Social Security Disability Benefits: Making an Informed Decision About Work – Live Captioning Transcript – 12.9.15>> Good afternoon, everyone in thank you for joining us for today's webinar Social Security

disability benefits informed decision-making. Today's webinar is sponsored by Acorda

Therapeutics. Am going to invite my collect, Nakia Matthews, to take a moment to give you a

few housekeeping tips.

>> Good afternoon, everyone, thank you, Elizabeth. The audio for today's webinar is being

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portion you may also ask questions by e-mailing them to me directly at nmatthew@ndi-inc.org.

Please note this webinar is been recorded in the materials will be placed on the NDI website at

www.realeconomicimpact.org/finan cialwellness. If you experience technical difficulties during

the webinar please use the chat box or e-mail me at nmatthew@ndi-inc.org. With that I will turn

it back over to Elizabeth.

>> Thank you so much, Nakia, and thank you to everyone on the line for joining us today.

Amobi are moderated today my name is Elizabeth Jennings and the deputy director at National

Disability Institute. Today, we will go over financial wellness, what it means, how you qualify for

Social Security disability insurance, the impact of work on those benefits, where to turn for

assistance. We will try to leave time for questions and answers, that we have a lot to share

with you. We are going to give you some suggested next steps and rapid. You have the chat

box, as Nakia mentioned, please send us your questions as you think of them. That save some

for the end Emma we can answer them then. You don't get a question answered today, please

send us your e-mail address in the chat box privately, we will be happy to respond to you. Or,

we will give you are contact information at the very end. You're welcome to contact us at any

point in time. I want to say thank you again to our sponsor, Acorda Therapeutics, who makes

these financial wellness webinars possible. For those of you who are new to our webinars,

National Disability Institute is a national research and development organization, with the

mission to promote income preservation and asset development for persons with disabilities.

And to build a better economic future for Americans with disabilities. Here is why. The national

poverty estimates don't look so great for individuals with disabilities. For those 18-64, 12.5% of

people without disabilities live below the poverty level. For individuals with disabilities, more

than two times that number, 28.2% live below the poverty level. When I updated these

numbers for today's webinar, actually the poverty level have gotten worse for people with

disabilities. Review the Americans With Disabilities Act as our mandate, support the economic

self-sufficiency of individuals with disabilities. The act says the nations proper goals regarding

individuals with disabilities are to assure equality of opportunity, full participation, independent

living and economic self-sufficiency.

>> It is that piece of the act that we focus on, and so many other disability organizations do in

a credible job of focusing on the other pieces. So what is financial wellness? We define it as

the state of the persons finances with the intent of working towards financial behaviors that

limit stress and the impact of stress on one's daily life. And anybody living with a disability

knows that stress can just exacerbate medical conditions that are already challenging. There is

a lot of pieces to financial wellness. There is being financially literate, understanding your

money and how to manage it, accessing affordable, financial services. Are you with the right

bank or credit union? Utilizing favorable tax provisions, which we are going to talk to you about

on our next webinar in 2016. Budgeting, understanding public benefit rules, which we will start

to tackle today, building and maintaining assets, accessing available health care subsidies and

understanding work and long-term disability options.

>> While in the current webinar series we are not able to tackle all of these issues, if you take

the time to go to our archives, Nakia if you could put that in the chat box please, you can find

previous webinars on each of these areas. Why is it important? It impacts our mental and

physical health for everybody with or without a disability. It impacts our self-concept. It can

actually change our status with other community stakeholders and give us a chance to have a

voice in the community by having the funds to leave our home and participate in community

activities and directly impact our quality of life. When you look at the financial wellness of

people with disabilities and chronic health conditions, you find an incredible setback. The most

basic level of financial wellness is being banked or having access to affordable, financial

services. We did a study last year that mines data from the federal FDIC that showed

individuals with disabilities are un- banked and under banked at a rate much higher than those

without disabilities. You can see that without a disability, it is the green area that are fully

banked and with a disability it is the red and yellow area and banked and under banked. That

means almost half actually just over half 51% of people with disabilities either are not using a

bank or are using a bank but are still using other predatory services like payday loans and

cash checking. We also, prior to launching this webinar several years ago, conducted a survey

with our partners at MSAA. We learned that for individuals with MS 51 .1% of households

earned less than $35,000 annually. When asked about the ability to pay all their bills in a

typical month, 32% had a very difficult time paying their bills and almost half reported

somewhat difficult. 43% of these respondents with MS reported that their financial status has

affected their ability to access medical care at some point in time. Almost 72 percent reported

that they do not have enough in savings to cover three months expenses. 67.1 percent

reported their finances were worse since their MS diagnosis and a large majority, 73.7 percent,

reported they were not aware of for had not used financial stability programs available for

available in the local area. Again you can check out our financial wellness webinar series

archives to learn more about these opportunities. The strategies exist. There are a lot of

strategies to support financial wellness. We are going to talk about some today, especially

around Social Security disability insurance. I wanted to give you this little view of how many

there are.

>> Again, in our archives we address several weeks. If you see one on the screen or when you

pull down the PowerPoint slides after today's presentation, please do reach out to us. We

would be happy to talk to you about any of these strategies and what services are available

within your local area to help you. The challenge becomes that for millions of working age

adults with disabilities, a dependence on public benefits for income, health, -- healthcare, food

and housing becomes a trap that require staying poor to stay eligible. It really benefits you to

have all of the rules. Today, we will tackle just one of those public benefits, Social Security

disability insurance, and my colleague, Kevin Nickerson, the codirector of the American Dream

Empolyment Network here at National Disability Institute, is going to provide for you a clear

understanding of how the SSDI rules works you can make your own informed choice about

returning to work and have a better understanding of your ability to earn money and save

money while holding onto critically needed healthcare for your SSDI benefits. Forgive me for

going fast, but Kevin has so much great information to share with you, that I want to hand it off

to him as quickly as possible. Thank you so much, Kevin, for joining us today.

>> Thank you for the introduction, Elizabeth. And thank you for joining us today, folks. Those

were difficult stats to see. I will say this audience, which I assume is comprised mostly of folks

that get some kind of a benefit to the disability or SSI is my favorite audience to talk to the

configure these two was that usually don't end up in the same sentence together and that is

Social Security disability benefits and excited. I hope what we share today will be exciting to

folks trying to look for a path back to financial security. There is a lot to cover. We are going to

try to dig right in and see if we have time for questions at the end.

>> Social Security administers several programs, but there really two primary programs we

think of when we think of supporting people that have a disability, unable to work at least at

substantial levels. And we will talk about that as well. That is Social Security disability

insurance, SSDI or supplemental security income. We know many folks want to work and they

want to get to work and get to sell supporting levels again but they have been misinformed in

many ways by many folks, including sometimes information received from Social Security

which can be very confusing. We understand a lot of people want to work that it is a very

confusing process. We are going to try to make sense of this today, the best we can. There are

many work incentives, that is the good news today. Despite all the negative statistics we just

saw, there is some good news. Work incentives we are going to lay out today are often

misunderstood. Often people don't understand them. We are going to try to make a few of

these clear today so you can make real informed choices.

>> I did say these are the main programs. Understand there are other programs we won't

focus on as much today. One for example children's disability benefits or disabled widow or

widower is benefits. Again, today, given the complexity of all of these programs, we have to

focus on one. We decided to focus on SSDI benefits. So in terms of eligibility, Elizabeth

highlighted that it is unfortunate, but often folks have to stay in poverty to stay eligible for the

benefits that other eligibility so required specific to disability here are some things we wanted

you to know. You have to prove you have a documented medical disability that is -- has lasted

12 months or expected to last 12 months and or result in death. It is a significant disability. The

get this as long-term disability versus short-term disability. This is not short-term like many

states have and offer. This is long-term disability for a significant condition that gets people

eligible for this. So here is the other definition you have to meet Social Security has put forward

in their manual. The inability to engage in substantial, gainful activity, we will cover that, by

reason of any documented medical impairment that will last 12 months or longer and/or results

in death. Is not just that you have a condition folks, is that the condition prevents you from

being gainfully employed. We will go over what that gainful employment rule is all about in

detail.

>> The difference here is individuals who are blind don't have to prove they are unable to work

really have to meet the level of blindness and have insured status which means they paid

enough into the system to be eligible like anybody would for disability. We talked about this

SGA, what is this about. A role that comes into play for eligibility but it comes into play later

beyond eligibility. I will show you both pieces. In terms of eligibility remember the slide previous

that talked about an able to perform gainful activity or gainful work. What is that? It is a

fictitious number. a number that has come up with based on percentage of poverty. If you look

at the bottom since 2013 SGA non- blind level of folks that apply to have a disability other than

blindness the SGA level would be $1090 per month for this year. I put next year's rates on here

too because they were just published. For next year the level would be $1130 per month. If

looks are blind it is 1820. This year and that does not change for next year. In terms of

eligibility if you are working and earning at the time you are applying they may not look at that

application conceivably have a condition, a disability, it is not significant enough apparently to

prevent you from being gainfully employed, so it is a combination of factors there.

>> This is what SGA employment is all about. This is a test used during eligibility. The other

thing you should know is it is determined based on your gross earnings before taxes. There

are some exceptions to that rule when it comes to self-employment in which case they look at

something called net earnings from self-employment. That generally speaking when we talk

about SGA, that is how it works. Gross wages. Let's move forward here. Additional pieces on

eligibility. I briefly mentioned you have to have insured status. What does that mean? While it

means you have worked enough and developed credits by paying FICA taxes. I'm always am

always curious if anybody knows what that is because you are paying for it out of your

paycheck. I always ask this and believe it or not after all these years over 20 years no one has

being able to tell me what that is. If you want to type that into the chat and break the cycle for

me I would love that if you know what that is all about because you only have a few seconds to

do that and I will tell you what it is. There is some exceptions to that role. When I talk about

other kinds of disability benefits I discussed children's disability benefits, which is formally

known as DAC or Social Security disability for an adult child. That is an exception to that rule.

Folks can actually be attached to this benefit based on a parent's work history as long as a

disability occurred prior to age 22. The person is not married to another beneficiary, a nontitle

to beneficiary and again if they had insufficient FICA, again one of the ways they can still

connect through a parent's actual work history but there is a catch. The parent has to be either

retired, disabled or deceased. For that to happen.

>> I did not see any takers on FICA, let me tell you with that is all about what that is all about.

FICA contributions or what we call credits of coverage, again required for you to have that

insured status. To be eligible for this. This is an insurance program. Social security disability

insurance. Numbers vary based on your age, but generally I want you to know someone

looking to have about 20 quarters of coverage in the last ten years prior to becoming disabled.

With that mean Social Security is looking at recent work. You might wonder what are these

quarters of coverage all about. You earn Acorda, for this year, when you earn $1220 or more.

So it's an issue or not much you have developed one of those credits of coverage. Of course

you can earn up to four a year. So that is how you earned this insured status through your

payroll contributions. Someone asks what is FICA, that's a great question the Federal

insurance contribution act. That was established I do believe in 1935. As a tax provision of the

Social Security act.

>> That is what FICA is all about. You are paying for it when you work. At least it does

something for you folks. That is what I want you to understand when we pay these taxes this

helps get us that insured status in the case we don't need to but if we ever needed to it allows

us to have access to disability benefits. Something else that comes with this benefit, that is

medical insurance. In this case we are talking about disability, not SSI, we don't have time to

cover both the one we talk about disability and medical insurance we are talking about

Medicare. What people are eligible for. But there's a 24 month waiting period once you are

eligible for cash benefits. Here at different parts of this. Medicare invokes unaligned to get this

benefit certainly know what I'm talking about. As part a, hospital insurance, Part B like routine

care and part D which is now available which covers prescription drugs.

>> Another piece of the puzzle here I want you to understand in terms of eligibility. There's a

five-month waiting period. Even after Social Security goes to the process of looking at your

claim and let's say they approve it, and they figure out your date of onset, an important date

they sort out when did this start, then there is a five-month waiting period for you to receive

benefits. It is after you receive the first cash benefit that the 24 month waiting period against

the Medicare. So this is what it -- more like an insurance program that is why they are

designed this way.

>> We talked about SGA and how it impacts eligibility, meaning you have to be below the

amount when applying for benefits. I am assuming a lot of folks on the line have this benefit. I

am going to play out more, and subsequent slides, what does this SGA rule do after eligibility.

And that will become important in today's conversation. The last point is really interesting and

important. We talk about asset limitations for many programs. Again, because this is an

insurance program, there is no asset limit for disability. It doesn't matter how much you have in

the bank and so forth, things you own, your entitlement is based on that insured status and

meeting the disability definition. Assets are not a problem folks. If you have disability and you

thought that was a problem it is not. It might be for other programs you are on but not for

disability.

>> Let's talk about this process Social Security uses to continue to look at whether you meet

the criteria. This is called the continuing disability review. So, by law, Social Security has to

periodically look at everybody's claim that gets benefits, to decide if they are still disabled and

the rules set forth under the Social Security act. These are called medical CDRs by the way.

Under the standard once individuals are receiving benefits, the subsequent reviews have to

have evidence in play that shows medical improvement has occurred. And that the ability to

work and perform SGA level employment has occurred. If that is not the case, you continue to

get benefits. Social Security has to develop this, by the way, before they would decide to ever

stop benefits. It involves a few steps, as you can imagine. One is an interview at the local

office, forms of course will be filled out and Social Security sends that information on to the

disability determination service they often contract with interstate. Could be averted agencies.

For them to review and decide if you are medically disabled. The last thing I want you to know

about CDRs is you might wonder how often do they happen. And that would be a good

question because it depends, like many things in this world of Social Security.

>> It depends on the severity of the disability but generally I can tell you they will occur every

one, three or five or seven year increments. Again based on the severity of your disability.

Some adjusting news you might not have heard before is that CDRs can be suspended when

someone is using their ticket in the ticket to work program to make you don't know what that is,

hold on because we will cover that today too. More important points I thought you should know

about disability after eligibility, Social Security continues to monitor your earnings to determine

if you are performing SGA level work activity. I guess you could say this is something very

much on the forefront of what Social Security does. They are always looking at this, wanting to

know if people return to work of course and how much you are earning.

>> This can impact your ongoing cash benefit. And eventually, ongoing eligibility. But, there

are a number of work incentives to protect beneficiaries like yourself. That you attempt

returning to work for quite a period of time and we are going to discuss those. That is what

gets us a little more exciting about the roles that are in play here. Remember that SSDI is an

entitlement benefit based, again, on your earnings in the FICA contributions that she made. I

am just reminding you again, there is no asset limit for this benefit. This chart that I put up

certainly looks confusing and I don't intend to go through all of it, here is what I want you to

know. This ruling, does highlight a Supreme Court decision that can impact when work

incentives become available to newly eligible SSDI beneficiaries. Again, it is not my intention to

review the sole decision today but I want you to understand this simple piece. If you return to

gainful employment within the first 12 months of an initial, favorable decision or before a final

favorable decision on your case has been made, this can create issues with both eligibility and

availability of certain work incentives. What I really wanted you to see from this today, and I will

continue to encourage you throughout his training, whenever possible I highly encourage

everybody on the line to get connected with a certified work incentive counselor.

>> I am going to provide the information about how to connect with somebody who can

support you in that way. And this is just one example of something they would look at,

especially -- I didn't give you my background, but I have been a work incentive advisor for over

20 years. I have been involved to further was formal certification process and later when there

was I was involved in both the BPA oh project, the predecessor to work incentive planning

assistance project which I also worked under for a number of years. Whenever somebody

would come in and talk about the fact that they just started getting benefits this always came to

my mind. Look at this closely because we want to make sure we do the right thing especially

after initial eligibility. What I put this up here? Not to scare you but for folks out there that might

be new to benefit someone should understand I want to front of someone who can give you

good counsel about returning to work.

>> If benefits are immediate and you have been on benefits and beyond the period where we

have to be concerned you have a number of work incentives available to you. Here's a

comparison chart, the one opportunity I will give you to look at both disability incentives and at

a glance SSI incentives. If there are folks on the line today they get SSI, I don't want you to feel

left out. Apologize we can only cover one that one benefit is enough in terms of complexity at a

time. You can see there is a lot of work incentives for both. But we will focus on the left on the

Social Security disability side of the fence and walk you through a number of incentives we

think are important for you to understand.

>> Again, when we are done today, my intention is not that you will be experts, but informed

about some options you have. From there, you'll take that forward and get connected with

somebody who can give you this guidance. Specific incentives the want to hone in today trial

work amount. What is a trial work period? We will talk about that. Extended period of eligibility,

impairment related work expenses, something called special conditions or subsidies, we will

talk about extended Medicare coverage because I can tell you there's not one person I talked

to over the years that is in concert about what will happen to health care if they return to work.

We will cover that today too. Another little gem most people don't know about called expedited

reinstatement of benefits. That is fairly new. Just to preface what I mean when I see fairly new

in the world of Social Security that is anything less than ten years.

>> Let's talk about trial work. Here is some good days. So folks that get disability benefits are

entitled to this trial work period. There are nine trial work period months available for you to

test your work skills while continuing to receive your cash benefits. During this trial work period

you will continue to get your full benefit check, regardless of the amount of money you earn. Is

hopefully good news to folks. Here's something else you need to understand. Trial work period

loans don't need to be earned in a row they don't need to be consecutive. What do they count

these? Well win to get things happen when you go to work, and two you earn more than the

trial work level which we approached in this bullet here. They are counted when you earn a

specific amount of money in a month. Each year, this changes. I get the number for last year I

will remind you again that next year the trial work level has been posted as $1800. -- $810.

This year 780. You have these nine trial work period months. If and when you use all nine of

these trial work period months within a 60 month rolling window of time within a five-year

period it is going to start the next part of this incentive package for you. Social Security called

your extended period of eligibility.

>> Before I go there and talk about that, how do you figure out how many trial work period

months you abuse? If you've been a good recordkeeper, you kept track of your earnings since

you started getting benefits. You have probably been reporting them I hope, I strongly

encourage you to do that today right along the path of our discussion because it is good for

you if you report better for you than for Social Security. You probably kept track and you can

look at months you've earned that you might say I don't remember. How can I find out how

many days I have used. Let's pause before he moved to the next incentive and talk about how

you can get a report that will help you understand how many trial work period months you've

used already. You have access to a report called the benefit planning query they call it a

BPQY, in this report there is information about your benefits such as the type of disability

benefits you receive and the cash amount you receive. Your health insurance, your scheduled

cycle for your next CD-R, the medical CDR if there is a rep payee associated that will be listed.

It will also show you a little of your work history including the use of any trial work period

months. Social Security will provide these reports to beneficiaries. They will provide it to

representative payees and authorized representatives upon request. I will show you how you

make that request.

>> I want to know something else that while this BPQY is definitely a critical tool in assisting

you, and understanding of benefits, they may not always be up to date. Again, I will come back

to this recommendation. If the Bible -- advisable to have someone understanding benefits to

work with you and examine this report with you. For my many years of service, I would always

critically examine this BPQY to see if the information really reflects what the customer told me

about their work history. Of course I was reviewing this with the customer. Sometimes it was

necessary for us to contact the Social Security office and update them on work not included. If

that happens it certainly could change the information reflected in the BPQY, after which you

could request an updated BPQI. I'm telling you two things. It is good to get the same request

this. Is a beneficiary you can request the strictly. As an authorized representative I will show

you on the next light how you get these. Number two, and telling you look at them critically.

Make sure everything in it looks accurate. You will probably be better off reading this with

someone who has an understanding of these reports. So here is how you get one. I've given

you a bunch of information here, you will be able to access this PowerPoint to the number and

times you can call, one way to do it. If there is someone other than yourself, the beneficiary,

that wants to request this summer for example a rep payee or appointed representative, they

need to submit two forms to make that happen. They are called SSA 3288 consent for release

of information forms. For example if I was asking for one of these, I have done this plenty over

the years, I would have to complete the 3288 which includes information about me if I'm

making a request, my association with you, let's say my customer, and you would have to sign

off on that and includes information about you, your name, your Social Security number, a

couple other items and needs to be signed off. Actually two need to be submitted.

>> They look the same but one is to release the actual Social Security records. Information

about the use of your trial work period and insurance you received and so forth. The other is to

release information Social Security gets from the IRS and that would be your earnings

information. Both of those need to be completed. You might say that is great but I get it's great

when I get these things and a link we provided you in the slide says you can access these

forms if you are working with somebody and they want to give you permission to help them get

that report. Again I will go back to -- I recommend you work with somebody through the WIPA

project, and subsequent 53 will show you how to get to those folks. But make sure you're

working with someone who understands the process. If you are working with someone who

understands these reports, certainly someone through a WIPA project for example, with able

to do this report is incorporate this into a really thorough report often called a benefit summary

analysis. Very useful information. Specific to you, the customer. They don't all look like this but

I just gave you an example of what one might look like, one of about eight pages in this report

that you get. Some people don't like the whole -- might not gravitate to understanding that kind

of long reports in a written format. But a lot of people appreciate things in Britain format.

>> It is a critical piece, starting point that I would work with folks to develop this kind of report

so we had a baseline. They may come in and say I'm not working now what is going to happen

if I do this. This is my goal, what I want to do, what is that going to look like. If they do that, if I

have that to work with the goal we are trying to get to then we can play out what it would look

like. If you stay connected to somebody who can give you this advice meant, when you

actually get the job of course the report need to be updated because things change. I have a

child. We are not protecting numbers, we know what the numbers are. Offered this job at this

many hours at this wage and the report would be updated. Another advantage to working with

someone who can give you this kind of guidance.

>> Back to work incentives. We talk about trial work, let's say you use those nine trial months

within that 60 month rolling time window we discussed, what happens next is you get another

three year period Social Security provides called an extended period of eligibility. A couple

things, the number of things you need to understand about this, unlike the trial work period,

those only get used when working over the certain amount we talked about, once the extended

period of eligibility begins with your working or not it's done in 36 months. I'm telling you this

because I would like to see people use this incentive package wisely and to really plan to use

of these incentives based on your work goals. What does EPE do for you? It is another

protective period to help you in the transition to work that protects your eligibility status as

indicates. Extended period of eligibility, not necessarily your monthly cash benefits.

>> Curious what Social Security does during this EPE, Social Security evaluates your gross

wages each month. During that EPE. They will also take into account additional work

incentives that might be in play here. I will play out a little of what that means too. If your

earnings are more than the SGA amount you may not receive your cash benefits that month.

Thought, you haven't lost your connection to the program, you are still an SSDI beneficiary,

you still get your health insurance during the extended period of eligibility. The only question is

if you are over that amount Social Security is asking based on evidence implied do we pay you

that month or not. That is the question. Here are more things you need to know about the EPE.

When -- I put a term here called countable wages. That's an important thing to understand. I

probably should've spelled this out better in the slide but countable wages are what is left after

they look gross wages minus work incentives. At the end of the day that is what they are really

looking at to make SGA determinations.

>> After the trial work period, the thing that can happen and will happen if you are working at

significant levels is eventually benefits will cease. I did not see termination, I said sensation.

There is a difference. When your wages exceed the SGA level for a period of time, usually

three to six month period Social Security monitors and sees a pattern of earnings more than

SGA. The first month of the pattern will be your cessation month. The next two months are part

of a package they call your grace period. And for that three month period even though they

have established we should of stopped paying you this month because of your earnings, that

month in the next two months they will continue to pay you even though you're over the SGA

limits. Market news. Now we have nine months and three months now we have a year we

know you can continue to receive benefits even if your earnings are way over the SGA limits.

>> Let's talk about termination. I don't want that to be an ugly word to people. Have to tell you

one thing in my experience helping people return to work that I have come to understand is

this. Termination of benefits should never be a surprise. Should be a planned event. If you are

working with an advisor it will be a planned event. It will not surprise you. Let's get that out of

the way. I don't want you to think this will come out of the blue because you are being advised

properly you will understand when this is going to happen. When the extended period of

eligibility is over, the three-year period, if your earnings continue to be over the SGA limits, and

there aren't incentives that can reduce that amount to the lookout, what we call a countable

wage, that is when they can tournament -- terminate benefits, but not until that time. For self-

employment SGA determination is very much similar that a little different in that they can also

look at the number of hours somebody is working to make an SGA determination not just the

amount of net earnings produced from that self-employment. That gets a little more

complicated. Template we don't want to get too much in the weeds that today but I want to

always point out self-employment is a little different so make sure you understand those rules

by connecting with somebody. That 36 month extended period of eligibility begins the month

following the nine trial work period month you've used if you happen to work the night trial work

period month and stopped working for whatever reason it doesn't stop the extended period of

eligibility from beginning and ending three years later. You may in a lot of cases, if some he

works through their trial work period right into the extended period of eligibility I want to be

clear on that because that can kind of disappear and be gone in terms of being able to use that

effectively if you are not careful with it this slide kind of captures these pieces we talked about.

>> Frankly, this is more visual. I think this makes more sense to me. This is sort of the SSDI

timeline I like to call it and where you are in this really depends when we meet with folks. They

can be at any place in this timeline from the beginning to the left just before the trial work

period. In other words you haven't used any incentives to someone way beyond the extended

period of eligibility. That is the need for that report I talked about. That is the get the we get the

benefits planning query because we don't want to guess these things we want to verify them.

We verify information. Again we have a visual look at the process. The trial work period, nine

months available, only count if you are over 780 if not you are not even showing up on the

radar yet. If you are over 780, I don't care for the 1780 or 7000 in a month you keep your

benefits and they count one of those months. Was a January this year you had all this

incentive package available and you start going to work and you are making $2500 a month,

the first month, January, $2500 more than 780s of January we count is your first trial work

period month. Let's say you carried on and worked right through for nine months, that would be

over the trial work period. That would be I think around September, is that right? October

would be the beginning of your EPE in that example. From there we can project when his EPE

over. If I know when it starts I continue tell you when it is over because it is over in 36 months.

The good news is that it provides you protection from losing your eligibility to the system, to the

program. It doesn't necessarily protect your mission -- your monthly cash benefits. It really

depends on your earnings. If you are over SGA you might not get to benefit if below you will

get your benefit.

>> When I said if you are over SGA, you might lose your benefit tonight, I am always careful

how I think -- say things when it comes to Social Security you might pitching might not even

though you are over SGA because we may be able to use additional work incentives to reduce

your gross wages. I will show you how that works, to a level that would only count certain

which is below SGA. That is where we get countable wages. I showed the grace period after

the trial work period. It doesn't have to. The grace period could happen anytime after the trial

work period not necessarily right after the trial work period. It occurs when they start to see the

pattern of earnings over SGA. That is how they develop your cessation month. When should

we stop benefits because the person has a pattern of earnings over SGA. So this is in a

nutshell of view of what's available and I hope this is -- don't necessarily hope this is new to

folks but if it is that this is exciting you see there is opportunity for you to go back to work and

try things without a male having the rug pulled out from Avenue in terms of benefits, health

insurance and so forth. Cervelli again. The note at the bottom 12 months you can earn as

much as you want if you have that trial work period and grace period available.

>> Wide of the net often this? They want you to try to go back to work. They want to see how

you are going to do without pulling the rug out from under you. It doesn't benefit anybody to

stop benefits if you try something and it doesn't work. That is for the whole incentive package

is used to evaluate let's talk about additional work incentives so that is kind of the nickel tour of

the basic incentives available for disability I think everybody should know. There are many

more work incentives that can help you in this process of returning to work one of which is

called an impairment related work expenses. This can apply to folks that receive SSI. The way

it impacts people that receive SSI is very different. I will focus on how it impacts people who

get disability today. So what is it? It is a way to account for additional expenses you might

have. As somebody who is working and who experienced the disability. Really away an

evening the playing field a few well. If you've got an expense related to your condition

somebody doesn't help because they don't have the same condition you do and you need the

item to keep working, you may have an impairment related work expenses we might use. So

here is when it exists, the first section talks about when tests and IRWE exists when you pay

for something out of your own pocket. When the item is related to your condition.

>> Last but not least, you would not able to work if you didn't purchase this item or service.

Three key ingredients has to be paid for out of your own pocket, related to condition and

necessary for you to continue to be employed. Let's think of an example. I do have some

examples on the next slide so I will hold off on that but there are many examples. Talk about

what does it do for you. Remember we talked about during the extended period of eligibility if

you are over SGA they may not pay you that month I looked wiggle room there is if you are

over SGA to have an impairment related work expenses can use to reduce some gross wages

that might be viewed below SGA even though you are earning more with this work incentives

and play he may still be able to receive your benefits that month. Let's look at the bullet I put

together a constructed for you to understand this. The amount of your approved IRWE will be

deducted from gross wages. The least with Social Security considers countable wages. That is

then used to determine your continued eligibility for either eligibility outright or eligibility for

cash benefits if you are in the extended period of eligibility. In short, annmac IRWE is used for

to allow certain wages to be excluded when Social Security is making these evaluations on

your claim. It is very important you understand this. Here are some examples. And there are

others but we would have to spend a little time. Of course you need to spend time with

somebody who really understands these incentives and these are things you would sort out

with that person but certain transportation costs.

>> I think I am going to speak on that one. Just to show you that while there are some things

on the left there always caveats that have to be considered. For example, in the case of

transportation. If there is a cost of modifications to your vehicle that you need to travel to work,

even if you use the vehicle for nonwork purposes, that can be a write off. That can be -- me to

the cost of the driver to get your work because of a disability because maybe you can drive

maybe or even paying for a taxi ride maybe you're paying a friend to take you to work because

you can't access public transportation or there's a lack of it and or you can't -- are not able to

get a drivers license for example. There even cases for transportation you can even write off

mileage in some cases. I don't want to put blanket statements out there but these are all

possibilities you can see the list I don't need to go to each but for each there are criteria we

have to look at with you individually.

>> There are number of things it can be used. Rather than be focused on exactly what those

things are that could count today, let's get what does it do for you. What can this do for you. I

think at the high-level the first thing we have to understand is we don't need to use an IRWE

for somebody who receives disability. Unless they are earning over SGA. And the amount over

SGA is so far beyond what is possible to write off it wouldn't be feasible to use an IRWE for

example. I give you this example which often is the case. Somebody wants to work and I bet

you have heard this before. If you are a service provider that you have heard this or if you are

a beneficiary you might have been forced into this. I think there is another way to look at this.

Here's example you work you earn you have an opportunity let's say to earn $1200 a month.

We know the SGA level for this year is 1090. Let's put this in perspective. Jon has an

opportunity make $1200 a month in gross wages. Maybe he gets a thousand dollars month in

his disability check. Does it make sense to earn $100 more than SG may and lose a thousand

dollars a month? I don't think so. Needed to any of you out there today. Instead what can we

do? What do people do? Here is often what people do is disappointing to me and discouraging

they will say I'm not going to take those extra hours or I am just going to stay at this level of

earnings because I know it's safe. And I don't blame people for doing that especially if he didn't

understand these incentives. But now that you get your taste of this today I hope you will look

at things differently. Here is a great example where Jon is working, has an opportunity to make

a little more than SGA and he is going to take it. We talked about this and he there were things

going on. In his case Jon had out-of-pocket expenses related to his disability.

>> Of course his ability to continue working. Here is what it is. He pays $150 a month for

paratransit services, which is just an alternate mode of public transportation services that

requires eligibility. It runs in parallel with public transportation. There is a requirement for you to

be eligible based on disability. So we know it is related to his condition and he is using this to

go to work. He is paying $150 a month out-of-pocket. There is the ingredients. Out-of-pocket,

related to employment, related to his condition. But we do? Jon took the job because we knew

this expenses existed and I already did some math before he moved forward and reflected the

1200 and gross wages, able to subtract that IRWE which was submitted to the local office. The

remaining amount for what is left, gross wages minus work incentives equals countable wages.

The last line countable wages $1050 is now what Social Security will look out for that month,

which is now less than SGA so he gets to work and earn a little more than SG which is what he

was capable of doing and wanted to do but was afraid to if we didn't have this in play. We

submitted this IRWE, they wrote off the $150 they look to the amount left less than SGA, Jon

continue to get his $1000. But in this example I said $1000 he gets to keep receiving that

because he has an impairment later work expense we were able to write off. I hope that makes

sense. It is used in situations where somebody has out-of-pocket expenses related to the

condition related to employment. Able to be written off the gross wages. Which leaves an

amount less than the SGA amount allowing Jon, even though he is working over SGA to

continue to receive his benefit that month. Now he can continue to use that every month at of

that is his expensive remote they would just need to be submitted. We will talk more about

reporting too.

>> I have another incentive to talk about often misunderstood, one I've used a fair bit over my

years called a subsidy. It is the same idea. This by the way is only going to apply to people

who receive SSDI benefits. This is an incentive only for folks that receive disability insurance

benefits. What is it? It is always hard to describe subsidy but a subsidy exists when an

employer provides accommodations. I think that is the easiest way look at it. Support extra

supervision, customize the job to meet the needs of the person working there a little bit. Maybe

the employer allows for a lower productivity standard for that person at the same wage. Some

of these things are negative but the bottom line folks I want you to understand about subsidies

this happens all the time. I like to catch this end of the term [ Indiscernible ] a way of honoring

an employer offering a job accommodation to somebody putting a value on it. If that didn't exist

maybe that person would not be able to work. That is the theory behind subsidy why Social

Security will honor this. Another piece under the umbrella of subsidy called special condition.

>> This is one outside agency maybe assist somebody in securing employment. A job

developer maybe they provide you with accommodations you need on the job maybe some

equipment, maybe support you to get to work providing a ride for you. Or on-the-job support

maybe job coaching for example. That is when an agency is involved. A false in the umbrella

of subsidy that has a specific category called special conditions. Let me give you an example it

is one thing to talk about it and another to look at it in real life. Jake is resting -- working for

restaurant at a row example somebody helped in this way Jake works for restaurant making

$1260 a month in gross wages. He is very well-liked by his employer. He does have some

physical limitations that prevent him from lifting grills that are cleaned daily. One of his

coworkers will handle this task.

>> While that is normally expected, the employer is making an accommodation. They like

Jake. Jake does a good job he just can't lift the heavy growth. Again I put here while it is a

normal part of Jake's job requirement, the employer is, dating Jake by having another

employee take on the task. Jake is allowed to arrive later than normal as well because a family

member drives them to work since he can't try. And public transportation is not available. In

this example Jake has used his trial work period up that means we know he is beyond that.

The grace period established in the case in between through the extended period of eligibility.

Let's break this down. If he is in his EPE now Social Security is again really interested in

looking at the SGA role.

>> On the surface if we look at this and Jake took the job can for simplicity let's see Jake had

$1000 he is over SGA we know the number is 1090 so that hundred and $70 over the limit. Not

enough to lose $1000 again. A good bit of. With the use of the incentive we are more flexible

and I will show you how. So it is more than SGA limits based on the gross wages. Based on

gross wages alone technically he would not be eligible for cash benefits that month. Let's look

at how subsidy can help Jake out.

>> I see some comments, I know this is a lot of information. I apologize it is a lot to digest.

Again I don't want to -- I don't want folks to feel like they will go away with you being an expert

today, that is not the point. I just want you to be aware of options available to you. SAR, time

not going to say from here but this is information overload. I agree like being fed with the

firehose and I apologize for that but so much I want you to understand. Was carried through

this employer subsidy example. We know Jake is working, a little over SGA and on the surface

that is a bad move. In the world -- real world how people don't know how these things operate

what would happen. There probably say it worked less than SGA work fewer hours. That

happens all the time. Understand people would take that stands at the did not understand how

to use and take advantage of these work incentives. When you understand here's what we

look at. In the case of subsidy there is a certain form Social Security will send to an employer

called work activity questionnaire. Help Social Security determine if there is a subsidy in play. I

have given you some categories in the middle of the form, about ten categories actually ten

exactly in this case based on what I explained to you about Jake we were able to check up a

couple items one is -- someone taking care of the grill for him and transportation. Somebody

ringing him to work the employer allows them to come late because they like him and make an

accommodation because they want to keep him around and they are allowing for this situation.

>> They use these categories we can then evaluate an amount this is worth. Really it is up to

the employer to determine and subsequent parts of this form the employer is actually asked to

evaluate the value of Jake's which is compared to others. Very difficult for employers to do.

This is one time I would often be involved with an employer in cases where folks have not

disclosed the paperwork with us we might have been behind the scenes for years this is an

example where it is important to get somebody fault that understands this process. Otherwise

employers will sometimes complete this incorrectly. Someone who's trained in understanding

these incentives will walk the employer to what this really does for Jake in this example. Let's

follow this through now that we checked a couple categories let's just say the employer

determined it was a 20 percent subsidy. Honestly when you look at that with ten categories if

you are look at the two checked off often employers would say one of two count to ten 10% for

each one of these and that is how often this is arrived at. If there's a 20 percent subsidy which

we figured out and Jake's case because of a couple categories he is being accommodated

Thomas this is what Social Security but do they would take the gross wages, subtract the

value of the subsidy 20% of 1260 is his gross wage is 252. We can subtract that. That turns

out to be 1008 dollars left and countable wages, gross wages minus work incentives equals

countable wages. Countable wages is what Social Security makes decisions based on when it

comes to SGA determination. In this example since Jake's countable wages are less than SGA

that means Jake is going to continue to be eligible for cash benefits. That is pretty exciting.

Here's an example of the real world or unfortunately these incentives are not known of quickly,

often someone like Jake would work and earn less than SGA.

>> His spirit is telling him I want to do more and can do more and that is exactly the story. We

are able to use this incentive to help him achieve what he was capable of not letting the fear of

the SGA will dictate the steps Jake took in his career path. Of course he had good advisement

and I may be biased that was me in the case helping him through this process. He continues to

work at the same place to this day well over ten years ago. That subsidy. What about

reporting? Well remember both IRWE and subsidy are used to reduce the amount of gross

wages that leaves countable wages Social Security looks at. I can't stress again enough, I

think it's important that you have somebody certified in benefits and work incentive counsel to

assist you in this. I would hate to see you take this on yourself. Both of these incentives would

need to be reported to the local field office and evidence has to be submitted with them

including pay stubs but I will talk more about wage reporting separately. With IRWE you have

to have receipts. If you are stating you have a cost remember we use the example paratransit

to keep the receipt and you submit that to the Social Security office or somebody will do that

with you to help you. We need a subsidy the documentation is the form I showed you. There is

additional evidence they can be submitted that can be submitted from an agency let's say

there was a job coach involved we talked about that is a possibility special conditions at it

works the same way, way to put a value on it. I'm not here to point out exactly how you do that

today I want you to know this exists and if you are somebody receiving the kind of support I

wanted to talk to you are working with an say is this an incentive that would work for me.

>> For subsidies that ask the work activity questionnaire I showed you earlier the claims rep

reviews the information and they adjuster which is accordingly before they make an SGA

determination. If it is in the case of IRWE, you really should talk to your claims rep if it is an

ongoing expense there is other ways to deal with that. For example they might say send it in

quarterly the work that out locally with your local claims rep. An interesting thing I did not tell

you about subsidy, one of the things I love about subsidy in terms of its use in a practical

sense is once that is established and in play as long as the person works at the site for that

employer that remains in play. I don't have to turn in anymore paperwork to keep that in

position for that person. In the case of Jake once that was submitted he is still working there to

this day. They still take into account the subsidy written to play any years ago you only have to

submit that once. That is one advantage from the paperwork standpoint. Last but not least

individual, you have to continue to report wages monthly. In the case of IRWE make sure you

document all those expenses. That is kind of a snapshot of work incentives. I don't think we

can leave you today without talking about healthcare. Medicare continues. Understand you

have an option for extended Medicare. You are entitled to your continued Medicare coverage

of course during the trial work period through the way the -- all the way through the EPE here

is what I want you to know you will get Medicare for at least 93 months following the ninth trial

work period month. During the entire period your hospital part a is automatic and cost free.

Part B continues to be optional and subject to premium payments. This year it is $104.90 for

you to be responsible for paying that. Let's say you're in a situation you are in cessation not

receiving benefits payments anymore you still have to pay the premium and the bill you

quarterly.

>> The good news you are still as eligible to remain connected to Medicare for at least 102

months when we add in the trial work period. That is good news and you do not need to worry

right away at all about that and you return to work. Of course the gives you plenty of time to

evaluate if your employer has a good plan that you can get involved with. I told you about

another hidden tidbit I was excited to talk about today called the expedited reinstatement

benefit. Expedited reinstatement benefits or the exarch period but basically what this is for,

let's say, I bet there are folks out there wondering this all sounds great but what if I try returning

to work and benefits are eventually terminated which is a planned event and that my disability

keeps me from working gainfully. What do I do then? Accuse this incentive package, I to the

point where the terminated call it a successful termination because you planned that with

somebody and then you have to stop working because of a disability. Prior to the exarch there

was not a great solution. It would be apply again. At the scary situation but this provides a

significant level of protection. If you go back to work in that situation happens to you. Here is

the eligibility for this. Let's say you are the person that went to work. He got terminated had to

stop working and give. You can be reinstated without a new application. This is a backdoor to

Social Security. If you are eligible for disability, loss or disability due to performance of S

Cheney, the example I give why they probably terminated and to request EXR within 60

months of the period of time when they terminated your benefits you have another five years to

utilize this if need be after the point at which the terminate your benefits. Here's the thing I want

you to know it is kind of a lighter standard as they look at your medical condition. What they

really look at when they evaluate EXR is have you medically improved time we originally two

line. If you are other working you are probably doing good but if you have to stop working

because of your condition you probably didn't medically improved. You probably worsens. This

makes the case for making EXR a pretty easy lift to be eligible for.

>> One important piece about EXR while making the decision while you are eligible under EXR

you can receive six months of provisional benefits while deciding if you are still disabled under

their rules. You certainly don't get that when you apply initially so you not only get a backdoor

to Social Security but a lighter medical review standards you have to meet but you get paid

your original benefit while making this decision. That's a pretty good ace to have a first lead

when returning to work. Your word if you try this and still fails what happens to me? Here is

what we might have to use. I felt like when we have to use this but I can tell you folks over the

years I have used this a number of times. Not a huge amount, maybe a dozen times that

ended up with that situation but every time it went through. That is pretty exciting, another work

incentive that probably folks don't know a lot about that I think you should know as you

consider this return to work. I'm going to move on to wage reporting. Some high-level

information I know I'm giving you lots of information today but this -- there are things I want you

to know about wage reporting. In terms of disability, Social Security counts your wages when

they were earned, not the date of your paycheck.

>> Your wages if you are on disability count when you earn them he doesn't care about the

date of your paycheck. A show you how to figure this out. Why is that so important? Specific

numbers associated with a trial work period, the SGA limit so you can be sure we want to be

able to accurately depict what you have earned in a month in order for you to take advantage

of these incentives appropriately. Let's look at how this plays out. I will give you an example

apparently Joe is getting paid every two weeks. In this case, excuse the calendar the last time

up at this example together, same idea. Joe has a two week pay period the run from August

into September. I used real simple math $600 not a very healthy paycheck he will have to step

up his game. For that two week pay period. In terms of SGA purposes this is how Social

Security looks at his wages. Needs to be broken into a day rates. The only way we can figure

out what he earned in a particular month is figure out a daily day way. We know on a two week

pay period he had ten working days so what we do is pretty basic take his full pay, $600

divided by the number of days he worked, ten and get $60 per day day rate.

>> Next we look at how many workdays occurred in August in this example eight, A10 $6480

should be associated with that month and the remaining 120 should be counted in September.

What is the matter? Well it could matter in terms of the use of work incentives maybe the trial

work period would be used one month but not the other. Lots of reasons why this is to your

advantage to report your wages. More so in your favor to do this and do it well and make sure

Social Security is aware of. In fact here are responsibilities to put in front of you about your

return to work and things you should do. Jobs report new work activity to Social Security office

in the letter you would send them I recommend you include at least the following. Employer,

number of hours and wage and so forth. The date you started. If you stop working you have to

report that too, and end date would be applicable. If you know it is a short-term job too, you

can also add the end date of the time you are reporting the new work. It is a temporary thing.

Always include your Social Security number. If they can't associate with you that a special file

and should they put all these and that it will end up in your record.

>> Next, you need to provide wage data monthly. Provide a copy of your paycheck stub. By

the way, make sure you write your Social Security number on your paycheck stub because

that won't be included and if your name isn't on it make sure to still to come. You can facts --

fax, hand-deliver I also recommend you ask for a receipt when you send those in. You can ask

for a receipt for something you provide Social Security so it is proof you submitted those

wages in this case. Monthly. One last thing on this, often, people are told by Social Security if

they are on disability. You don't have to be reporting monthly. I'm telling you today, report

monthly. I don't care if you are told send us the information quarterly, if I was you I was sent

them everything monthly and get proof of your submission of those paycheck stubs every time

you go to the office.

>> We will turn the page and talk about additional supports available to you if you liked what

you heard today. Some of you probably are thinking I didn't have this headache before the

start of. I hope that is not the case. I know it is a little -- a lot of information about more than

one message that it was. Let's talk about how you get support. You don't have to be on your

own. Many ways to get assistance in your corner. So a few different things we will cover in

these slides. Additional programs can support you one is Medicaid buy-in of people that can

support you. The Medicaid buy-in what is the purpose. The short story is the purpose of the

Medicaid buy-in program is to buy expanded Medicaid coverage specifically for people

disabled and working.

>> Infecting most states is very generous increases in the guidelines that can catch you

eligible for Medicaid. Some sample criteria I would tell you every state is different. There is not

a great place honestly to send you to learn exactly about what you're Medicaid buy-in option is

in your state or even available but I have given you a link you can start your research from and

certainly if you have a connection to a department of social services or Health and Human

Services in your state they will be able to also direct you to find out more about that. We talk

today about benefits and work incentive advisement. I was pretty strong on how important I

think this is to have this information in your corner if you are sitting there thinking this is

confusing, information overload, that is why would someone in your corner. I did not to --

provide what I did today to confuse you but to show you this is complicated and a certified as

we could make it today. You really need somebody in your corner. These folks can help you

understand lots of things about your benefits and we will provide to the written report. There is

a link you can go to the shows you by state how to find a WIPA reporter by state. And is a free

service you don't have to pay for that. Protection and advocacy is another service available

protection and advocacy for beneficiaries of Social Security. This can come into play when

there are legal matters that impact your ability to return to work the simplest way to put it. Lots

of reasons they would be able to support somebody. Left situations they would get involved if

you are unsure of your situation I recommend to find a provider if you have a legal situation

and not sure that is something that could help with.

>> Find your local provider. There is the link, and ask them directly because eligibility varies.

Ticket to Work is something near and dear to my heart. This is a program Social Security has

developed to assist people that received both disability or SSI. You want to return to work. The

whole intention of the program was to increase the universe of providers that exist across the

country to give people support in return to work. Before the ticket program, really the choices

were VR, state VR legalization of the ticket program to change this and brings new providers in

to the mix. The ticket program manager is Maximus and the site is listed right there. There are

employment networks that can help you out under the Ticket to Work program. These

contractors to meet Social Security's requirements to be able to provide services and have the

requisite services -- requisite skills to provide the services to people like you who want to get

back to work. The lengthy process to become an employment network and if you are looking

for this as a possibility there is a link at the bottom to find an employment network near you.

>> But, I think I would be remiss if I did not tell you one option you have right under the roof of

the National Disability Institute. The American dream employment network is an employment

network under contract with Social Security. We have been in business for about it year. To

very different approach to serving folks. I am one of the codirectors of ADEN as we call it and I

thought I would share with you, since we have this option internally a little more about what this

can do. Our key stakeholders are kind of late out here, participants would be folks like yourself

that want to try this return to work. They want somebody in the corner to understand benefits.

How they can use work incentives and so forth. You are our primary customer, the folks that

we want to see get back to work and have more financial security because of work. And it

reduces benefits between the ages of 18 and 64 is eligible to participate in the ticket program if

they choose to. It is your choice. Members, the way we are developing ADEN, members

represent providers across the country that have the right skill set to offer these services to

folks like yourself that want to get back to work. What is different about ADEN as we are an

administrative employment network. We contract with members to work with participants.

>> We really support our members to make the whole process engaging with Social Security

easy, so they can do what they do best is help people, precipitants, folks that receive benefits,

get back to work. That is what they do best, placement work. Help people get jobs and

careers. Members who we contract work -- contract with across the country to get back to

work. We have formal agreements with employers recall those folks employer partner to have

a commitment to diversify the workforce and hire people with disabilities. Our agreements that

require they hire people but it opens the door for us to work with employers specific employers

we have agreements with. That is just a snapshot of ADEN. I was maybe being selfish today

showing you that but I was happy to share that with you. If you'd like to know more about

ADEN and take part whether you are a beneficiary you want to know more about ADEN on the

sports we can offer you to get back to work there is our toll-free line. Is extension 1 and you

will find me at that number. If you are a service provider and you say this sounds interesting,

we've not taken advantage of the ticket program because of the complexities you spelled out,

maybe it would be easier as a member of ADEN. Contact us, same number use extension 2.

>> Vocational rehabilitation systems are still of course an option for folks. These exist in each

state. And this is another option to support your return to work. There is a link I have provided

at the bottom of the slide for you to find your state VR agency in your state but certainly they

can help also with employment goals, skills and aptitude, providing career counseling. There is

a very similar offering between VR and employment networks. I just love people have more

choices though. The Department of Labor is another great resource we wanted to share with

you called American Job Centers and I am still blown away that a lot of people don't know

these exist. Entities that exist across the country, publicly funded, available for anybody to

access and they are established under these acts we had spelled out there. I don't have time

to get into I have to get -- I am getting a message I have to move on. They are basically there

to serve folks who want to get back to work, connect you with their state job bank and you can

get leads and lots of training goes on there. Workshops and great supportive staff at American

Job Centers. If you want to know if you have one and where it is and close by, here is a link for

a locator to find an AGC near you. Also in the mix we thought was important to understand

was independent living centers. There are many centers for independent living across country.

They are important is -- their importance is advocacy and to help people live independently as

much as possible. They are set up differently across the country from providing direct services

to help people get back to work to peer support, information referral. I would also encourage

you to look at those folks as a support in your return to work process. There's a link at the

bottom again you know the drill. That is where you can find more information about CILs. Last

but not least, I will turn this back to my colleague here in a moment, we did not talk about SSI

today. You can see why we didn't. You imagine we would keep you here until late into the

night. If you want to find out more basics about SSI there is a great YouTube video we want to

direct you to. Here's the link. It gives you some basics of the impact of work on SSI. Which I to

tell you is completely different than what we covered on disability. Very different. I encourage

you to look at these resources. I know it's a lot of information. Think what I'm going to ask you

to let the state just and think about these things but I will turn back to Elizabeth, my colleague,

Elizabeth Jennings, so she can give you ideas about next steps you want to take. Elizabeth?

>> Thank you so much, Kevin we really push it open information. A know it was a lot that you

are going to have our contact information in just a minute. Then, we will answer a couple

questions. I wanted to give you a few suggested next steps, always great to have action steps.

One, if you are thinking about going back to work and you want to figure out what is out there,

what the process would be for you to consider, signing up with one of the following programs

your local vocational rehabilitation office, we gave you -- they don't have a very direct finder but

this is a great link to get started. The local one-stop center. In some areas they are called a

workforce center and in some areas they are called an American job center. Be patient with

them but the service locator will get you there. And also you can think about the tickets work

program and you can look to us to our ADEN project are go to YouTube and get some better

ideas from the Social Security administration of how the program works. Step two to meet with

the benefits planner.

>> You want to make sure, as Kevin suggested, you are not relying on your memory of what

you learned today are feeling overwhelmed but that you are sitting down and talking to

someone specifically about your situation. We also encourage you to take step three, go back

and look at some of the other archives we have done. Sometimes, thinking through an

employment goal is just to re- manager finances or maybe to have more money in your pocket,

some of these other webinars may be very helpful in that endeavor. And I encourage you to

set a goal to complete items 1, 2 and 3 over the next three months. In a we are coming upon

the new year, lots of people to New Year's resolutions. I would tell you my resolution, the

paperwork still sitting on my dresser from last year. I did not do a good job with that resolution.

If you're like me and resolutions don't work for you maybe set a goal, posted in your house, put

it on the refrigerator, share with a friend or loved one, someone who can help you stay

accountable and give you those nudges and reach out to us or one of the other contacts we

have offered you. Before we answer questions and run out of time I want to see thank you

again to our sponsor, Acorda Therapeutics, his generous funding has made these webinars

possible and here is our contact information mine and Kevin's. You are welcome to reach out

to us we are both benefit junkies and love talking to about how to understand your benefits and

get back to work. List you just a couple of questions. Before we are complete -- completely out

of time. What you do if you have gone to the local Social Security office to report wages in

person but your checks are still coming?

>> Number one I hope that person is connected to an advisor. Again I want to tell you that. If

you are continuing to get your check and you know it should stop, I'm going to assume this

person understands the check probably should've stopped maybe because the.advisement.

My best advice without knowing a lot of detail hang onto those checks in case you are

concerned you should I have received them and it may be possible you have to pay back

some of those checks. Knowing you shouldn't get them also let Social Security no you are

continuing to receive -- sometimes it feels like stopping benefits is as hard as getting benefits. I

sometimes feel like it is a freight train out-of-control getting Social Security to stop benefits.

Hang onto them, inform them you have been receiving them and you need to know when the

last month was should've received your benefits and that will include -- review the case update

the record and stop benefits. They may ask for some back so rather than spend it hang onto it

if you know that was last month he should've gotten a need to return that money.

>> Thanks. A second question is, when is the right time for me to call the WIPA?

>> The right time to call WIPA is when you are thinking about returning to work. I'm not saying

you are working today but you have a plan. Now I will tell you they will give priority to people

who are working but I want you to connect with them and say I want to work, I have a goal of

work, I plan to work. If you are in the stage of seeking employment call WIPA, don't wait for

them. They can to advance planning with you and develop reports based on projections maybe

not reality but projections and that will give you a lot of great information of what to expect

when you go to work.

>> Another question is, what you suggested for a 19 -year-old who is blind, on SSDI and going

to head to college this fall. Any work incentive they may want to consider?

>> Congratulations who ever this person is, 19 and going to college that is the first step in the

right direction to a better financial future. That is great. I would recommend you get a

counselor, benefits Counselor and I am going to guess you are open with your state the our

program and you can request that assistance from your VR counselor. Often VR systems have

a contract in play to pay for that service locally where they have somebody on staff that us the

expertise. At the person I will recommend like the other person get the person in your corner

up front right away so they can look at your specific situation and start doing planning with you.

You don't have to wait until you are ready to go to work tomorrow. In fact you shouldn't you

should get this in your corner, the support, earlier rather than later.

>> I will keep the last question for myself, Kevin. Can you confirm tax returns do not apply to

resources and have up to 12 months to spend. This is a great heading into our next webinar

which will be held February 3. If you have not signed up, I hope you will, it will be at the same

time three P.M. Eastern February 3, we will go over favorable tax provisions, how to get taxes

done for free and we will affirm for any federally funded public benefit your tax return does not

count as income and the money will not count as a resource for up to 12 months. The two

remember SSDI does not have an asset limits. It is some of your other public benefits that

resource exclusion is beneficial to. I want to thank you again for joining us today. A

tremendous thank you to Kevin Nickerson for sharing your incredible expertise and experience

with us today. If you haven't had a chance to connect with us before please reach out to us.

We would like to hear from you and some other trainings you would like us to provide. They

will connect you to the archives and any information you need. We hope we see you here

again February 3 at 3 P.M. for a webinar on favorable tax provisions. Thanks again. Have a

great day. [Event concluded]