind. It's to help you with the success of reaching and obtaining your goal as employment, successful employment where you can support yourself and become self-sufficient again. So with that in mind, let's go ahead and go to the next slide and see what you need to do to build that team and to get started. First you can call the Ticket to Work Program helpline. Again, we've mentioned that number. It's 1-866-968-7842. >> Speak with one of the counselors, the benefit counselors there, request a list of the employment networks that serve your area. You can also, as we mentioned before, there's the choose, and I use this a lot, the choosework.net and that way you can access employment networks and state vocational rehabilitation services in your state or in your area. Keep in mind some employment networks are national. Our agency was just California but we expanded to National Services about a month ago because there were individuals still calling us and saying there is no employment network close. So look and see and be open to the way that the employment networks work. And that will lead us to the next slide. This is questions you may want to ask. So when you're calling you receive this list from activists or through the Ticket to Work Program, you will use that list or you go to the choosework and you can look at the ones in your area. Each one of those, you want to go through and ask the employment networks what kind of services they provide. Questions such as, how many people have you helped through the Ticket to Work Program? That could be their success rate, you know, what kind of placements, what kind of companies they work with? What kind of jobs are available to you and how often do you -- do they communicate? Sometimes, you know, it depends, when you're first signing up for the program there might be a lot of communication because they have to get to know you. So one thing that I have noticed over the years of doing, providing the service, is resources that individuals would ask us, just like Ray said, if there is things that need improvement please let us know so that we can improve it and be able to help you with resources. Well, it's the same thing with an employment network, we constantly are evolving and changing to benefit you as the beneficiary or the Ticket holder. You want to know if that employment has a network of resources, what's available in the community to help me out if I need certain resources? Again, to be successful you want those resources. What's their knowledge of benefit planning? That's why, you know, a lot of employment networks, ours is one, not every one is that way. Ours chose to become benefit planners or what they call community work incentive coordinators. The reason for that, it was very important to understand what the benefits are with Social Security and be able to help you with the when you start working how those things are going to be affected. How your benefits will be affected. So those are questions that you can ask those employment networks. Was there understanding of the benefits? What kind of a relationship do they have with Social Security as far as communication? Do they help with, you know, sending in the verification? Sometimes your job will not allow you to take off time from work to take the verification into Social Security. And certain employment network, like our staff, we choose to go ahead and help and assist those individuals with reporting earnings. So there's a lot of questions that you want to ask and you, you know, feel free. The employment networks are there to answer as many questions as you have because, again, it's all in your ballpark. You're the team leader. You're the one choosing who you want to be on that team and who is going to help you. Okay, the next slide. When you call in an office remember, you know, certain tips, things that are going to help you that EN, first hopefully they will answer the phone. That's one thing that's a good sign. The EN should explain how the ticket program works, what the services are that they provide. And again, they each have their own personality with their capable of handling. Some employment networks have other grants available that might be able to help you reach your goals besides just the job services. So those are things that might be able to help you. they should also discuss, you know, what your work goals and what your intentions about work is or are you planning on part time, full time, what's your ultimate goal? And one of the questions I usually ask is because I know there is errors out there. I myself have several disabilities that, you know, to look at me you wouldn't know but I have disabilities I deal with every day. Fears of going to work, fears of am I going to fail, you know, and what kind of support systems are there for me if I have those kinds of fears. They need to talk to you about those and a lot of it goes back to the work incentives that Ray mentioned. If the employment network is very knowledgeable on that they will be able to guide you through those difficulties and explain them. You and employment network will develop a plan. Each plan is individual. One of the questions I get a lot and you may be asking this, is what job are you going to send me to? I just want you to sign me up or send me to a job. That's not always going to work for individuals because you each have individual barriers, individual training, education, experience, work history. Even if you're a volunteer you have different skill sets to contribute. And what we do, usually, those individual plans help us identify what your strengths and skills and abilities are and that's what we market. We try to help you reach those goals and, you know, by identifying that individual plan, setting up the individual plan, that's very crucial. Next slide. We'll continue as far as the signature on the individual plan, assigns that. That's what actually connects you and that employment network together. Your ticket is then assigned to that employment network to help you with services. The -- as far as the employment network, they should have a routine on being able to keep up with the forms so that it works with you. I know sometimes, like our agency, since we are National, some individuals we have to communication with them via email or through fax. We have to recognize that protection as far as their confidentiality but we can send them the forms through the mail or even through email, without confidential information and then that way they can return them. So sometimes those service are provided through the employment network if they can't be directly there to help you. And also if you are at any time not happy with the service or you feel you need to change employment networks or to a Vocational Rehabilitation, maybe it's not a good match. You might have signed up and something came up and it's like, nah, it's just not working, or my goals changed. What do I do now? Am I stuck? Laughter. The Ticket to Work Program helps you with that because you actually have, again, it's back in your ballpark, you have a right to unassign your ticket from that employment network and then assign it to one that would be able to be a better match. And I, as an employment network, if I recognize that we're not able to help an individual then we might recommend, here is an employment network that might be able to help you and still get state Vocational Rehabilitation that might be able to better serve you. And then make a referral or contact. Give him information about that employment network and let them get connected. On the continuing disability reviews, they're deferred as long as you're making progress, timely progress toward your goal and there is, you know, each year that you're with that program there's a certain amount that they look at on employment or education that you're meeting to be able to meet those goals of your plan. The next slide as far as examples of services. A resume, we call this job readiness. Resume development, advice on how to fill out a good application, interview skills and tips. There is a lot of information each state provides also and what the laws are when it comes to what you disclose or not disclose. Those things should be there available to you. As far as accommodation information, what is reasonable accommodation, if you are being offered a job? How would you approach that, what suggestions? You might want -- at what point would you confront an employer, potential employer about those needs. There's past incentive credits available and we -- actually our employment network contracted or set up and agreement with the state of California where actually one of the implemented networks that can certify individuals under what we call a work opportunity tax credit. That we have and if an employer wants to give an opportunity, or finds an individual to be given an opportunity to that has a disability, they can actually earn up to $2400.00 for an individual with a disability over a two year span if they're working and they go by hours. So there's a lot of information for not only you to use as you're looking for work, but also that may have been education -- may have been discussed with employers to open up more doors and opportunity. Referrals to other resources. Again, what had been mentioned earlier for circumstances change. Housing situation, transportation, you know, family issues that come up. What resources are available that that employment network might be able to advise you or help you with along the path of success? And they can be referred to those connections and one of the things that we found as partnering up in an actual one-stop where there is state representatives, county, youth services, adult services, aged services. All of those different partnerships. Veteran services. We are able to connect people to so that it's easy and convenient for them to be able to have access. Job leads. Definitely want to get job leads. Information from employers on their hiring, what the job fairs are. Those are resources that should be available through your employment network. But again, this is a partnership and a team. So what I usually suggest is that you have your eyes and ears and you hear people about jobs that are opening up, feel free to apply. If you're working with employment network but also then if we as an employment network can give you those leads that's going to lead to employment that's even more better for us because we're helping you. But it's a partnership. It's up to you to follow up on that because it is a volunteer program. Access to those resources, computers. Usually we connect individuals to the community services available to them. A lot of it's like libraries or one-stop services. In job developing you have your personal job developer. Usually with each employment network they have those kinds of services. And again, two different partners that you -- that they might be working with that can help you. We have individuals that come to us, maybe they are a veteran and they're also on disability. We try to connect them with all of those resources so that they have that available to them to help with success. Now and one of the things that I also wanted to mention that when we partnered up just recently we had actually partnered up with the state vocational rehabilitation and we've had some success stories already. Where we had an individual that was working with our agency and we found that they needed some training. We referred them back to Vocational Rehabilitation so we unassigned them for our program. They went to Vocational Rehabilitation services, received the training, then they were referred back to us, we helped them with a placement in a state position. And that person is working with the state at a state level job. Very successful and actually has been one of our success stories with the partnership plus program with employment network and Vocational Rehabilitation working together. So those success stories are [inaudible] is just one of many that we have available and we put it on our Website too, some of the success stories. So I think that's it with the EN services and if you have any questions? >> Okay, Jamie -- >> [Inaudible] >> Got it Jamie. >> Sorry Ray. Are there any ENS out there that help with job placement? >> Yes definitely. Sometimes, you know, even because of the situation we're in, sometimes I do work directly with an employer. Normally but since every individual has a different goal or a different plan or a different set of barriers or skills, we have to be able to find jobs and identify jobs that's related to that situation, their individual situation. So for us to set an employer up and say, okay, I'm going to send so many people over to employers, not always feasible. There are some that we do work with that way and there are some employment network that contract the employers to provide those services. So yes, you have to shop around on the employment network and see which one is going to be able to help you with that means. >> Okay, thank you Linda. Any ENS to that transportation [inaudible]? >> Again, it goes back to the -- if we have additional grants. I know Vocational Rehabilitation a lot of times will do that. Some employment networks and we have in the past had a grant where we were able to write that in to help an individual with transportation costs. And like I said, every employment network is going to be different so you need to call around and see which one is going to meet your needs on the resources. But what I have done, our employment network is done as if an individual is offered a job we will find a resources to help them have the transportation to get to that job. At least until they start getting revenue in. So there is different ways that we might be able to help, it just depends on the individual. >> Thank you very much. What happens if I don't like my EN? Can I change ENs? >> Absolutely. If you're not happy with employment network I would definitely let them know, because I would like to know if somebody is not happy with the service, it might be something that we can correct. But if you're not happy with them and it's not resolvable then definitely you can unassign. Call the Ticket to Work line, that's on this presentation, let them know that you need to unassign your ticket and they will, you know, walk you through the process on doing that and that way you can pick another employment network that can help you. >> Great. And one final question before we go back to Ray. Are there any ENs who work with -- with people who are homeless? >> I do all the time. You know, actually that's something that kind of comes with the territory is we connect with the housing services in the area trying to get individuals. That's one of the first things. We look at all of the barriers and it may not just be your disabilities and maybe the housing situation, being ensured that you've got food, that you've got a home and shelter. Those kinds of things are very important because it's hard to go out and look for work if you're facing those issues. So it's important to, you know, again, those are some questions when you're interviewing employment networks or Vocational Rehabilitation services. What's available? Are you able to connect us with housing services and referrals to those services? Yes, that's the definite yes for our employment network and many others. >> And what if they don't have a permanent address and they do decide to go back to work? How does that impact reporting my wages to SSI? >> I know a lot of times they do like general addresses. Earnings again, we can, you know, depending on the employment network you can either send or have someone send in or take in the earnings verification. It depends on how you're getting the earnings. Are you talking about getting check stubs? Getting pay stubs or check stubs to your home? I'm not really clear on that. >> Reporting my earnings that are at the same so they know what I'm making. >> Oh, okay. Again, it depends on the employment network. Ours chose to help with the reporting process. Also there is an online service that you can report your earnings to Social Security directly on their Website. And then also you could take it to the local offices or mail it into them. >> Okay, thank you. And then one question segues into the [inaudible] portion of the presentation. If used multiple ENs or can I use a combination of an EN and a Vocational Rehabilitation? Vocational Rehabilitation service. >> You can only use one at a time. Because they are primarily then going to help you with all of the services. What you would want to do is if you choose an employment network, you're not happy with that one you can reassign it or unassign from that one and get another employment network that will meet your needs. But yeah, one at a time. As far as the Vocational Rehabilitation, again, Ray is going to cover some of that. But employment networks and Vocational Rehabilitation are -- you can only use one at a time and that's why I said in this success story we had to unassign the individual from our program, refer them to Vocational Rehabilitation for the service they needed and then they were able to come back to our program once they were finished with that service. So you can use it that way in order to benefit but you can only use one at a time. >> Thank you Linda. And with that we'll turn it over to Ray. >> Thanks. >> Okay, thanks Linda. We're going to move into the discussion about state Vocational Rehabilitation Agencies. And as Linda said, with the partnership Plus model, there is a way to use that Ticket to get services in tandem. From one agency at a time. But the important thing to know is that even when Linda's client unassigned the ticket and went to work with the Vocational Rehabilitation agency that protection from the medical reviews was still in place. So that work incentive comes along with using either an EN or a Vocational Rehabilitation agency. Now the Ticket to Work and state Vocational Rehabilitation services, you know, even before the Ticket to Work started, Social Security was working with Vocational Rehabilitation agencies in order to help beneficiaries get to work. There is a presumptive eligibility for anybody receiving benefits based on disability from Social Security for state Vocational Rehabilitation services. So if you're receiving a benefit out there you are eligible for these services. When you do contact the state Vocational Rehabilitation agency you're assigned an individual counselor and you develop an employment plan. Much like the way you would with Linda's agency. You develop a plan that will work for you. it's a process of negotiation and discussion. The employment Vocational Rehabilitation -- the Vocational Rehabilitation counselor should not be pointing to a job. What you should be doing is through the discussion, putting a plan together to get you the training you need for the job that you really want. When you do sign that employment plan the State Vocational Rehabilitation, you're ticket is considered in use for those protections we talked about. So those continuing disability reviews are referred, or deferred, I'm sorry. So long as you're making timely progress. So that if you are working toward your goal and you're meeting the milestones in your plan you will not be reviewed by Social Security. And that will continue, as Linda said, if you need to follow up with an EN in the future for placement services or on the job services. Now when you begin to use your ticket with the Vocational Rehabilitation your counselor should discuss the opportunity to have that EN provide services after you've begun working. That's the whole Partnership Plus Model. Because we're not only looking to get rehabilitation services and to get you trained, but we're looking to provide services to you on the job if you need them. So that working with the state Vocational Rehabilitation agency and then picking up with an employment network when Vocational Rehabilitation closes your case is a great thing about Partnership Plus. And I think Linda and I share that opinion. Partnership Plus is a great way to go so that you get that training, you get that education, you get those hard-core rehabilitation services, if you need them, but then get the placement services. Get the resume prop, get the interview skills you need and potentially some on the job services to keep you working. So that's what Vocational Rehabilitation is going to be able to do for you and do that in tandem with the employment networks. And we have to move onto another program that's called PABS the Protection and advocacy for beneficiaries of Social Security. And what this basically is, is the legal arm of this Ticket to Work Program. Every state and territory in the United States has a PABS program. It's with the Protection and advocacy agency in your state. It could be called the disabilities rights center, the Disabilities Law Center but it is an agency that focuses on providing legal services to people with disabilities. And in this particular instance, to people with disabilities who face barriers to work. These are legal experts who have been trained to help both SSI and SSDI beneficiaries in jumping any hurdles that may be presented to them when they are making the transition from benefits to work. Now these services are also free. If you receive a cash benefit or you are receiving Medicare or Medicaid based on disability you are eligible for free services. Now remember that they have to be related to your return to work so you can't be receiving Medicare and go to these people to get a divorce. That's not going to work. Unless you're divorcing your boss I guess. They're available even if you have not assigned you ticket. Now this program was created by the Ticket to Work Act but it doesn't matter because we know because of the 300 people who are listening to us today, some of you may very well just go out, figure out what these work incentives and find your own job. You don't have to assign that ticket. Remember, Linda said it was voluntary. So even if you don't use your ticket these services are available to you free of charge. Now what are some of the services? Or the questions or issues that can be brought to a PABS attorney or paralegal? What about those accommodations? You know, many times employers don't quite understand what a reasonable accommodation is and they don't realize that they are generally very, very inexpensive. And will make you a more productive worker. If you're denied an accommodation that's reasonable then PABS can help you by negotiating for that accommodation with the employer. Advocating for services. If your employment network or your state Vocational Rehabilitation Agency is not providing services to you in the way that you like or not providing you with what you need, they can -- the PABS agency can contact the employment network or Vocational Rehabilitation, find out what's going on and even take you through a hearing process if that's necessary. Providing information and referral and advocacy around your benefits. You know, there are lots of benefits that people have. We're only talking about Social Security. But what about housing? What about SNAP those food stamps? What about Worker's Comp and unemployment? They can provide you with information and potentially a referral if they don't have an in-house expert to get you the assistance you need for all of those other benefits. Assisting beneficiaries remove barriers to work. yet in my former career I was a PABS attorney and we worked with a gentleman who was using a wheelchair, whose supervisor insisted on placing the weekly schedule at the top of the bulletin board. And this gentleman, using the wheelchair could not read the schedule. When he missed a shift he was fired. Now the reasonable accommodation that should have been provided was simply to lower the schedule. And unfortunately it got to the point where he needed the assistance of an attorney to make that happen. Or addressing overpayment issues. One thing that lots of people are concerned about is, what happens if I go back to work and Social Security says you owe me a bunch of money? Well, the PABS agency can help you do that. It will help you resolve that issue. Do you need to pay it back? If you do, what is a reasonable payment plan for you? They can help you make those arrangements. Now that's just an example of what PABS can do. And remember they're in every state or territory. It is the protection and advocacy agency. If you want to check on the national Website it is www.ndrn.org and you can find out who to contact in your state. Now before we leave you we want to leave you with a lot of other resources. We told you that we weren't going to get to all of your questions and I at least kept that promise didn't I? Because we're almost out of time. But for those of you whose questions were not answered or if you want more information, please, lots of places to get it. Contact your EN, use the Website, Socialsecurity.gov/work. That way you'll be able to find an employment network. You'll be able to find your state Vocational Rehabilitation agency. You'll be able to find your state PABS agency. Or call the Ticket to Work Program helpline if you want to talk to somebody about your particular situation. And that number is 1-866-968-7842 and for TTY users 866-833-2967. Lots of other places to find information here too. You can like us on Facebook. Facebook.com/choosework. You'll be able to follow all kinds of discussions from people who have used their ticket and been successful and people who have had issues with their ticket. Maybe the same issues that you are afraid of and see how those issues were resolved. And for those of you who Tweet there is a Twitter account. www.twitter.com/chooseworkssa. And, again, the easiest way to get into this program is to give that work help line a call, the Ticket to Work helpline at 1-866-968-7842 and for TTY users 866-833-2967. And I believe Jamie, that's going to do it. We're over time today so I just want to thank Mike in the background for making our Webinar successful today. Jamie for monitoring that question box and Linda for sharing all kinds of great information. And I would like to wish you all a pleasant afternoon. Take care everyone and watch for the next Webinar.