Success Story Transcript 
September 2015
Robert Escalera Success Story

[Musical interlude]
Robert Escalera: My name is Robert Escalera I work for Scelzi Enterprises as a retail salesperson. We build trucks, water trucks, flat beds, contractor bodies, etc. 
Gary Scelzi: Robert handles all the incoming calls, all the counter calls for customer parts and service and if someone wants something custom made, Robert handles that and works directly with the engineers and the manufacturing part of the plant. So he's got a ... he wears many hats. 
Robert Escalera: I've been a diabetic since 10 years old. I've been a diabetic my whole life. It was controlled with oral medications and some exercise. As I got older it continued to progress and get worse and worse, and eventually resulted in kidney disease, which in result, ended up in leg amputation and all the other complications that comes along with being diabetic. I really had a hard time putting down my work boots. I had a real difficult time doing that 'cause I had been working since I was basically 13, 14 years old. I applied for Social Security and it was approved. I had my leg amputated at Christmas time. The process of removing that leg changed my whole health. It took away the infection, my kidneys started working a little bit better because the infection's gone. Everything. My whole demeanor changed. And then I got that leg and I walked and I was like, "Wow, I didn't think I was going to walk again." That following week, two weeks later, we had a trip planned to go to the coast, we go to the coast all the time. And I had my truck loaded and I go back into to the house to shave and I look in the mirror and I see that face and it's like, "You're ok, you're ok to go back to work." I went to the coast but that following Monday I started checking in on how to go back to work. I had already kind of felt like I needed to do that, so I kind of already had the contact and Monday when I got back, I called and that started the ball rolling. One of my friends, he is a kidney patient, as well, and we got to talking about it and I asked him, "How are you working and affording all the medical insurance and all that?" Then that's when he told me about the Ticket to Work program. He gave me a contact number of the people he spoke to and I followed up with them about a month later. 
Joe Garza: The Ticket to Work Program is a program geared to help individuals who have a disability go back to work. The primary criteria is they have to be, of course, receiving SSI or SSDI cash benefits from Social Security and be between the ages of 18 and 64 years old. And that's the primary criteria. OK, of course, the individual also has to have, obviously, a desire to want to go back to work and so that's when we step in and present to them all the opportunities that can help them do so. 
Robert Escalera: The very first meeting we met, we discussed what my needs were, he discussed the advantages of the program, we discussed resume-writing, we discussed job leads. 
Joe Garza: So as time went by eventually, Robert did obtain employment. He managed to keep the job and his employer is very proud of him for the work he has accomplished. 
Robert Escalera: The big part of that was being able to make enough money to be self-sufficient. There was the safety net about the Ticket to Work program that involved some time to be able to actually get back into the workforce and not lose any benefits. 
Joe Garza: The biggest concern I feel is that they talk about their medical benefits. If I go to work I may lose my cash benefits eventually but what about my medical benefits? I need those right now. So that's when I reassure the client that it doesn't happen right away. It is a progression, it is something that takes time for it to happen. So when I talk about some of those work incentives, I'll talk about the nine trial work months where you can go to work, you know, earn an unlimited amount of income and it doesn't affect your cash benefits. Now after that, depending on the threshold amount that you're making and you're reporting to Social Security on earnings, your cash benefits may be suspended but you are not off the program yet. If you go above the threshold amount, your benefits will be suspended, however, you will still continue on medical benefits for up to 93 months beyond from the moment that your cash benefits are suspended. 
Robert Escalera: That was a big, big reason for me to want to go back to work. I felt that if I could get my foot in the doorway, I felt that to be able to make the wages but to be able to get to the point where I could become self sustaining and I'm just about there. 
Gary Scelzi: Robert has worked for us for almost three years now and is one of those employees that is an absolute joy. I actually never knew that Robert was even sick because Robert never complains. But Robert has taken the parts department business and almost doubled it single handedly. 
Robert Escalera: Just being at work has helped me mentally, physically. One of the biggest joys is being able to take my family out for dinner. There was a time when we would go just about every other Friday, and when I got sick all that went out the window. A lot of that stuff that we did extra like go to the coast, all those extra things were just out the window. There was no way. And now with me back to work, some of those other things that we couldn't do, we get to do now. The Ticket to Work Program, to me, gave me back my life. It allows me to enjoy the things that I couldn't have done before on a fixed budget. We get to go camping nowadays, we get to go to the movies, I can take my kids out to dinner. I didn't think I could do the job I do and they made accommodations. There's lots of things that can be done even though you don't think you can do it. I didn't think I could come back to work but with a little bit of encouragement, like I said, that safety net, it helped me get going. And, it means a lot to me to be to be able to work. It means a lot. 

[musical interlude]