>> Ed Lopez: Well, good afternoon, folks. I'm Ed Lopez, and welcome to the Ticket to Work, "You Asked. We Answer. Work Incentives That Work For You" WISE Seminar. These are National Work Incentives Seminar events that we come back either on a monthly, and sometimes twice a month basis to help you learn about the Ticket to Work. Today's webinar is very specific. It's based on questions that has been asked in the past and willing to try to answer those questions for you and teach you about the work incentives that actually will help you get back to work. So we're going to get started. Before we get started however, as always, we have to let people know how to access the system.. You'll notice if you're using a computer, that on your computer you'll have a "Go to webinar" control panel; and you have to decide whether you're going to be listening by television or you're going to be using the mic and speakers on your computer. The default is the "Mic & Speakers," but if you want to do by telephone, what you do is you go to the control panel, you click on the "Audio panel" and up will pop up, what you see there, "Use Telephone" or "Use Mic & Speakers." Once you do that, if you have to use a telephone, you click on "Use Telephone" and up will pop up a dial number, an access code and an audio pin that will allow you to listen by telephone. Secondly, we love questions, and although you'll never know we're going to have times we're going to answer every question, we love it when folks ask questions because it moves the dialogue along. So if you've got a question, you go to the control panel and you'll see a "Questions" little box, you click on it, and you'll then see what is right there, right now questions where you see the answer "Yes," that's where you're going to type in your question, and lo and behold, click "Send" and we will try to get through the questions. If we don't get to all the questions during the session, we want you to know that there's going to be a Facebook question-and-answer period after the session and we will tell you how to link to it in a little while. So I just want you to know that. Now, it is time to get started, and let me tell you who's on the line. We have three wonderful people on the line with us today. The first one is our organizer. She's absolutely terrific, [inaudible] altogether for each of these sessions; her name is Jamie Pendergrass and she will be [inaudible] the questions and the chat box to make sure that everything is going smoothly and to make sure that we get to respond to your questions. The two presenters today in addition to myself are Linda Singleton and Jackie Smith, both from the Ticket of Success program out of Fresno, California. They are certified work incentive counselors, and Linda and Jackie is also a certified VR counselor. They've both been doing this like for many years; they've presented at our sessions before and always do a wonderful job. So you will be hearing them speak in a little while. Welcome to them. I also want to thank Mike Ward, who happens to be the Cornell IT guru; without him, we cannot do these sessions and Mike keeps it all together for us. So Mike, as always, thank you very much. Well, let me tell you now about webinar accessibility. You'll notice that we have a toll-free number that you can call and that toll-free number is 1-877-739-5903; and there's an access code, 180-106670. Some people need closed captioning, and if you need closed captioning, you can go to the site right there, ilr.cornell.edu/edi/captions.cfm?activity_id=3819 and you can get closed captioning. The webinar PowerPoint, accessible PDF and text are located at the URL link that you received in your WISE confirmation and access letter. So, you know, we want to make sure you know that. Additionally, the webinar presentation, the transcript, and the audio recording of this webinar will be available in approximately two weeks at the location link listed there. Webinar questions and answer periods are as follows. During the webinar, you're going to submit your questions to where I showed you before, and if you don't have access to the control panel, you're going to type it, to choose work questions at gmail.com and Jamie will be [inaudible] that and making sure that we get those responses, and it's really important, if you don't -- if you have a question that you put that in. And then anytime after the webinar day, you can email your questions to support at chooseworkttw.net, so we just, you know, want to make sure you know that. As I told you, I am Ed Lopez and from the Employment and Disability Institute at Cornell University. I've been doing this work forever. I started as a lawyer way back in -- it's hard to believe, 1978; and I started doing the return to work issues around 1988, so I've been doing this now, you know, well over 20 years; and it's always a pleasure to work with people to help them - especially with [phonetic] getting benefits back to work and we're very motivated about that. So today's session, we've got a couple of polling questions to see who actually is on with us. So I am going to start off by saying polling question #1. How did you learn about this webinar? Was it through email? Was it on Facebook, Twitter? Was it through a website? Or was it from a friend or a family member? And all we see these incredibly rapid responses and got to love it, got to love it. Keep on answering. You've got about -- you've already got almost 80% of you responding which is great, in 30 seconds and - no, these are just quick snapshots. Let me show the results with you. 57% learned about this webinar through email, 1% through Facebook, 29% through a website and 13% from friends and family. Again, good, you know -- good information to know. The next question is, what do you hope to learn from the National WISE webinar? And here are your choices. Do you want to learn about the Ticket to Work? About work incentives for SSI? Work incentives for SSDI? Employment networks, legal protection and advocacy? And this always helps us frame our discussion and will allow us to make sure that we cover the topic that's very pressing to our audience. And again, we've got about 70% of the vote-in. In 30 seconds I'm going to close the poll and tell you that this was overwhelming victory for Ticket to Work, and then with the work incentives for SSDI, and the employment network second, the work incentives for SSI third, and the legal protection advocacy coming in last place; but every one of these will be covered at least in a little detail, okay? Those are the results right there for you. Now, I'm going to take you to the third question, which is what is your gender? We need this information, obviously, to make sure that we can report the data to the funders about who attended. And, again, in 15 seconds we've got well over 80% of you having voted. I'm going to close the poll, share the results. We have overwhelming presence of females today; 72% versus 28% males. So, again, good information to know -- very good information to know. Now, we'd like to know about your age. What is your age? And I'm always intrigued by this one because I always expect it to be a lot of younger people on these calls, but there never are. And so, again, with over 80% of the vote in, I'm going to close the poll and show you the results. The big group is between ages 41 and 55, followed by the folks who are 56 and older -- that's my age group, folks; then followed by the 26 to 40 group. And you'll notice that in terms of 18 through 25, there's only 6% of the folks here who are that age group. And then our final polling question is how many others are participating in the National WISE webinar with you? Do not include yourself. What that basically means is -- are you in a room and how many people are there watching with you or listening with you. And this is an idea about how many people are overall listening to our session. And, again, this is great; 20 seconds, I'm going to close the poll, share the results. Most of you are listening by yourselves, and then 14% have an additional person, 4% have an additional two people, 2% an additional three people, and, Jamie, 2% have four or more which is something that we were discussing before the session today. Okay. So now, now that we've got that going, we're going to hide the results and move on -- move on. So, what are we going to cover today? So this is the agenda and what you can expect from this program today. Of course, you're going to hear me yak on with the introduction and the welcome, and then I'm going to talk about what if I am ready to go to work. And if you are ready to go to work, we're going to provide you information on the Ticket to Work and Work Incentive Improvement Act Program. We're going to give you information on the timely progress review with the ticket to work. We're going to give you information on substantial gainful activity, a term of art [phonetic] with a dollar figure; and we're going to give you information on the trial work period and you notice here it says nine months because of a trial work period is typically a nine-month period; and so we're going to give you information on all those. Now, you may be asking yourself, "But, hey, my job is great. What about my benefits?" We're going to answer your questions about the extended period of eligibility. That's the period immediately following the trial work period, 36 months in a row the extended period of eligibility. We're going to cover information on expedited reinstatements. If after the extended period of eligibility a person were to go off benefits because they earn so much money, and then they had to stop working or they stopped earning at that level, they can request expedited reinstatement. We'll cover that information for you. For people who are getting SSI, we're going to cover the earned income exclusion for you. We're also going to cover the plan for achieving self-support and of course, the ever important healthcare issue -- Medicaid and Medicare. We'll also give you resources; we'll talk about questions and answers; we'll talk about Choose Work Facebook question-and-answer period at the end, so that you'll know what's going on. You may be asking yourselves, why do people choose work? And let me tell you folks, for me, it was never a question about why [Background Sound] you choose work. First, you earn more money; and if you have more money, you can actually get some nice things for yourself. You can actually have more to do with your family. You can actually get special things that you've always wanted, and that is good. When you do all those things, what you start to get is independence. You basically are starting to care for yourself. You're not relying as much on a governmental program. And if you're on SSI, you can actually wean yourself off the SSI because the more you earn, the less SSI you get, until you eventually, if you earn enough, are entitled to know SSI, but you can keep Medicaid and we'll cover that for you. Importantly, you also learn some new skills, and that's wonderful because as you learn new skills, you grow as a person. And as you grow as a person with new skills, you'll often become more independent and you actually might be able to get another job that earns you even more money, or get a promotion in your job that earns you more money -- so they're all related. And finally, the all-important social aspect of work -- meeting new people. And I can't tell you enough how important that is, to be able to broaden that social network of ours that will allow us to -- in fact in the future, gain more independence, maybe even get a new job with more money or get promotions. So for me, it's always been very important. Now what I'd like to do is in about 30 seconds after I do the introduction, I'm going to move into a little tape for you, a video, and it's about Megan. And in 2008, Megan had a major depressive episode, and she wound up on disability benefits to keep her afloat financially. She actually got a Ticket to Work, and that Ticket to Work helped her achieve a fulfilling life. Today, Megan enjoys working and has even been able to return to competitive ballroom dancing, which is amazing. And Mike, take it away.

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>> [Background music] Megan Riggs: I believe it was around January of 2008. I kind of got sick and I took another position, and from that position I ended up getting fired; and I had a mental breakdown, so my disability is 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, that after so many months in the disability program, you can get a Ticket to Work and then that will help you actually get back into working. But it also allows you to get medical assistance which helps you -- for me, to be able to see psychiatrists and doctors and get my medicine and everything like that. Staying at home is not as fun as it looks, but also it's not me; I'm 27, so I don't want to be at home my whole life and I have a lot of things to do. So that really made me want to get back to work because that's what I should be doing, that's what I want to be doing. First thing 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 TransCen and I called them.

>> Becca Smith: Hi, Megan, welcome.

>> Megan Riggs: Thank you.

>> Becca Smith: How are you doing today?

>> Megan Riggs: I'm doing pretty good.

>> Becca Smith: Good? [Inaudible]. Megan came to TransCen about a year ago. She was seeking a job in the IT DNA synthesis field. She knew exactly what she wanted to do, and she worked with our employment counselor in developing her resume, fine-tuning her interview skills, identifying employers. And after only a few months, she was able to obtain employment actually as a temporary agent doing what she wanted to do.

>> Megan Riggs: One of the big problems or concerns 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.

>> Becca Smith: So at that point, she connected with me for benefits counseling [Background talking] and I was able to walk her through what -- how her benefits would be affected by that work. She received Social Security disability insurance, so she was happy to learn that she had what are called trial work period months; and she was able, for nine months, to work at a full-time position and not have any decrease in her benefits; she still received full benefits. After those nine months were over, she had an additional three months called her "grace period months"; and after those months are over, she has an additional three years where her disability check will only be suspended based on her earnings and if she's not able to keep the job, she can go return to her Social Security disability benefits.

>> Megan Riggs: It made me feel supported that I could do it and I could try and if it didn't work, I could come back but I could keep trying. The job that I do is a document control specialist, and the easiest way to explain that is it's part-librarian, so people return things to me and I check them out; it's part-teacher because when they return things to me, I check it to make sure that it is correct and if it's not, I ask for them to re-do it.

>> Richard Luecking: What made Megan a success in her job search, first and foremost, was her willingness to go back to work. And our job after that really is how can we support her to make that happen.

>> Becca Smith: I classify Megan as a success story in that she was able to do what she wanted to do where she's continuing to work now and if she's earning enough that she's going to be working her way off of the disability benefits; she's happy in what she's doing and as long as she's happy, we're very happy for her.

>> Megan Riggs: The impact has been great. I have a year left to pay off my car and then it's 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.

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>> 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've been. And so now it's getting more fun and I'm enjoying it, I like the costumes; so that's a big thing [phonetic] that I do.

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[Background music] 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 TransCen for myself and from the people that they've put me in contact with to pull myself up 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 their 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.

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>> Ed Lopez: Terrific. Going - will be getting by screen back up. An [Background Sound] inspiring story. And there's so many folks out there who could be just like Megan who could actually -- who have a disability who could actually get some support services. Help have an employment at work help them have a certified work incentive counselor help them to make sure that they understand what's going to happen to their benefits while they work and ultimately get off the [inaudible] which is just wonderful. So this first session is, "You asked. We answer." What if I am ready to work? This is where we are right now -- What if I am ready to work? And look at this -- when you're ready to work, you gather information and resources -- that's key, so that you can plan your journey toward employment. And the Ticket to Work and the work incentives of the Improvement Act can help make that journey a smooth one so that you don't wind up losing benefits while you are trying to go to work. You have to learn how to build your employment team; it's the best way to begin. And you have many options, and let's hope you get started. First, you can speak with an expert at our Ticket to Work helpline at 1-866-968-7842 -- that's the voice number; or at the TTY number which is 1-866-833-2967. Secondly, you can learn more about the ticket to work with our blog and watch the real success story videos -- a lot of them, not just Megan's -- at www.socialsecurity.gov/work. Third, you can find an employment network or a state vocational rehabilitation agency that suits your needs and you can do that right on that website also. And finally, you can stay connected to your employment team either an EN -- employment network; or a VR -- vocational rehabilitation worker -- As you explore your work options so that you know what's going to happen as you go to work if you earn more money and what have you. So now we're going to spend a little bit of time talking about "You Asked. We Answer." The Ticket to Work program with respect to the SSDI program and the SSI program. And our first speaker is Linda Singleton who will talk to you about these two wonderful programs.

>> Linda Singleton: All right. Great. Thank you, Ed. Hopefully everyone can hear me clear. Actually, I want to cover the Ticket to Work program and what the benefits are, and how you can actually use it your advantage to get on your feet and become self-sufficient once again. We look at the chart that you have in front of you, the slide that says for the Ticket to Work program, if you are ready to earn more money, how can that Ticket to Work program or work incentives help you? They can help you improve your earning potential; so being able to get out, earn some money, sometime individuals start part-time, sometimes they go right into full-time work. Using, understanding those work incentives are going to be very important and that's why this call is very crucial because we're going to review some of those work incentives to really help you out and understand a little bit more. The next area of -- if you need the personal fulfillment that comes from working, the fulfillment being is there even very beneficial for many individuals? It provides the assurance and stability that you need to feel confident while you're pursuing employment. When you're trying to go back out there and I work where so many [inaudible] within an employment network, we work with so many individuals that have that fear of being able to go out there and not having the support like was mentioned in the video of Megan. The Ticket to Work program and understanding those work incentives will definitely give you that confidence that you need to be able to go ahead and pursue the employment. Now what -- if you want to be able to get benefits back if your job does not work out because of your disability, again, under the Ticket to Work and the work incentives, it puts you on the fast track back into receiving your benefits. As an employment network, I know we work with individuals [inaudible] is out there, situations come up and they need to get right back on their benefits. So it's a benefit having that kind of support, getting you right back on your cash benefits. And if you are overwhelmed and do not know where to turn, then you want to connect with the people -- your employment team, those service providers and resources to be able to help you develop a plan that's going to work for you and help you get back on track with your work program. So if we can go to the next slide, we're going to cover another area; it's the substantial gainful activity. And what this area is going to cover, so if we can go ahead and go to the next slide, this is going to actually explain or show you how Social Security measures how you're doing; it is a way of measuring. So we'll refer to this as SGA, a substantial gainful activity. Again, like I say, it's a way of measuring your earning levels. They break it down for us to understand the two different categories; substantial work means that you are performing significant, physical or mental and combination of both full- or part-time work activity. To be gainful, it means work -- it means that your work is or is generally considered for pay or profit even if it doesn't actually make a profit. You're out there, you're earning, you're gaining, skills, abilities, work and usually that means financially that you're benefiting. So security uses this as a way of measuring how you're doing with your earnings. This slide -- thank you, Ed -- is for us to kind of see how -- what the numbers are. Again, this is measured by numbers or amounts of earnings. The amount of monthly earnings, and this is your accountable earnings -- gross accountable earnings -- that is substantial and gainful which helps you become independent of Social Security, the cash benefits. It says for 2012, if your work earnings average over $1010 or more per month and you are not blind, you're working at a substantial gainful activity level. And for those individuals that are blind [Background Sound] or vision-impaired, it says for 2012 if you are earning -- if you work earnings over $1690 or more per month, then you're working at a level that is [inaudible] substantial gainful activity level. So these are the amounts for 2012 on how Social Security actually measures how you're doing with gainful activity, so let's go ahead and... Next, we're going to review -- if you're working with a Ticket to Work program and you find employment or they help you with employment, Social Security wants to know how you're doing and what they do is they have what's called "timely progress reviews," or referred to as TPR. Many individuals have wrote in and asked questions, "What is this?" So we're going to go to the next slide and see what we've been -- how we can clarify it for you. [Background Sound] So next slide.

>> Ed Lopez: And just -- Linda, just to stop you for a minute. Someone just wrote in and said, "I'm a little confused. Basically, are you telling me that I can earn $1000 if I'm on SSDI and keep my SSDI check?"

>> Linda Singleton: Okay, let me clarify that. There is some work incentives that we're going to discuss called -- if you're on SSDI, it's on trial work months and we're going to clarify that a little bit further down in some of the slides. They -- once you have used those, Social Security does use the measurement of the SGA or substantial gainful activity as a measuring tool. So if you make over, earn over the $1010 a month or more and you're not visually impaired or blind, then that means that you may not be entitled to the Social Security check based on your earning level, okay? So if you are over -- you can look at this way. If I'm earning over $1010 a month, I'm not going to get a check from Social Security because I'm not entitled; if I'm under that, you may be entitled to your Social Security check. Okay? Hopefully that clarified it for you and we will talk more about it. Okay? And, okay -- and we'll go ahead and go through what the timely progress review is. [Background Sound] Again, this a way to measure your success and achieving your work goals; it's not necessarily based on your earnings, but it's how you're performing during the time that you sign with an employment team and that's either your employment network or your vocational rehabilitation service provider. You create an individual work plan with them and that includes your work, your education or any other training goals that you have; it's included in that plan. And it's to help you make progress toward those goals, toward meeting all of the goals and the IWP -- the individual work plan; it's reviewed every 12 months. Okay? So let's go to the next slide and kind of get an idea how that works for their first -- and this is according to Social Security's Red Book; we can see it listed there. You're making timely progress if at your first 12 months review you have worked three out of 12 months at the trial work level, which we haven't really touched on that yet; that's $720-a-month accountable income, and then they would say you're making timely progress review; completed 60% of your full-time course load for one year toward a degree or certificate, technical, trade or vocational program. So the number of months per year that you work and the amount of the completion toward that degree or certificate is reviewed on a 12-month basis. Okay? So it could be a combination between your work and your education that shows that you're making progress towards your goals, okay? Next slide, please [Background Sounds]. If you don't, or do not meet that trial or that timely progress review requirement, you can continue to participate in the Ticket to Work program. We've had individuals in our employment network that's the [phonetic] situation is they're working on those goals, but sometimes things come up and it prevents you from always meeting those goals. You could still continue to participate in the Ticket to Work program, your cash and help benefits will not be affected, but you will not be exempt or you no longer will be excused from those continuing medical disability reviews. They want to see how you're doing with what may prevent you from being able to make that progress. Okay? And what we're going to do next is I'm going to turn it over to Jackie. She's going to cover some of those work incentives that we were talking about.

>> Ed Lopez: Absolutely. And folks, there's been a lot of questions asked about trial work period and SGA and it's relationship. And in fact, Jackie is going to demystify - she's going to make it all very clear for you right now. Okay, Jackie, take it away.

>> Jackie Smith: All right, thank you so much. Yes, the trial work period is a great work incentive for people on Social Security disability insurance. It's a nine-month trial work period where you can test your ability to go back to work. Now what counts as a trial work period is, in one month if your earnings are over $720 gross earnings, that'll count as one trial work month and you have nine of those to use. So, say for instance, you start working next month and you only make $500 gross earnings, that's not going to count as a trial work month and you can still continue to receive your disability check and including your healthcare benefits. Next slide, please.

>> Ed Lopez: Absolutely.

>> Jackie Smith: So pretty much the trial work period, the first nine months it starts as soon as you start receiving your disability check, the month you filed for benefits, whichever is later. If you are using your ticket to work during the trial work period, your continuing disability reviews are postponed. So if you assign your ticket, Ticket to Work, to an employment work or state VR agency, your medical reviews will be waved while you're participating in the program. And what counts as participation is what window [phonetic] went over as a timely progress reviews. So that is if you -- the first year of ticket use, if you work three out of 12 months during those -- during the first year of ticket use with trial work period level earnings which is $720 gross in one month. If you do three of those months out of the 12 months, you will have your continuing disability review postponed since you're making progress in the program, so hopefully that clarified a little bit more about the trial.

>> Ed Lopez: Right. Linda, let me just jump in for a minute here. I want everybody to know, however, that you only get this continuing disability review protection if you are already using your ticket and making timely progress. You can't say, "Gee, I just got a CDR notice -- a continuing disability review notice; I'm going to go assign my ticket and make it go away." -- it doesn't happen that way.

>> Jackie Smith: Yes, that's correct. If you do have one already scheduled or in progress, it can't be postponed, so that is correct. Yes.

>> Ed Lopez: And, but before you go on with this, this is very important; we've got a lot of questions about this, about 20 of them and I can distill [phonetic] them all into one question. Someone says, "So, are you saying that for nine months I can earn at above the SGA level, and since that's my trial work period I can still get my disability benefits?"

>> Linda Singleton: Yes, that's correct. Let me give you a great example. We have clients that start working and they'll make -- say, for instance, they make $725 gross earnings in one month. That is over the trial work level amount that will count as one trial work month. And, say, another person works and they make $3000 gross earnings in one month, that is still considered a trial work month and you still get to collect your full disability check.

>> Ed Lopez: Absolutely. Great example, Linda. And let me ask you another question; someone just said, "How do I find out if I've used any of my trial work period months?"

>> Linda Singleton: That's a great question, too. So you definitely want to connect with a service provider, an employment network, especially someone that's a certified work incentive coordinator. They can request a benefit plan inquiry from Social Security and -- well, sometimes those benefit plan inquiries are not up to date, so make sure who you're connecting with knows what they're doing and -- or you can contact Social Security and ask how many trial work months have I used, because if you put -- me for instance, I have a connection, a liaison with Social Security and I can ask her how many trial work months has this individual used? That way I can better provide support and services for the individual that's wanting to go back to work, because I have people that come into my program that has either used their whole trial work period or they've only used a few months.

>> Ed Lopez: That's a great response, and I've got another question from Jenna who says she's self-employed. Is she entitled to a trial work period also?

>> Linda Singleton: Yes. For self-employment, the trial work period, what's considered a trial work level for self-employment is if you work more than 80 hours in self-employment in a month. So your trial work period cannot begin until the first month you're entitled to the Social Security disability benefits. So if you are self-employed, there is a self-employed earning sheet that you can use to keep track of your earnings. They go by net earnings, not necessarily gross, but then if your net earnings are less, you want to make sure that your hours, however many hours you're working in a month; if you're going over 80 hours, self-employed in a month, then that's still considered a trial work month; so you just kind of have to see.

>> Ed Lopez: Right, and that's actually what I call the "either/or." They're either earning above the trial work period level and using up a month; and if you're not, if you are working 80 hours a month, you're using up a trial work period level either/or. Great.

>> Linda Singleton: Okay, so we're going to continue on to the -- what happens after the trial work period which in the video with Megan, she said there's a grace period after the trial work period and that is correct. So just because you end your trial work period, your ninth month, all these months are not used in a row, let me make that clear; because when you start your trial work period or sign up with an employment network, your trial work period doesn't start until you start earning over $720 gross earnings in one month, and they go by calendar months. So, after the trial work period, you have a three-month grace period where you can still collect your disability check, but then after the trial work period or the grace period ends, you will be in the extended period of eligibility and that actually begins the month after your trial work period. So the 36 months, it's a three-year period where you can start and stop your benefit check without it. So, say, for instance, you're working and you're working over SGA, that's where SGA comes in, substantial gainful activity, which is a $1010 gross earnings for 2012. If you're making over $1010 after your trial work period, you're in your extended period of eligibility, that month you make over a $1010; your benefit check will be suspended for that month. But say, for instance, the next month you get sick or you're not able to work at that level, you can get your disability check re-entitled to you since you are still in the extended period of eligibility.

>> Ed Lopez: That's correct, and just so people know -- Jackie, there's another question that's very important here. Someone says, "Do all these work incentives also apply to the SSI program and" -- go ahead.

>> Jackie Smith: Do you want me to -- okay. We're going to be covering SSI next. Linda is going to present on SSI. Unfortunately, SSI does not have a trial work period or extended period of eligibility. There is the earned income exclusion incentive which Linda will go over.

>> Ed Lopez: That's right. That you'll notice on your slide that you see on the screen, number 25, it shows there "SSDI only," it doesn't say "SSI" and that's how you know that it applies only to the SSDI program.

>> Jackie Smith: Yes, we're only covering SSDI right now. Okay. So we're going to go into the extended period of eligibility a little bit more, or these are just the questions here. Any more questions on... Okay. So we kind of talked about this already. The EPE is a work incentive specific to SSDI beneficiaries, we covered that. During the EPE, Social Security can restart your benefits without a new application, without a disability determination or a waiting period, so that's the good thing with the EPE, it's another safety net. After you've used your trial work period, you can get back on benefits; if you're not able to work at the substantial gainful activity level, Social Security defines as being self-sufficient. Next slide, please.

>> Ed Lopez: You got it.

>> Jackie Smith: Okay. When you work - oh, is this the same slide? It seems like the same slide we just went over.

>> Ed Lopez: Yeah, it does.

>> Jackie Smith: [Laughter] I think it's a duplicate slide there.

>> Ed Lopez: All right, go ahead.

>> Jackie Smith: Okay. Once you successfully work your way off benefits, if you work above SGA after the 36 months re-entitlement period, you may be able to start your benefits again if you stop work within the next five years, and that's where the expedited reinstatement comes into play, which is after the extended period of eligibility, the re-entitlement period, you can still get back on benefits without doing a new reapplication; you can do the EXR form which we will discuss the EXR on the next slide, I believe? Yes. And, okay, next slide. Okay. The expedited reinstatement, it applies to SSDI and SSI. The EXR is a work incentive that applies to both beneficiaries. It's a fast track to get you reinstated [Background Sound] and to get -- if you worked your way off of benefits. So after the extended period of eligibility, you are still working, the month after your extended period of eligibility, if you've made SGA and then say, the next month you're like, "Oh, I can't go back to work because of X, Y and Z, you can file an EXR at your local Social Security office, your service provider can help you with that form, and you will get provisional benefits for six months while they evaluate your case and they will give you benefits during those six months while they reevaluate your claim. And more than likely, if you still have your impairment, you know, if you still qualify under Social Security's definition of disability, you will still receive your disability check. So the EXR is a great safety net. So you have a total of three safety nets for SSDI beneficiaries, and during this period you are also eligible for Medicare and Medicaid during this waiting period, so that's always good.

>> Ed Lopez: Absolutely, and I've got a lot of questions here. Before we go to the SSI, I think it's important to cover some of these.

>> Jackie Smith: Okay.

>> Ed Lopez: The first question is, you said the trial work restarts when you file for benefits, is that correct? But I've been receiving benefits for a few years where I'm just now able to go into the Ticket to Work program. When does my trial work period start?

>> Jackie Smith: Okay. You're trial work period starts when you begin working and performing services. So in 2004 and 2012, we consider your work to be services for the trial work period if your gross earnings are more than $720 in a month, or if you work more than 80 hours in self-employment in a month. So your trial work period cannot begin until the first month you are entitled to your SSDI benefit check or the month you filed for benefits, whichever is later. So if you've been receiving SSDI for a while and you haven't worked since you've been on the SSDI benefits, you more than likely have not used your trial work period at all.

>> Ed Lopez: That's right. And I'm going to actually make sure that people get this and remember this. A person actually in 2012 could be working all 12 months. They could be earning $500 each and every month and they will not have used up any trial work periods anyway because they did not earn above that trial work period amount of $720.

>> Jackie Smith: Yes, that's correct.

>> Ed Lopez: So you only use those months when you earn above that level because you've got about 20 questions, say, "Well, I was working but I don't think I've used up any months," and that's why, because you were not earning at above that level. Really, really important that you understand that because it's not -- you can really get into trouble and I do not want you in trouble. There's a lot of confusion here about the SSDI and SSI programs. We're getting a lot of questions saying, "Yeah, but I'm working and they told me I could have $65 and then half the remainder," and that's going to be for the SSI, folks, not SSDI. I want everybody to take their SSI hat off right now while you listen to Linda -- I mean, to Jackie -- because what's going on here is all about SSDI. Trial work period? SSDI. Extended period of eligibility? SSDI. Expedited reinstatements? SSDI, right now for all these in this program. That's all we are talking about. So to answer the question, if you make $100 a month, I can keep my check, the answer is, yes, as long as you are still disabled; as long as Social Security does not do a continuing disability review and says, "You are no longer disabled, you can keep your check because we've got a lot of those questions coming in." Someone says now, "Well, what if I have both benefits, SSDI and SSI? Which rules apply?" Well my friend, I hate to break the bad news to you -- both rules apply. The SSDI rules apply to your SSDI portion of your check and your -- and the SSI rules apply to that other portion, and in fact, having said that, it is now time to bring Linda back on to talk about SSI.

>> Linda Singleton: Okay, great. We're actually going to cover the earned income exclusion, which is referred to as EIE and that is specifically for SSI beneficiaries. So if you're receiving an SSI check, this applies to you, okay? One thing that we did as an employment network, we get a lot of questions as if I have an SSI check, how is my benefits going to be affected? Do I get those other benefits? Or remember, like what Ed mentioned this is SSI is only right now that we're talking about. This is a work incentive that EIE is a work incentive specifically for SSI beneficiaries. What they do is there's a calculation on how your benefits will be affected when you start working, okay? The first $65 earned in a month is going to be deducted from the gross amount that you earn, plus they're going to deduct another half of the remaining amount before they can calculate. This is how much will be affected on your SSI check. So this means that the Social Security counts less than half -- one half of your earnings when they're calculating your SSI payment.

>> Ed Lopez: That's right, and let me tell you, I'm going to stop you for a minute, Jack -- Linda -- because we've got a question, and there's a little confusion out there. Someone says, "I'm very confused," -- this is like five people mentioned this. "I think I have SSI because I've got a mental illness. Is that the case?" And the fact that you've got a mental illness does not mean that you get SSI or an SSDI. The reason for your getting SSDI or SSI is based on two factors. Factor number one for SSDI -- did you work and earn enough credits of coverage? For SSI, are you disabled and did you not have enough credits of coverage and then are you poor enough to qualify for the benefit? So SSDI involves work and a person with disabilities. SSI means that you didn't have enough credits to get SSDI, but you are disabled then you also happen to be very poor. I just want to make sure that everybody understood that.

>> Linda Singleton: Right, and one thing that we kind of do, they get an idea, if you're not sure which benefit, there's a couple of different ways you can do that is one thing it's pretty well known that SSI always comes on the first of the month; it's almost in every state that we work with and we are a national program. Usually, the SSDI check comes on like the third or a different time of the month, so it kind of gives you an idea. The other thing is pay attention to the letters that you get from Social Security because at the very top of those letters, it will say either Social Security disability insurance or supplemental Social Security income. So it will have one of those statements at the top up [phonetic] and it helps you know which benefit you're receiving. Hopefully that helps, too. Okay. We're going to go ahead. Again, this is information from the Red Book, so if you can access that at ssa.gov. On the website, they actually have all of this information you can refer to and I think it's referred to at the end of this presentation, too, or it'll be listed. For instance, we're going to use this individual, his name is Ed. He receives $850 from wages each month and $13 of earned income from another source. And if you want to kind of know what an earned income, it could be something in [inaudible]; it could be tips; it can be from a different type of funding besides just regular earnings. What they do is they have a general income exclusion of $20 that they use. So they deduct the $13 of unearned income from his $20 and $7 is remaining in that income exclusion. Okay? We're going to go to the next slide. [Background Sound] Okay. At the very top, you noticed that they have the previous slide information there, the $13 from the $20 general income exclusion. Your remainder is $7. Okay? They're going to deduct that from the gross earnings that he had of $850. They have an earned income exclusion of $65 that will be deducted also from the remaining gross earnings, which leaves him $778. Then what they do is they divide that in half; half of the remaining amount, if you noticed, is $389. This is what they consider for SSI countable earned income. Okay? This amount will be deducted from the SSI check so that we can see what his earnings, and I believe that's on the next slide. Let's look at the next slide. [Background Sound] Okay. If you noticed, we go through the same calculation at the top, and toward the bottom you see it's a $698 SSI federal benefit rate; that's pretty much in every state -- there's only a few states that add a supplement to it. And with that, they deduct the countable income which was $389, and that allows Ed to still receive $309 SSI payment. So he still, even though he worked and made $850 earnings, he was able to keep also $309 from his SSI payment. Let's go ahead and go to the next slide.

>> Ed Lopez: Now [phonetic] ready, and that's it.

>> Linda Singleton: And that's it. So, you know, for us, you know, this helps to see, if I had $850 plus the unearned income which was $13, plus his SSI check, Ed actually earned $1172 in a month instead of only his $698 check from Social Security from SSI. So he really benefited; he pretty much doubled his income from going to work and using these work incentives that Social Security provides.

>> Ed Lopez: Absolutely. And in fact, I've got to tell you that Ed did incredibly well here because I will often have people say to me, "Gee, but you see, you're looking at the gross income here," and so you're not really giving fair to Ed because he's not really getting all that money. But my response is that at this earnings level, Ed is going to get all the money that he paid in taxes when he files his tax returns the next year...

>> Linda Singleton: Correct.

>> Ed Lopez: ...and then it's not counted as income. So that's number one. And then people will say to me, "But you know what, what about the FICA?" At this level, Ed's going to qualify for an earned income tax credit, too, that will more than make up for the FICA he's paid for.

>> Linda Singleton: And another benefit, too, is he is paying in to Social Security. Now, if they are taking the FICA and he may be later on eligible for SSDI benefits?

>> Ed Lopez: Absolutely, absolutely. So it's very -- it's really important. And I'm going to tell you, I'm going to actually go back a little bit and ask a lot of questions; and either of you, Jackie or Linda, can jump in at any point and we will - and we're going to cover them because these are very important questions.

>> Linda Singleton: Okay.

>> Ed Lopez: Someone says, "I get SSDI. When I begin working, I understand the first $65 will be disregarded. Is that true or false:"

>> Jackie Smith: That's false. SSDI, there's no deductions. It's based on the trial work level, if you're making over $720; it's all or nothing with the SSDI. It's after you complete your trial work level is when substantial gainful activity is what you need to look at is if your earnings are over $1010 in one month after your trial work period -- remember, after. Because it's really important, I have plans that use the trial work period to their advantage and save their SSDI checks, while working, they're making, you know, $4,000, $5,000 a month in gross -- you know, gross earnings and they're still collecting their SSDI check for the full nine months. Okay? And the nine months they'll have to be used in a row. So I think what he was talking about was SSI...

>> Ed Lopez: Absolutely, absolutely. And, you know, it's always good to get that kind of a question because I know that if we get one of those questions, there's a lot of other people who are confused out there. Another trial work period question. Someone says, "How long do I have to use those nine trial work period months? Do I have to use them within a specific period of time?

>> Linda Singleton: Yes, actually a lifetime, but they do build by what they call a rolling 60 month, so during that 60-month rolling period of time, if you use the nine months during that, then you have used them. If it's been five years since you worked and you made a, you know, a pretty good -- a fair amount; so you made $800 five years ago and you worked a few months, those might be dropping off because they're out of that 60-month window.

>> Ed Lopez: That's correct.

>> Linda Singleton: I had a client that was working and she had used eight of her trial work months. She hadn't ended it yet and this was back in 2005; and when she wanted to work again, I checked her trial work period with SSA and she says she gets a new trial work period because she didn't finish her trial work period within the 60-month rolling period which is a five-year period.

>> Ed Lopez: That's correct, and so to answer another question here, someone says, "So that the work that I did 10 years ago when I used up three trial work periods count against me today?" The answer is "No," okay? Simple as that. Next question. "Ahhh!" Someone just wrote, "That's why I qualify for both. Now I get it!" Okay, good. "I'm on SSDI and my son receives dependent benefits. How are his benefits affected if I go to work?"

>> Jackie Smith: [Crosstalk] Do you want me to take that one? [Laughter]

>> Linda Singleton: Okay. What happens is your child's benefits, if they're drawing from your SSDI check, that is actually attached to that check. So, say, for instance, you used your trial work month and you're earnings and that's already passed, and now you're at a level of earnings, say for instance, you're making $2000 a month and you're in that SGA level, so you're not going to receive an SSDI check; when your check stops, when your cash benefits stops, the child's cash benefits stops -- be aware of that, because it is attached to your SSDI check.

>> Ed Lopez: Perfect.

>> Jackie Smith: Yeah, that's correct. So you want to be very careful.

>> Ed Lopez: Absolutely, absolutely. Someone says, "Where can I find information about being self-employed while being on SSDI?" And there is information in the Red Book, but if you want more information, you can actually go to the Social Security website, www.socialsecurity.gov. Put in the word "self-employment" and it will pop up for you, more information than you ever wanted to know, I assure you. So someone says, "Am I supposed to pay taxes on my SSDI check?"

>> Jackie Smith: No, those SSDI check is exempt from taxes. It's only your work earnings that are taxed and you would get a tax refund at the end of the year depending on what you claimed during the year for your exclusions.

>> Ed Lopez: So if someone says, "So how would you calculate the SSI if you're receiving both SSI and SSDI and you're working?" [Background Sound] And I think we still have slide number 37 up here, and so I would say, do you want to tackle that one, Jackie?

>> Jackie Smith: I can or Linda can as well, depending on what the SSI check is at. I mean, they still do the earned income exclusion and general income exclusion for the SSI check, and then the SSDI check is separate, and that'll -- depending on what your earnings are. If you have a smaller SSI check like around $120 and you're earning over, let's say, $1000 gross earnings in a month, you'll use a trial work month, but more than likely your SSI check is going to be the first one to decrease because of the fact it is a supplement.

>> Ed Lopez: That's right. And in fact, let me just come up here for one minute and say to you. If you look at slide number 37, SSDI is other unearned income. So you would put your SSDI figure in there and then you will subtract 20 from it. And that gives you a remaining, a remaining total countable unearned income figure.

>> Hmm-mm.

>> Then you go get your countable earned income, you see 389 there? If you were getting $420, or $320 in SSDI take away 20, the $300 will be added to the 389 countable unearned and countable earned, that's how it works. It's pretty much the same and then once you add that 389 and 300, 689, 689 total, you would then have what, $9 as an SSI payment.

>> Uh-hum. [Crosstalk] And then once your SSI payment becomes zero, we're going to go over the continued Medical Coverage under 169TB [Crosstalk].

>> Absolutely, absolutely. Someone says I have a lymphatic tumor question. I've got SSDI and I'm making $500 a month. Does that going to affect my [inaudible] going to affect my SSDI benefit?

>> No it's not, because it's not at the trial work level.

>> That's right and, you know, we're going to keep saying that to you, over and over...

>> Probably, yes.

>>...and over again.

>> Trial work level is $720 gross earnings in one month. So the 500 doesn't go over the 720, so [Crosstalk] that would not coincide.

>> Someone says -- absolutely, someone says I'm doing volunteer work, does that count towards my trial work period level?

>> No.

>> Because, it's not earnings.

>> That's right. But it's great that you're doing volunteer work, get something on your resume and then if you want to start looking for a job with earnings, you can use that volunteer work.

>> Right, someone says how quickly can I get back on my SSDI after a full or part-time job does not work out? [Crosstalk]

>> When I.

>> And I'm going to say it depends.

>> Yeah.

>> Where you are in the process.

>> And the other thing is, there's one thing to keep in mind, if you have a good employment team working with you and that's one thing both Jackie [assumed spelling] and myself have been very involved with our clients whenever there's individuals that -- that are working and all of a sudden they hear hey my job, I'm going to be laid off, or I have to reduce hours due to my health or whatever the situation is, we're really careful on helping them with a reporting process at Social Security so that way they can be adjusted. If you're not reporting and communicating with Social Security, it might take longer for you to be able to get those adjustments and get your check coming back in. So it's very important to maintain the communication and use that employment team that you have -- have selected for your job goals.

>> Absolutely, again Greg [assumed spelling] these are -- there's some good questions being asked here, ladies, I've got to tell you.

>> Uh-hum.

>> Someone says oh now I finally understand why I get SSI and not SSDI, that's good because, you know, it's -- it's -- it's really important that -- that -- that folks understand the benefit they have, because if they go to work they've got to be able to understand how that work is going to impact the benefit that they receive. [Crosstalk] And.

>> And it's really important if you can connect with an employment network in your network or like Glenda [assumed spelling] said our National Employment Network, feel free to give us a call if you have any questions or concerns about going to work and we can connect you with the right people.

>> Right, a lot of people are saying oh Redbook, Redbook, Redbook where do I get it? You can actually get it from the SocialSecurity.gov Website and you can actually download it and print it out.

>> Uh-huh.

>> Someone says what's [inaudible] SSDI and SSI again please? Does somebody else want to try that out there? How about it Jackie?

>> Sure Social [Crosstalk] Disability Insurance, that's what the acronym stands for SSDI and SSI is Supplemental Security Income, so the difference between the two is that if you've worked in the past and you've earned enough work credits to qualify to draw off of your own Social Security Disability Insurance, that's how you would get SSDI. Now if you get SSDI and say your SSDI check is only $300, that's all you've paid into it, then that's when the SSI supplement comes in and they help give you the supplement to increase your earnings.

>> Excellent. Great -- great response. And I think it's now time to go to the Plan for Achieving Self Support. And this is one of those you asked and we answer questions. A lot of people already -- and in the questions box have been saying what's a Plan to Achieve Social Support can I access a plan to achieve social support? And let me start off by saying that the Plan to Achieve Support known as the PASS Plan is then SSI Work Incentive, okay. It is an SSI Work Incentive. So if you receive SSI, you might benefit from a PASS Plan. Because here's what happens, the PASS allows and individual to set aside other income, not your SSI, but other income besides your SSI for a specified period of time, so that you may pursue a work goal. And then when Social Security figures out their SSI payment amount, they don't count the income that you set aside under your PASS plan, which is just an incredible, incredible way to do this. And I've got to tell you if folks are interested in learning about PASS's, I actually have a Website that I have put together on PASS's. It's called -- its www.PASSONLINE.org. In that Website I give you an explanation about every possible scenario imaginable, I have you -- I show you the PASS application, which is 14 pages, I have every question on there and then for every question I have sample answers and helpful hints. You can look at that carefully and then low and behold you can go into the application, fill out some of it, go back fill out some more of it, so -- and then at the end when you're done you can press a button and you can actually print a PDF of the completed application. You can even, even list someone as helping you to complete the application and give them access to your application to help you fill it out there to assist you while you're doing it. Which brings us to the next slide, and [inaudible] Network, on location rehabilitation agency can help you set up a PASS. And the PASS as we said, has to be in writing and designed especially for you. In other words you have to identify a specific work goal that you are capable of performing. I would like to be a schoolteacher for kids in grammar school. You've got to include a specific timeframe for reaching your work goal. My PASS will begin on September, 2012 when I go back to college to get my degree and will end in May of 2016 when I complete my degree. You have to show what income you receive other than SSI and how that income will be used to reach your work goal. Let me give you an example; let's say you're getting $520 a month in SSDI. You're entitled to the $20, this regard because it's unearned income. That leaves $500. That means that you will be getting $500 less in SSI, because you've $500 of unearned income counted. If you take that $500 and you put it into a special bank account to achieve a work goal, after Social Security approves your Plan Achieving Self Support, your SSI will go up by $500. Dollar for dollar and low and behold you'll have $500 a month in the savings account to pay for tuition or what -- or a computer, or an automobile if you need to drive to classes et cetera. Or to drive to work in the future in order to be able to become self-sufficient down the line. But, but and there's the big but it must be approved by a Social Security PASS specialist and then it's going to be reviewed periodically because Social Security's going to want to make sure that you're actually putting the money away when you're supposedly putting it away. And spending the money on what you are supposed to be spending the money. So it's a wonderful program, but it's a program for people who have specific work goals in mind who are motivated to complete and achieve that work goal so they can go off the benefit roles. The next topic I'd like to cover is our Medicaid and Medicare and you'll notice that this time there's an orange for SSI and they green icon for SSDI because I'm going to cover both for you during this part of the presentation. Here's how this works, first for SSI. Your state may allow you to continue receiving Medicaid if you are disabled and you're SSI benefit stopped because of your earnings. And that's 1619B. It's a special program, in 39 states if you lose your SSI benefit because of earned income, you automatically qualify for 1619B. And the other 11 states, you will still qualify for the Medicaid, but guess what, you'll have to go into your local department of Social Services and apply for it there and then they will put you on Medicaid. Additionally if at some point your resources go above the SSI $2,000 resource limit and you are working and making a good amount of money, your state may allow you to buy Medicaid if you are still disabled, okay and, and you are working and earning below the amount in your state to qualify for the Medicaid buy-in for working people with disabilities. For example in New York if you're working and not getting any other type of benefit and you are disabled you can actually get on the Medicaid buy-in program for working people with disabilities even if you earn $54,000. But you have to be classified as being disabled and if you don't have a classification as being disabled from the Social Security Administration, the local department of Social Services will make a determination to see whether you are disabled and qualify for this wonderful program. That's the story for SSI, for SSDI most people with disabilities who work will continue to receive Medicare for at least 93 months, at least. It doesn't mean that it's only 93, it could be more, but it's at least 93 months. What does that mean; number one you get Part A which is hospital insurance and that's free, Part B Supplemental Medical Insurance, that's Part B. For that one there's a premium, okay? And Part D is the Prescription Drug Coverage, that's to continue Medicare. But it's Part A that you do not pay a premium for, for Part B you pay a premium, but my friends pay in the year 2012 $99.90 a month is way below what you would pay if you have to get private health insurance. The 93 months start after the month after the last month of your trial work period. Okay and we already said that, to qualify you must already have Medicare, which of course you would have had if you worked in your trial work period and be working at the SGA level, but not be medically improved. In other words you're working at the SGA level or above, but Social Security has not said they've looked at you and done a continuing disability review and that you are no longer disabled period. Forget about the earnings, we're talking about medically disabled. And then although the cash benefits may stop due to work, you know now that health insurance is going to continue and the SSDI will for almost eight years and that's wonderful. You can buy into that for eight years. Absolutely wonderful, if you are under age 65, disabled and no longer entitled for free Medicare hospital insurance Part A, because you successfully returned to work, you may be eligible for a program that helps pay your Medicare Part A monthly premium. And that's a very specialized program, to be eligible for this help, you have to continue to have a disabling impairment and, not or and sign up for Premium Hospital Insurance and have limited income and have limited resources and not already be eligible for Medicaid. Okay so we want you to know that, you can go on the SocialSecurity.gov Website and put in the words Medicare Part -- Medicare Hospital Insurance Part A, free and it will come up for you. Every state as I told before has its own Medicaid Office, okay and for help you can always call the 1-800-MEDICARE Line and they can give you those -- the numbers if you can't find them on your own. You will always when you call up the Medicare Office, you're going to be asked for your Medicare number, you're going to be transferred to the main menu. At that point you choose other choices and then you choose when they -- when it comes up another question. At that point they're actually going to send you to a live representative, because if not you're going to be in what I call -- no that -- you know, voicemail type help, which you can never get -- get anywhere. So you've got to be prepared to tell them what state you're in, and to write down a toll free number for additional information, because you're calling them to get additional information about these programs. Now at this point before we go on I would like to see if there are any other questions and Jayme [assumed spelling] do you want to come on and see and let us know if there's questions that you've got in from through your Gmail account?

>> Sure Ed we do have a Medicare question for you [crosstalk].

>> Great.

>> If I'm eligible for Medicare in February 2013 and I start working this month using the ticket to work, will I still get my Medicare?

>> Absolutely, 2000 of course, 13, yes you will.

>> Okay great and what is the cost to buy Medicaid?

>> Well Medicaid there is no cost for, unless, unless you basically go out of Medicaid status and you're working and then because you're no longer getting any type of benefit, but you're disabled you say I want to go back in and apply for the Medicaid buy-in at that point some states have a premium, some states do not have a premium. It depends on your state, but for Medicaid purposes, if you're on the SSI Program, there is no premium. If you're on the SSDI Program and you earn above the income level for your states Medicaid program, there's something called a Spend-down, which is the difference between what you are earning and the resource level. So in other words let's say you get $900 a month in SSDI. You're entitled to a $20 disregard, general income exclusion that leaves 880. Let's assume that in your state the Medicaid amount -- income amount for one person is 780, well 880 is 100 dollars more, you would have to pay $100 as a Medicaid spend-down at that point. If however, you were to go to work, you're getting SSDI, you've already believed disabled, you will qualify for the Medicaid buy-in Program in your state. And typically it is usually going to be less than your spend-down. In New York there is no premium right now. In some states there's a $25 premium. In some states there's $50 premium a month, it depends, it's a great question.

>> Okay thank you Ed. This next one I'm going to open up to all of our presenter's, we have a lot of people wanting to know if there's any way they can get financial help with education or job training.

>> [Background sound] [Crosstalk] Jackie.

>> I can open that one up, actually what we do is whenever as an employment network we're focusing on the actual job services. So how can you identify jobs and the support so long with it? For vocational training or education a lot of times either you can go directly through the schools and get the funding through like the Federal Student Loan -- a grant that may be available based on your income level. Or you can utilize the vocation -- state vocation rehabilital services, they may approve you under the areas that you want the training and then that way you get the additional support from them along with the education.

>> Great thank you and does ticket to work help me go to college at all?

>> Again that would probably be the best thing for you to check with like the State Vocational Rehabilitation and see if your education goal is approved and if they would be able to help you with those resources. Usually Employment Networks, if you're selecting them on your team, they're going to be focused more on identifying the jobs for you, so not as much on the educational part as much as the job services. So I would say -- I would start with Vocational Rehabilitation in your state for those services.

>> Right, and that's a great point there, and if I may follow-up with that, Jayme, because this is -- that's an important question. When you look at the timely progress chart that Social Security has come up with, it lists Education in there, so that it can be -- you can be found to be using your ticket if you're actually going to [inaudible] through a program. But the problem, as I think it was Jackie was talking, stated is that oftentimes if you're working with [inaudible] they don't want to be providing all these services to you and yet not be getting paid. And so you've got to find the right Employment Network or the -- at the very least go to the Vocational Rehabilitation Agency in your state that can actually provide you with that assistance.

>> Right and sometimes when an Employment -- if an Employment Network has other funding sources, maybe other grants, they might be able to help and that's where you have to contact those Employment Networks and say what services do you provide and what can you help me, as far as my Employment Goals? So it'd be very important to contact them.

>> Absolutely. Jayme, other questions?

>> Yes Sir we sure do, Linda [assumed spelling] do I need my actual ticket to work to assign my ticket, do I have to have the physical ticket?

>> No the -- the -- the ticket to work goes by your Social Security Number and actually all you need to do is when you're contacting an Employment Network, they may ask what is your Social Security Number and that's only to see if you're eligible for the service. So be aware of that when you call them and you say I'm interested in your service, they will ask you what your Social Security Number is to check that and verify that you're eligible.

>> That's right and in fact Social Security is no longer sending out physical tickets.

>> Correct.

>> So basically your ticket is your Social Security Number.

>> Yes.

>> Because if you're getting benefits basically you're entitled to a ticket.

>> Great thank you and is there an age range for the Ticket to Work Program?

>> Eighteen to 64.

>> Exactly, 65 cut-off.

>> Thank you very much.

>> If you're already enrolled in the program though, before 65 it -- you can still be in the program, but until you reach your full retirement age and that's listed on the Social Security Website, depending on what year you were born.

>> Absolutely, but you can't start a new one at 65.

>> Yeah, can't start a new one, no.

>> [Inaudible].

>> Okay one last question; can I get any help with starting my own business?

>> That would probably be going through the State Vocational Rehabilitation Agency to see what services they have to offer, usually Employment Networks, I mean don't really offer assistance in that area, but I mean you never know, you can just contact Employment Networks or Vocational Rehabilitation Agencies to see what they can provide for you.

>> And additionally if you qualify, having a plan for achieving Social Support by helping start your own business. Because you could actually, depending on what benefit you get, if you're getting SSDI you could put some of your SSDI into the PASS Plan and have your SSI increased or become eligible for SSI if your -- if you meet the resource qualifications and criteria. So again my suggestion is by all means contact the VR and also go to PASSOnline.org that will explain whether you might be eligible for a PASS that might help you with self-employment.

>> Another thing, just to kind of touch on that Ed, will quick and I've had a couple of individuals I've worked with on this, is if they are SSDI and they go to work, they're used to one set -- one income, set that other check aside and then by the time that you've used those nine trial work months, you have nine months worth of check, you know, from each one of those months that you put aside and saved that you can use towards getting your employment -- your business started also.

>> Oh that -- [inaudible] who's talking is that Jackie?

>> [Crosstalk] No that was Linda.

>> Linda -- Linda that's an incredible point and in fact that brings us to another point that's really important to let people know, sometimes people are working during the trial work period and they've got, you know, earnings above the SGA and they're getting a check and then at the end of those nine months they entered a new phase the EPE, Extended Period of Eligibility and after the grace period, if you're earning above the SGA, you don't get a check anymore, but people have gotten used to a standard of living with both checks.

>> Uh-hum.

>> Right? Then they're in trouble after that three months of grace period. And so [crosstalk].

>> Actually just had that just happen Ed.

>> There you have it, right and so [crosstalk].

>> One of my clients I asked her.

>> Right, so we said to people, listen you can't take up a new standard of living because that second check, that SSDI check and your current earnings level is going to disappear after a certain month of trial.

>> Uh-hum

>> Correct.

>> Right so very important [inaudible] that was a great question someone asked there. And listen it's time now for me to start on wrapping up here. A review session, so the question is hey so when I'm ready to work, what do I need? And we say build an employment team, okay? That's the way to begin, you build an employment team and this is review, speak with an expert at the Ticket to Work Helpline, you've got the number listed there, I gave it to you before, learn more about the Ticket to Work, by going to SocialSecurity.gov, it's a phenomenal Website. You could -- if you go to that Website and you put in slash work, you have an incredible array of information about success stories, information about SSDI, SSI, the Redbook, everything is in there. Next you want to find and Employment Network or a State Vocational Rehabilitation Agency that suits your needs, that's willing to assist you in getting a job and helping you understand what's going to happen to your benefits when you have a job. And also then with their helping you out, you want to stay connected to that Employment Team as you explore your work options down the road. Now, you need to know that we actually have an Accessing the Facebook Question and Answer period after today's Webinar, beginning at 4:30 and ending at 5:30 Eastern, no Standard Time. To view that Facebook Question and Answer Session, you have to visit www.Facebook.com/choosework one work, choosework. To participate and ask questions during the Facebook Question and Answer period you've got to log in with a Facebook account, which means that in some cases folks are going to need to create a Facebook Account. And we've given you the place where you can create a Facebook account and I think Jayme in this slide we left out the word the letter T correct? Its help create account.

>> Yes.

>> Yeah okay, I just want to make [laughter] and then Facebook accessibility and the assistive technology can be found on www.facebook.com/help/accessibility and it is in fact very helpful. You can then also, just so you know, participate via HTML and we've given you the site there and if you cannot access Facebook at all, you can do what you've done during this Webinar. You go write questions to chooseworkquestions@gmail.com and Jayme will either answer them or if she can't answer them, she will forward them to one of us who will answer those questions for you. And finally do not forget visit the choosework blog after the session to access the Facebook question and answer transcript. So look folks, we've gone through an hour and a half, we hope we answered some of the questions you had. This is a very much a you've asked us and we're trying to answer issues where we're giving you any detailed information on the trial work period, EPE or without a reinstatement, or on the SSI programs. The idea was to give you snapshots based on the questions that have been asked over the last number of months. Snapshots that you could then say oh yeah, that reminds me and will allow you to ask more questions which we've tried to answer during today's Webinar. I want to thank each and every one of you for having been with us today. And at this point Jayme, I'm going to log us out and remind people to go to Facebook so that you can continue the discussion. So Jayme, I'm going to say good-bye to everybody, thank you for participating, remember if you don't have a Facebook account, you can go to choosework questions at gmail.com and we will answer them for you, have a great day and thank you Linda, thank you Jackie and thank you Jayme.

>> Thank you.

>> Adios.