>> Ray Cebula: Finding the slides. Have they been loaded in here? There they are. Thank you very much. I knew they were in there some place. Again, this is Ray Cebula from Cornell University's Yang-Tan Institute and we want to welcome you to today's Wise event, the Work Incentive Seminar. We're going to talk about some free support services. The two buzz words for today are free and voluntary support services for people with a disability who are receiving benefits from the Social Security based on that disability and are ready to go to work or are considering going to work. We've got lots and lots of information for you and we've got a few questions for you as well. What I do want to let you know is that you will be able to participate in today's session. On the right hand side of the screen you have a webinar console. What we want you to do, if you do have a question, is click on the words Q and A, the little Q and A box at the top of that webinar console. It's going to open up the Q and A box. What you can do is type in your question, hit send and it's going to appear on Jamie's desktop. Now there are a few hundred of you out there and we're clearly not going to be able to get to all of your questions. That does not mean we don't want your question answered, we will give you lots of resources, phone numbers, email addresses, to get those questions answered because that's why we are here today. We want to answer your questions. Now most of you are participating today, listening to me through the speakers on your computer. If you do happen to have a problem with that we do have the ability for you to participate by phone, and you're going to want to switch to the audio box up on the top of your screen and just put you will call in, and I'm going to give you the numbers right now. The toll free number for today's session is 855-749-4750 and the access code is 643490389. Now once again if you have a pencil handy write it down because you won't see this slide again. 855-749-4750 is the toll free number and the access code is 643490389. Now for closed captioning services you can log in at www.edi.cornell.edu/captions.cfm?activity_id=4101. And the PowerPoint and accessible PDF's and texts are with the link that you received with your confirmation letter for today's session. Now I want to go back to this slide because this is one of our all-important slides, and it's just a general topic about webinar accessibility. We strive to make our webinars accessible to everybody who wants to participate and we want to know if you're having any issues with our system. More than hearing about your issue, if you are aware of something that we can do to fix that issue, if you know of a system or you know of a method, please let us know about that too so that we can make this session more accessible to more people. Now, the webinar presentation, transcript and audio recording is going to be available in about two weeks. We'll post it to the website at www.edi.cornell.edu/m-wise-webinars.cfm. Now we talked to you about using the webinar console to get your questions into us. If you want to you can use the chat box that's there. We prefer you don't but by all means if that, if you find that method easier, that's fine too. Or, you can email your questions to chooseworkquestions@gmail.com. If after we sign off you realize you do have a question you can ask us then as well. Just send an email to support@chooseworkttw.net and we'll make sure all of those questions get answered. Now today we're going to talk about the Ticket to Work program and Karen Wiley from the New Mexico division of Vocational Rehabilitation is going to take us through that. She's also going to guide us through some of the work incentives that Social Security has made available, and then we're going to switch gears a bit and talk about employment networks and Katie Grove [assumed spelling] from the New Mexico division of VR is going to talk about their Ticket to Work program and then about vocational rehabilitation services in general. Now notice our speakers are from the state of New Mexico that does not mean that this does not apply to all 50 states. It may work slightly differently in your state, but the general matters of fact are going to apply to you as well. At the end of the session I will be giving you some additional resources and we will take the questions that Jamie has picked out, that pertain to the largest possible group of people at the end. And we might, Jamie might interrupt or push a question at me before we get to the end of the session. So right now before we start, I'm looking here and seeing no polling questions. Jeff, do we have polling questions in here? We can always ask them later but I'm not seeing them in here right now. So let's get Jeff, our tech expert, to get the polling questions out, yes, and we'll ask them a little bit later. Alright, so what we have to start out with is a welcome from Bob Williams. He's the Associate Commissioner at Social Security. He's with the Office of Employment Support Programs. He is a great friend to all of us and a great friend to Work Incentives in general, so Jeff if you could cue up Commissioner William's video that would be great. [ Silence ] [ Music ] >> Bob Williams: Hello and welcome to today's webinar. My name is Bob Williams and I am the Associate Commissioner for Employment Support at the Social Security Administration. We run a Ticket to Work and Self-Sufficiency Program, which assists persons ages 18 through 64 who receive SSDI or SSI who want to improve their life and future by becoming employed. By viewing this webinar you will learn how you can receive training, become employed, increase your earnings, reduce your reliance on disability benefits and eventually earn a better living by becoming fully self-supporting whenever possible. The Ticket program is not for everyone. This is why the choice of whether to take advantage of it is yours and yours alone. I know firsthand that people with significant disabilities face many barriers to becoming and staying employed. This is especially true in today's economy. A major reason why you received disability benefits is that Social Security determined that you were not able to work enough to support yourself, but I also want you to know that having a significant disability no longer has to be a lifetime bar to employment and greater financial security. The Ticket can offer you the choices, training, opportunities and support your need to go to work and gain financial independence. I hope today's webinar begins your journey toward greater self-sufficiency. Your life and future can be better. Thank you for joining us. [ Music ] [ Silence ] >> Ray Cebula: Alright, so we are back in business and I want to thank the Associate Commissioner again for his welcome. We always like to hear from him. What can you expect from today's presentation? We're going to give you some information on Social Security's Ticket to Work program. We're going to answer some of those frequently asked questions. Karen, Katherine, Jamie and myself have been doing this work for a very, very long time and we hear the same questions over and over again, and we just want to make sure that we get you some answers to those questions. Where to find more information, because we're not going to be able to talk to you for a long time today but we're always going to leave you with resources to get more information than you came in with. Success stories. We have some great success stories to share with you from folks who have actually used their ticket. Karen and Katie are likely to share some additional stories and we'll give you a website that can show you more success stories. The things that we're about to talk to you about actually do work. Now why would you choose to work? Well earning more income is the main reason, you know, that's the main reason all of us work is to have more money, and we can assure you that with appropriate planning, the work incentives that we're about to talk to you about today, will lead you to more money. We would not let you use these work incentives if you were going to be harmed by them. They will always be more, that's the wonderful thing about this. To gain independence and we mean that in a couple of ways. We mean gaining independence from the agencies that you're dealing with. You have to report things about your life and about some private information that you might not care to share with these agencies providing you with benefits. You can gain independence from that and along with that extra money comes the independence to make more choices about how you want to live, where you want to live and what you want to do. Meeting new people. You know we talk about meeting people all the time and how it can change your life. It's a matter of getting out of the house, not feeling so isolated, participating in a social group. In my case, meeting your spouse and ending up getting married. You know I met my spouse at work so a lot of things are going to happen and I think that meeting my spouse is a little bit more important than my bi-weekly, bi-monthly paycheck. Sometimes you've got to consider that the paycheck is a nice thing. The spouse was pretty nice too. Learning new skills. The Ticket to Work program is going to provide you with the ability to go to school if you need to, to learn computer skills, to purchase a computer to start your own business. Go to a tech school and learn how, a new trade, or it might very well be helping you to perform your old job differently because of that disability that you incurred. There are many, many ways that this ticket can help you learn new things or relearn things. Now, Robert is our success story that we're going to share with you today. He's a veteran and spent seven years in the Army, and after a surgical mishap in the year 2000, he sustained a spinal cord injury and it left him with limited mobility. He went on to disability insurance benefits and used the Ticket to Work to discover his passion for helping other veterans navigate that transition from military life back into civilian life. So Jeff if we can cue up Robert's video that would be great. [ Silence ] [ Music ] [ Silence ] [ Music ] >> Robert: Coming straight out of high school from Chicago I had a strong interest for the military. I joined the service and I went into the Army, and my job that [audio interference] was communications and I was a communications specialist. I spent two tours in Europe and Germany and I spent over, about seven years total in the military. Once I completed my time in the service I continued to work for the government as a United States postal carrier. And after 13 years of this work it began to take a toll on me health wise and it led to some medical issues that I started to have. I became disabled from a surgery, kind of mishap where a disk ruptured and it paralyzed me. The Ticket to Work program was introduced to me throughout my rehabilitation time period. The VA was assisting me. They even offered me the ideas about if I ever thought about going back to work, so they introduced me to a representative from the Social Security board who told me about this Ticket to Work program. Well as the representative explained the program, it was obvious that there were some safety nets there. Some of the things that I was worried about I really didn't have to, it was no worry at all. Now it wasn't until the Voc Rehab representative for paralyzed veterans who again introduced me to the Ticket to Work program and I told him I had heard of it and I was a aware of it but at this time, as years had went by, I felt a little bit more stronger about actually accepting it this time because I knew that I was at a level health wise and I thought it was time for me to make some serious decisions and not be living on a fixed income when I had such a desire to want to do much more. The program had told me all the things like what if it don't work out, it was still enough of a security net there to say that you don't have to worry about that. They even gave me a year even while I was working that I was still covered under Social Security. They made sure that they are there to assist you and help you in all types of ways. Not only to put you back in the workforce or give you a skill that you need to get there, but to follow you once you're there. After being part of this Ticket to Work program I started looking again into the availability of positions for a National Service Officer. At that time there just happened to be some available positions. >> He put in the ticket. The position that he had to apply for the position [inaudible]. That position came up and shortly thereafter he was selected as a candidate to be a National Service Officer at the Chicago office. >> Robert: After the interview they immediately told me that I was very much qualified and I could prepare to begin to come to work. I became a National Service Officer for the Paralyzed Veterans of America. Paralyzed Veterans of the America, of course, is a service organization dedicated to helping those veterans with spinal cord injuries, spinal cord disease, and assists all veterans with VA benefits and we advocate for veteran's healthcare. [Audio interference] National Service Officer for Paralyzed Veterans of America, I greet and meet with especially the new veterans or new patients that has just come in for the first time. Coming back to work has probably built up my independency, the self-pride and you know I'm an achiever again. You know, I got something to offer society and you know it's almost like you're regaining a good portion of dignity back. Prior to even coming back to work I was highly interested in, got interested in some of the disability sporting events. The wheelchair games I used to participate in that every year and it was a big event for me. The Ticket to Work program it helped open up the door and put me back to where, you know, it's almost like it put my life back on track. [ Music ] [ Background Sounds ] >> Ray Cebula: Okay, thanks Jeff. We are now going to talk a little bit about what happens when you think you're ready to work. We're hoping to move you along in that progression today. Give you enough information so that you feel comfortable and safe doing that. Now we need to gather information and resources. This is the first step that you need to do to make, to plans for that journey to work. Now the Ticket to Work and all these work incentives that we've been making mention of can help, can help you begin to gather that information, know where those resources are and most importantly make that journey a smooth one. We want you to be able to gradually move from benefits to independence in a smooth manner that's not going to interfere with anything that you've got going on now. Now when you're ready, building an employment team is the best way to begin. Now you are the captain of this team and you get to pick who's on your team, so it's a great thing. Now how do you do that? We have several ways to begin to build an employment team and you can use any one of them. You can speak with an expert at the Ticket to Work helpline and that number is 1-866-968-7842 or if you're a TTY user, 1-866-833-2967. If you give them a call they can help you get started, answering a few basic questions and get you in touch with somebody in your area. You can learn more about the Ticket to Work by reading our blog and watching more success stories like Robert's at www.socialsecurity.gov/work. Once again that's www.socialsecurity.gov/work. That's a great way for you to get on the web, find out some information, hear how this program has helped some people without any obligation whatsoever. You don't even have to talk to anybody. That might lead you to calling that helpline. Or you could just go directly to find an employment network, an EN that meets your needs or work with your state VR agency. You know both of these partners, and both of these members of your employment team are going to be able to help you get ready to return to work, and Katie is going to tell us about the different options you have to do that. But you can do any one of these in order to start building that team. Once you have your employment team in place it's up to you to stay connected. You are the leader of this team, so as you're going through the paces of exploring options you need to be in contact with every member of your team to make sure it works. Now there are a couple of basic programs that we want to describe to you today that Social Security administers for folks with disabilities, and they are provided to people based upon that disability. The first one is the Social Security Disability Insurance Program, or SSDI, and it is an insurance program. As you work and FICA taxes are withheld from your wages, you are buying insurance that will be provided to you provided you work long enough and that's based on your age. Your benefits will then be based upon what your salary was and how much you paid into that system. But it is very much an insurance program. Then we switch gears significantly and we look at the SSI programs, supplemental security income, which is a needs based federal welfare program for people who are aged, blind or disabled and have low income and low resources. Same disability standard but there's no requirement for a work history with the SSI benefits. Last but not least, we've got people who receive both and we refer to them as concurrent beneficiaries. If somebody has worked for a period of time at a lower wage job, it could be that the benefits paid by their insurance side are below the SSI limit, and if they are, SSI may be available to bring you up to that limit. Now both of these programs come with healthcare. SSDI comes with Medicare. SSI comes with Medicaid, at least in a lot of states. You may live in one of those 11 states that requires a separate application, so watch out for that. The first thing for you to do before you start building that employment team is to make sure you are aware of what benefit you receive. It's going to make a great deal of difference as you begin this journey to work. And now we have three myths, three common myths. The first one is if I try to go to work I will automatically lose my Medicare or Medicaid. Well at this point in time nothing could be further from the truth. As you'll hear there are work incentives to keep both Medicare and Medicaid in place for a very, very long time, a very long time. So you really don't need to be concerned about that at the outset. You need to be more concerned about getting ready to work, getting that job, and then getting, determining what your level of work will be. How much stamina do you have? Is this going to work out, before you start worrying about healthcare costs. The second myth, if I use my ticket to go to work, Social Security will perform a medical review and I'll lose my benefits. Well that's wrong too because as Katie is going to tell you, if you use that ticket to work, Social Security cannot perform a medical review. Social Security wants you to succeed. They're not going to pull the rug out from under you by performing a medical review just because you have decided to start this journey to work. And the last myth that we hear a lot about, these are those questions we told you that we hear over and over again. If I go to work and lose my benefits and have to stop I'm going to have to start at the beginning all over and reapply. And it took me two years, it took me three years to get the benefits and I don't want to wait that long, I can't afford to do that again. Well, Social Security has a safety net that will apply after your benefits are terminated. So if you are terminated from the programs because you have earnings, because you went to work, this is just wrong. And Karen is going to talk to us about expedited reinstatement that will take care of that and allow you to get those benefits back pretty quickly, pretty quickly. And with that being said I'm going to turn you over to the capable hands of Karen Wiley, who once again is with the New Mexico division of Vocational Rehabilitation and Karen, take it away. >> Karen Wiley: Thank you and hello everyone. One of the first things I want to say is as we go through this next section, and with Katie probably too, we're going to teach you some language lessons. Social Security has its own language about how things work and we're going to try to teach you so you know how to talk to them and make sure that they use what is available to you. So first we're going to talk about what the Ticket to Work is. Now the Ticket to Work is this idea, you don't have to have the piece of paper, but it's this idea that it offers you free and voluntary. Now you're going to hear that from us over and over. It's free and it's voluntary. You don't have to pay for any of your services to assist you as a person with Social Security disability insurance or supplemental security income to go back to work or to improve your working conditions. So it can be from the very first of going back from the very beginning or you may be working now and you want to improve your situation. Also the Ticket to Work is available to anybody from the age of 18 to 64 who are receiving Social Security disability benefits, either SSDI or SSI. So those are those language lessons. Knowing which one are you on, SSDI or SSI benefits, Social Security disability benefits. So, when you're ready to work, if you want to earn more money, the Ticket to Work can help you improve your earning potential. You can start off quite small. A lot of people ask me well I only want to work part time because I don't know if I have the energy [audio skip] what my disability is going to do to going back to work. The ticket can help you start slow and build your way up to self-sufficiency. If you need personal fulfillment that comes from working, where do we meet most of our friends or our spouses, and that's at work. The Ticket to Work will provide you the assurance and stability so you can start feeling more confident and know that you have safety nets to help you get back. As you'll want to be able to get the benefits back if your job doesn't work out because of your disability, there are quick ways with in almost a month you can start benefits back again. Now hear what I'm saying. Depending on where you are on the edge, you can back on Social Security very quickly, almost as little as one month if you need to because your disability prevented you from continuing to work. If you're feeling overwhelmed and you don't know where to turn-I think there's a lot of songs out about that, yes, the ticket can help you connect to people who know everything that can help you, those resources that are available in your area and all the services you need, and it's there for quite a long time so you may use it for a while and then don't need it for a while. Just like going through life. We need help at times and then we can do it on our own, then we need other help, the Ticket to Work can keep working with us on that. So, okay, you're ready to go back to work. We're going to talk about building your employment team. Now one of the first things you need to do is talk to somebody who is an expert on the Ticket to Work, and look, we're giving you a phone number. There's a Ticket to Work helpline. The phone number is 1-866-968-7842 or if you need TTY it's 1-866-833-2967. So you can talk to an expert and learn more about the Ticket to Work and work incentives. You can learn more about the Ticket to Work by reading blogs and watching real success stories and believe me, I've been doing this 14 years and, or benefits advisement and there are many, many success stories we've helped. There's about five us in the state and we've helped over 3000 people go back to work. Find an employment network that meets your needs. You need to know what your, what you need and then you can start interviewing employment networks or VR to ask for those things to see if they can provide them for you, and they're out there and they're willing to help but you just need to know what you're asking for. And you need to stay connected and that's one of the things I keep telling people over and over. Sometimes you have to rattle my cage to keep me knowing what's important to you and that this is something you're really working on. So stay connected and keep talking to us and we love to hear the success stories so we know that what we're doing is making any difference. So does that help? I can hear people nodding, that's good, that's good. And I really have had people who have used the Ticket to Work a number of times. I've had people who have been working and who have decided that they wanted to increase their hours. For example I had a person who was just working at Wal-Mart and they just wanted to earn a little extra money, but they wanted to earn more but they knew that they needed some more education and somebody to help them look for other employment. So they used their Ticket to Work to talk to those people and find out. The neat thing also about the ticket and Katie will talk more about this with Partnership Plus, you can start using it with one employment network and if they don't offer everything you need, or if you've gotten as far as you can work with them, you can use it with someone else later and keep the success and the work going. So I just wanted to let you know about that. >> Ray Cebula: Okay Karen before you start on the work incentives, I have a question for you and it's pretty timely. Somebody wants to know how they can get a ticket. >> Karen Wiley: You can, you don't actually need the paper ticket in order to use it, but if you do want to have the Ticket to Work, if you want to have the piece of paper, you can get a hold of your TickettoWork.com, or the address is and I don't know if you want to go back on the slide and show the address to the Ticket to Work helpline, and they will help you figure out how to get a ticket when you need it. Does that answer your questions? >> Ray Cebula: That answers the question. >> Karen Wiley: Thank you for the question. Please ask because again I've been doing this for so long that sometimes I sleep Social Security and I speak a whole different language and the questions remind me to speak in English and not into this foreign language of Social Securiteez. So, now we're going to talk a little bit about the work incentives and I'm only going to touch upon them because there are a bunch of them, a bunch of safety nets all through your progress. But what are work incentives for? They're to help you build the bridge to your success. However you're success looks for you, we don't have or [inaudible] or no one has an idea of what your final goal is going to be. The work incentives are there for you to build that journey and to use as safety nets as well so you don't have to walk across this whole bridge and not think on no I can't get back on or something is going to happen, I'm going to lose everything. No, we've got lots of safety nets for that. So, work incentives have many advantages. They can help you receive training for new skills. So if you use them as a safety net and you need some training there's the plan for achieving self-support if you're in SSI. There's using your Ticket to Work, there's all these things that are there to help you get back and get training for new skills if you need them. They can help you with improving the skills you already have. Many times people don't realize what talents we have and using the work incentives and the Ticket to Work will allow you to find out what talents and strengths that you have and what you can do, or how to improve what you can do. For example you may have an expertise in something but you might need a degree in order to do it. Work incentives will help you out with that. They can help you pursue education. Say you want to go back to school and you're eligible for student loans but it doesn't pay, no student loans, grants and fellowships, but they don't pay for all of your school. Work incentives can help pick up the extra costs so you may not have to ever take out a student loan to pursue education. Oh, my computer disappeared for a second because I hadn't touched the mouse. It allows you to try different jobs. I don't know but they say the average American changes their career five times in their lifetime. I've only done it twice so there's lots of room for other people to do theirs. But even within your career you may change your job several times. And this lets you try different jobs, different hours, different bosses who understand and are able to help you move forward in your life, or to start a whole new career. So the Ticket to Work can help you with the safety nets so you can try. Say you've always worked in communications like Robert did and now you want to work in astrophysics or start something totally new, like Robert started a new career working with vets. I had a person who started a whole new career. He was working as an extra in a lot of movies and now he's teaching at the university level on how to be acting and how to break into the film industry in New Mexico. So you can start a whole new career within it that was related to his original career. It can also help you gain confidence. Even without a disability confidence in your job is sometimes very hard and you know that you have safety nets with the work incentives so that you can continue to grow your confidence and know that if things don't work out quite right in this area, you still have the other work incentives to use to help you keep moving forward to being self-sufficient. So, let's talk about some of that language lesson here. Now the most common question I get asked when people call me is how much money can I make or how many hours can I work? Well I've got news for you. Social Security doesn't have any limits on that. They have rules about when you make certain things, certain things happen but they don't have a limit, an ideal that this is only what you can make. And so I tell people it depends on what benefits they're on, how much they can work and what they want to do, and then we figure out from there based on what that is, how much you're going to make and what's going to happen. It also depends on where they are in the process. As you can see by the slide that's on first or right now, the first work incentive, if you're on SSDI there's something called a trial work period. Now, the news on that is no matter how many hours you work or how much money you make an hour, it should not affect your Social Security check during that time. You'll get your full Social Security check. You will keep your Medicare at whatever level it is now. It is a time for you to try the different hours, different bosses, different careers, gain that confidence and not worry about how am I going to make my light bill this month. So for nine months, a minimum of nine months, you could be earning $50 a month or a million dollars a month, but if you get a job making a million dollars a month, write down my information and adopt me please because I can't make that much. No matter how much you make you will get your full Social Security check. You do have to report your earnings to Social Security and remember that, and that's what they'll help you with at that Ticket to Work helpline. A lot of people say well what happens after I get done with my trial work month, then I'm going to lose my check the first month after that. I was like no. After that you go into an extended period of eligibility. So during this time, no matter, whether or not you get your Social Security cash payment will depend on how much you make, and it depends on your countable income but we're not going to into that much detail today because we're giving you a whole lot of information. Again, call your resources and they'll work it out specific to your case. [Audio interference] >> Ray Cebula: Yeah Karen I am going to ask you a question. I just heard my mic on, that's what you heard. Speaking of reporting income, somebody wants to know to whom and where do they report their income. >> Karen Wiley: In New Mexico we have them report monthly to Social Security, their local Social Security office, but there are a variety of ways that you can report your income. You can call the Social Security 800 number, you can go into the Social Security office near you or you can mail your Social Security, mail your information to your local Social Security office and you can do it certified then you know that they got it. Also if you're on SSI and only using SSI, not using any work incentives, they have this really neat line that you can call in and it even gives you a receipt that you've reported your income. So there are a variety of ways but all have to go to the Social Security office. >> Ray Cebula: Okay, thank you very much. >> Karen Wiley: You're very welcome. And if you every have any questions on where your local Social Security office, in case you don't know it, you can go to ssa.gov and on the left side it says locations and put in your zip code and it tells you where to go. I do that frequently so that's how I know where to go. Okay, also if you're on SSI it works a little bit differently because SSI is a needs based program, less than half of your income is counted for them to figure out what's going to happen to your SSI and I think I need to go back. Sorry, I [inaudible] talking about the extended period of eligibility. The extended period of eligibility is for SSDI and during that time it lasts at least 36 months so that if for some reason your accountable income goes below a certain level which is called SGA or a substantial gainful activity or if you have to quit your job or it terminates or whatever, you do not have to reapply. You let Social Security know that the job has ended or your hours or cut or anything like that and you can get back on your Social Security in that 36 months without an, no application. I'll talk about expedited reinstatement here in just a minute. And that's a different thing. Extended period of eligibility you just can get back on Social Security really quickly. Now let's talk about SSI for a moment. Like I said SSI is based, is earned income and because it's based on how much income you have available to you, Social Security will reduce the check gradually, but you end up with a lot more money. And one of the things I talk frequently to people is if I start a job today, well okay, if I came to work today all I get is the money that I earned from my job. But both of these safety nets here allow you to have a little extra money as you're working to learn how just to live back on your income again. So for SSI, they deduct some amount, $85 a month, and then they divide it in half and that is reduced from your SSI check. So for most of the United States, you have to earn $1,505 a month if you're eligible for the full SSI check before your SSI check goes to zero. And you keep your Medicaid until much longer. In New Mexico you have to make over $33,000 a year before you would even have to worry about Medicaid. So for many people getting off of poverty because an SSI check is below poverty and having more money to be above poverty is worth losing some of the SSI check in order, because they know they're going to keep their Medicaid check and keep their health insurance. And then some states have ways to keep your Medicaid even longer than that with the Medicaid buy-in programs. So when you call in and talk to your particular work incentive counselor, you will learn all about what's specific in your area and what can be helping you. Now, both programs when you start making a fair amount of money and you can show that you can do it for quite a bit of time, you might terminate from it and it'll take you years for that. I've had some people, well in fact I had a person who walked in on a Friday afternoon and I talked to them about their benefits and they left about 4:00 on Friday afternoon. At 3:00 Monday they called me and said that they had a job because they were so excited to find out they could work, and he actually called me two weeks ago to tell me that he's finally working his way off of Social Security because he's gotten a really good job and it's hanging in there and it's going to be ongoing for a while, and he just wanted to know what the next step was, and I told him about the expedited reinstatement, which is a five year window that if your illness, if the conditions that got you Social Security stop you from being able to make a certain level of earnings, you can get back on Social Security within a month without a new application. So there's one of those safety nets that for years you can use in order to get back on if something were to happen. Or if you have an illness that might cycle or you're doing really well for a while and then you don't, there are all these things that can be used to help you. Another really neat thing is a lot of people have heard about their uncles, cousins, nephews, best friend who lost Social Security the minute they started going back to work. In 14 years I have never had that happen. That if you're afraid that that's going to happen you have protection from medical reviews because the only time Social Security can decide that you are medically improved or no longer eligible for their disability programs is at a medical continuing disability review and if you use your Ticket to Work they can't do those reviews and therefore you have all the protection that you need. And so these are some of the examples and I've had people who have worked through all of them. I've had some people who've taken three or four years to get through their trial work period. I've had some people working to the best of their ability and they're only able to make about $1,000, $700 a month. And we're able to show them all the benefits in ways to protect them and what you can do to get right back on because sometimes people's illnesses require that they get back on Social Security quickly that if something were to happen. And again, [inaudible] health insurance. >> Ray Cebula: Okay, thank you very much Karen. I've got one more question for you, at least for the moment. When you're in your trial work period do you have to work at the same job for nine months or can it be in different jobs? >> Karen Wiley: I had-I usually give an example here. I had one person who had finished their Master's Degree and they used their nine months all in a row [inaudible] sudden within the same job. Most people I work with have tried different jobs and different times so their earnings might use a trial work period for a while and then they may not for a while either because of illness or getting laid off or whatever, and then they might go to a different job. So the trial work period is very flexible so that you can use it for what you need it for and have that protection. >> Ray Cebula: Okay, thanks an awful lot. And we're going to turn things over to Katie Grove who's with the division of Vocational Rehabilitation in New Mexico, and Karen don't go anywhere. Take it away Katie. >> Katie Grove: Okay, thank you Ray. This is Katie. Karen has shared with you some safety nets that are available through the Social Security program to help ease your transition to employment. So now I want to talk about what is out there to help you get that job. As mentioned before there was, there's employment networks as well as DVR's or Divisions of Vocational Rehabilitations, out there to assist you in this process. First we're going to talk about employment networks which we call ENs, these are agencies and organizations which may be non-profit, for profit or government entities that have passed a rigorous RFQ process to become certified by SSA to assist ticket participants in their journey back to work. So, these ENs are going to help individuals with disabilities find and maintain employment. So how do you find out about the ENs that are available to you in your area? There's two ways as you can see on this slide. The first way is to call the Ticket to Work helpline at 1-866-968-7842 or if you are a TTY user 1-866-833-2967 and you get to speak with a benefits counselor who has been trained about the Ticket to Work program and you can ask them for a list of employment networks that serve your area. The other option to find out, you don't have to talk to anybody so if you don't want to use the phone and you can actually go on the website www.socialsecurity.gov/work and they, on that website you'll see a map of the U.S. and you can click on that and then you can, there's choices. You can search by area code and what type of employment network you'd like to utilize. Next slide please. So now you have a list of the ENs in your area. The next step for you is to select one that is right for you and a great way to do this is to contact each EN and ask questions about the services they provide. Kind of give them a little interview. You want to find out about their experience, their availability, their employer contacts and past ticket participant job assistance. So some questions you may want to ask based on these include how many people have you helped with the Ticket to Work program? What kind of companies do you work with for job placements? What kinds of jobs might be available to me? How often will you communicate and meet? Now this is an important one because there are ENs that may not be in your area or maybe out of state. So contact may be only via phone or email, so you need to kind of think about well, do I need more help or do I feel like I can do this more self-directed and just kind of get help via email or some phone calls once in a while. Next slide please. So, there's also questions during this initial contact that the EN should be asking you and information that they should be providing to you. First off they should be talking to you about how the Ticket program works and the specific services that they can provide you as a Ticket participant. They should ask you about your employment goals and your intentions about work. They should ask questions like what types of jobs are you interested in? What is your work history? Are you looking for full time or part time work? They should also ask about any fears you may have about going back to work. They should be asking questions like how do you feel about going back to work? Do you have any concerns about going back to work? If you do have concerns what are they and how can we help alleviate them? Finally it is important that there is discussion about your, the development of an individual work plan to lay out your employment goals and to spell out the services that the EN will be providing to you to help you get to your employment goal. Next slide. So, you've done these interviews and now you've decided I want to go with so and so EN. So you're ready to schedule an appointment and go and meet with your employment specialist. Here's some things to remember when meeting with your EN. When you sign that individual work plan, that plan that you guys come up with together that states how you're going to get your job, what services you need, your ticket is then assigned to the EN. It's important to know that besides signing that you might have other routine forms that the EN will need to have you sign in order for them to work with you. Remember you have the right, this is a voluntary program. You have the right to un-assign your ticket at any time if you change your mind or if you decide an EN is not a good match, so that's really important. This is self-directed, this is directed by you and it's voluntary, and if you, something just doesn't feel right you can say you know I want to un-assign my ticket and I think I'm going to go somewhere else and that's okay to do. One of the biggest benefits and Karen has talked about it as well as Ray to assigning your ticket is it postpones your medical continuing disability reviews or also knows as CDRs. So as long as you're making timely progress toward employment which can include working, going to school, vocational training, you will not have these CDRs. It's important that the EN talks to you about these timely progress reviews. There's a handout. It shows you what is expected after each year and they go through that with you so you will know what you need to do to make sure that you continue to be protected from your CDRs. Next slide. So, once you have assigned your ticket to an EN there are a myriad of services that are available to you and some of these services include resume development and advice on how to fill out a good resume, interview skills and tips on how to explain long absences from work without disclosing your disability. Job accommodation information and resources. You know, say you need, it's hard for you to work an eight hour day so maybe you need to kind of do shorter hours, you know. They have information about how you can talk to an employer about that. Tax incentive information and also referrals to other resources in your area, possibly job clubs, you know, maybe there's some books out there about resume writing or there's some great web pages and job websites to find jobs. Next slide please. They can also provide job leads and information on employers who are hiring and when and where to find job fairs and recruiting events that are happening. They are seem to be coming up all the time now. I hear about one almost weekly in New Mexico and we're not a very large state. So I'm sure large cities have them going on daily. So they can also provide access to resource centers, which is really important. You know, we don't all have a computer at home. Most of us don't have a fax machine at home. So you can use a computer at their office to write your resume or fill out applications. They may have internet available for you to search for jobs and then you're able to use email, you can use the phones, the fax machines to communicate with potential employers, send your applications and your resumes. They can also provide job development services on your behalf like providing role playing activities or assessment tools and career planning and guidance and counseling. And say you need some more extensive training or assistance needed and they don't have that ability. They can provide referrals to other organizations such as State Vocational Rehabilitation office or the Department of Labor or if you have questions about work incentives that they can't answer, they can tell you the local Social Security office. Finally, it's important, and Karen had mentioned this, something called Partnership Plus. ENs are available to provide continuous services through the Ticket after you're finished working with the VR. So say you go and work with the VR, you assign your ticket to VR, you're case is closed successfully, then what can happen is your ticket's un-assigned from VR and you can go on and work with an EN, an employment network, and they can continue to help support you and guide you to continue working, which is a really great, great thing. Okay, so next slide. So now we're going to talk about the Vocational Rehabilitation services that I kind of mentioned a little bit here. So that's the other option you have for your employment team. There's employment networks and there's VRs. Every state has a Vocational Rehabilitation office and several offices throughout the state. So if you decide well I think I want to go with VR services, the next slide. So the thing to remember is if you are on Social Security disability or supplemental security income you are automatically eligible for VR services. So you're automatically eligible for VR services. Here in this state how it works, usually, is you set up to go to orientation to kind of learn more about what's out there, what services they have available to you. Once you decide well I think I really would like to work with VR, you'll be given to a counselor and you'll develop an individual employment plan, and when you sign that individual employment plan is when your ticket becomes assigned to VR. And so like an EN, when your ticket is assigned you have that security of getting, security from continuing disability reviews happening. So as long as you're making timely progress towards employment, those CDRs will be discontinued. Next slide. So when you being using your ticket with a state VR agency a couple things here. You know, again, this is self-directed so when you come up with your plan, you, you know, that can include going back to school, that can include vocational training, whatever it may be and your VR counselor is there to help you through that schooling and hopefully getting done with school, graduating, and going on and getting a job. And then once you get that job, you know, VR closes your case. Well, that doesn't mean there aren't services out there. There's something called the Partnership Plus, which I mentioned before, and there is where we do kind of a handoff of your ticket, so you would un-assign it from VR and it would be handed off to an EN, an employment network, to continue helping you to maintain employment. And I think that's just a really wonderful benefit to the Ticket to Work and I hope that all of you take advantage of it. >> Ray Cebula: Okay Katie, thank you very much and I do have a bunch of questions for you. They were coming in fast and furious during your discussion. Basically one person wants to know who should I work with, an EN or the VR agency. >> Katie Grove: Well I think that really is determined by what your needs are. VR has a little bit more options to help you back to school. So if it's something, if you want, you need some intensive training, you want to go back to college, VR is probably the road to go. >> Ray Cebula: Okay. Now somebody in our audience is homebound and they want to know if it's possible to use their ticket in order to work from home and is it a requirement that they meet with an EN in person? >> Katie Grove: Absolutely not and I know that I talk fast so I probably kind of talked over this or maybe I didn't even say it. Some ENs are actually, you know, it is all done remotely, they may not even be in your state. So you can do it by phone and email. I mean really this again is a program that is self-directed by you so you know what you need and if that's what you need, just phone calls and emails, absolutely you don't have to meet with them in person. >> Ray Cebula: Okay and starting a business from home or working at home is a possibility? >> Katie Grove: Absolutely, the ticket totally, VR and ENs totally support that. >> Ray Cebula: Okay, now this is a good question for you too Katie. Somebody out there has a disorder that is very unpredictable and they're wondering whether or not there are employers out there who understand that kind of cyclical disability and will allow somebody to work who can't work on a regular basis. >> Katie Grove: You know and that's a great question to ask your, your employment specialist at an employment network or your VR counselors and you know to talk to them about your disorder, if it's cyclical, and say do you know of a specific employer that you know that you think will be able to work with me on this. So that's something that you really have to talk to your, your counselor about or your EN specialist and hopefully they can help direct you into an employer that will definitely be understanding of that and work with you. >> Ray Cebula: Great, thank you very much. Now my son received assistance from the Vocational Rehabilitation Agency to get a degree in History. Is he now able to use his ticket to work with an EN to find a job? >> Katie Grove: Absolutely. The process is that once, well, once his case is closed at VR then he can take his ticket and give it to, assign it to an EN. So it kind of, we want, so hopefully what will happen if, you know, your son got a degree in history, VR will be able to help him find a job and kind of maintain that job, usually it's about 90 days, and then at 90 days the case will be closed and then from there his ticket can be un-assigned from VR and reassigned to an EN of his choice to help him maintain employment and continue on his progress of success. >> Ray Cebula: Okay and how many times can I use my ticket? >> Katie Grove: How many times can you use your ticket? You can use your ticket as many times as you want as long as you are between the ages of 18 and 64 and you are continuing to receive your, your disability benefits. >> Ray Cebula: Okay, alright Katie I'm going to give you a breather for a minute and I want to ask Karen a few more questions. Karen, somebody wants you to explain again about that $85 rule you were talking about. >> Karen Wiley: Okay, when you're on SSI, Social Security has two exclusions and the exclusions are again, when I keep making that joke about language, it means Social Security ignores that amount of money. So the first $20 you earn in a month is called a general income exclusion, which means the first $20 a person earns does not affect their SSI check. The next one they have is a $65 one and that's called an earned income exclusion. You can only use it for earned income. So when you add the $20 of the general and the $65 of the earned income exclusion, then you have $85, the first $85 a person earns will not affect their check. And that's what a lot of people, when they call Social Security, they'll ask how much money can I make and not affect my SSI and Social Security will say either $65 or $85, but that's only part of the story because after that then they exclude half of what the person earns. And so it offers a great opportunity to earn well above $85, you don't need to hold yourself at $85 because that doesn't offer you much of an increase. >> Ray Cebula: Okay and Karen can you talk a little bit more about Medicaid and how long somebody can remain eligible for Medicaid after they've begun working. >> Karen Wiley: Okay, once you, again, if you're eligible for the full SSI federal benefit rate of $700, oh darn my mind, I've been doing this 14 years, $715? >> Ray Cebula: $710. >> Karen Wiley: Thank you. Sorry. I usually have it all written down so I can remember and I had a brain fart there. $710 a month, once you, now I forgot what I was going to say. Once you've earned over $1,505 a month, your SSI check will go to zero. But everybody has heard that if your SSI check goes to zero at that point, you're going to lose your Medicaid, lose everything, and that's not true if it goes to zero because of work. If it's because of work it helps it go down to zero, then you get a protection of your Medicaid until you make what each state calls a threshold amount. And so you can keep your Medicaid, full Medicaid, and your SSI eligibility, even after your SSI check goes to zero, until you make well over, like I said in New Mexico, it's over $33,000 a year. Other states it's a little less, or a little bit more. >> Ray Cebula: Yeah Karen those thresholds, just to add, those thresholds differ from state to state and the lowest that I've seen for this year is about $18,000 a year, and if you consider $18,000 and compare it to the SSI rate which gets you $8,500 a year, you're looking at $10,000 a year more. So if you were at that level making $18,000, you'd still have Medicaid. >> Karen Wiley: Yes, and then some states even have, with the Medicaid buy-in, will even have Medicaid for workers with disabilities so you can make higher amounts. So I think there are 33 states that have that particular Medicaid. >> Ray Cebula: We're up to 45 now. >> Karen Wiley: Forty-five wow. >> Ray Cebula: Forty-five, yes. And that's a wonderful program because it allows you to pay a premium for Medicaid and as Karen said, earn significantly more money and the premiums are very, very reasonable and they tend to be based on income in a lot of states. >> Karen Wiley: Yes and even some states like New Mexico we don't even ask for premium, we just ask for a co-pay when you see the doctor and the co-pays are better than my health insurance working for the state. >> Ray Cebula: Yeah, in New York we don't have any premium whatsoever. You know it's supposed to be $25 but they don't collect it, and you can earn up to $45,000. So there are a lot of great ways, 40, you can make $40,000 and still be eligible for Medicaid at no cost. >> Karen Wiley: In New Mexico it's up to $60,000. >> Ray Cebula: Yeah, so these are great, great programs. Now Karen I'm going to switch gears on you now because somebody just said well what about Medicare. >> Karen Wiley: Okay, during your trial work period, you don't have to worry about your Medicare at all because it'll still be there. You're getting your cash payment and your Medicare. During the 3 years or 36 months of your extended period of eligibility, you keep your Medicare. But once you finish your trial work period, for 93 months you will keep your Medicare eligibility. So for at least 7 years, 9 months, you don't have to worry about losing your Medicare eligibility. You may have to pay the Part B premium but you can, that's even very reasonable compared to what I pay in the state, so you can keep your Medicare and then there's ways to keep it even longer than that as long as you have a disability. For most people that's almost 8 years from today and so when you get closer to that time period we'll talk about that. >> Ray Cebula: Great advice, great advice, and I like the way you're comparing it to what you pay too because these programs are much cheaper than what I'm paying for my share of my healthcare as well. So it's a great comparison for folks to see. Now, I've got a question for both of you. What about the cost of durable medical equipment or other equipment that is needed to go to work? How can we get those paid for? >> Karen Wiley: Well, Katie do you want to start with VR? >> Katie Grove: Say that again? >> Karen Wiley: Do you want to start with the VRs and ENs first on >> Katie Grove: Well the VRs and ENs can assist you with buying some of that equipment. VRs, you know, if you say you want to start a business at home sometimes they're able to you know help you purchase a computer or help you purchase any type of, you know, possible medical equipment you might have, might need to have or special chair or things like that, special desk so that you'll be more comfortable at your job, so. Karen? >> Karen Wiley: Yeah and that's, that's the way it can start with. If also, if you're in your, remember I kind of eluded to the idea of countable income in your, in your extended period of eligibility. If you sometimes pay for it yourself, it reduces the amount of money you report to Social Security and in those cases, both for SSI and SSDI, Social Security ignores that amount of money that you earned that month. So say you had to pay, well for example, I'm going to give a little medical history from me. I have sleep apnea and I have to have oxygen at night. The insurance only pays for part of the oxygen and only part of my [inaudible], I can say it today, [inaudible] that I need. So my part, if I were on Social Security, I could deduct it from what I earned that month and if it's under what [audio skip] activity I'd still get my Social Security check. And there's a lot of things that Social Security will allow you, look at. If you need them in order to work, that they won't count it if you pay for it yourself. So VR just sent out a notice the other day, they were trying to help somebody remodel their bathroom so that they could get clean to go to work and VR was paying for that, but if somebody else had to do it maybe later when VR is closed or the employment network can't afford all of it, then they could use it as part of a work incentive. >> Ray Cebula: Great, thank you very much. Now I've got two really, really good questions and I'd like to hear from both of you on it. The first one, I'm going to generalize it because several people have asked this question about mental illness or mental health disorders, and does this program, is this program able to help somebody with a mental illness or traumatic brain injury? >> Karen Wiley: Absolutely. We have statistics showing that we've had many people with mental illness go back to work. The Ticket to Work and the work incentives and employers are learning more and more about how to support people. >> Ray Cebula: And I would refer people to www.socialsecurity.gov/work and look at some of those success stories because some of those success stories are from people who had those very disorders. And the last question that I want to put the people, put out there for you before we go to polling questions is if I apply for a job through an EN, won't the employer know about my disability and won't that discourage them from hiring me? >> Katie Grove: I would, you know, the thing is you're not applying through an EN. You're going to be getting assistance from the EN in the process of applying, doing your resume, doing your application, but most of the time, you know, it's going to be coming from you. You're going to send it and so, you know, I would say that most of the time it won't be the EN sending it out, it won't be VR sending out your application or your resume. Sometimes it may be and then you know you discuss how you talk about your disability at an interview. >> Ray Cebula: And so an EN can provide that information about disclosure? >> Katie Grove: Yes they can. >> Ray Cebula: Okay. Perfect question for ENs to see how they would counsel somebody as to whether or not to tell about a disability, when it's necessary, things like that. So that's a good thing. Alright well thank you both for the questions, but as I warned you all, we have some questions for you. And what we do with these questions, they're really easy, but we want to know a little bit about what, who you are I guess and how you found out about us, so we can use that information to guide our outreach and target our audience. So I'm going to ask you how you learned about today's webinar. Did you learn by email, by Facebook or Twitter, a website, a family or friend or some other way? If you just pick an answer and everyone's picking away. Wow I wish the people that were on my webinars participated this fast, this is great. This is very, it's hard to explain to you how helpful this information is, so we really do appreciate it if you participate with these questions. We'll give you a couple more seconds. [Silence] All right we're going to shut that one down because we've got a bunch more to go, actually we don't have a bunch but four more to go. [Silence] And we're closing. [Silence] Okay, our second question is what did you hope to learn before we started today's webinar? Did you want to learn about the Ticket to Work, work incentives for SSI, work incentives for SSDI, about employment networks are vocational rehabilitation services or something else that we missed? And if it is something else, remember to use that support@chooseworkttw.net address and let us know what you want to hear about. [ Silence ] All right. [ Silence ] Okay, we're going to close that one out. Right [inaudible] 20 seconds so I can start the third one. [ Silence ] Thank you very much for your participation, we've got a lot of people participating. [Silence] Okay. Now some of you might be listening in today with some other people and you're all sitting in front of one screen. So we'd like to know how many other people, not including yourself, are with you at your computer terminal today. [ Silence ] All right. We're going to shut that one down. [ Silence ] Okay, I'm trying to find, I'm missing three and four for some reason. [ Silence ] There is poll three, okay. Then open that one up. If you could let us know what your gender is, male or female. [ Silence ] Okay, we'll shut that one down and get to the next one. The next one is just as easy. [Silence] Give me my seconds. [Silence] And what is your age, and it's broken down into different age groups, 18 or younger, 19 to 25, 26 to 40, 41 to 55, 56 to 65 or 66 and older. [ Silence ] All right, we'll close that one too. Thank you very much, those answers are very helpful. I'm going to let that close down and then one more time give you some more information before we sign off today. Now after we do sign off in about two seconds there will be a popup on your screen that will allow you to evaluate today's session. If you take the time to do that we'd really appreciate it because we do look at those things and take them very seriously and change our presentations accordingly. Now, if you need more information where are you going to go? www.socialsecurity.gov/work. It's a very wonderful website. It's very user friendly and you're going to find everything you need there, and it's a very safe way as well to find out more information about the programs that we've been talking about. If you want to talk to somebody the Ticket to Work helpline is available and there are experts there who can talk to you about your specific situation. We've asked a lot of general questions today and given you some general information but to be specific about your situation, what we want to do is ask you to call this Ticket to Work helpline. That's at 866-968-7842 or if you're a TTY user 866-833-2967. And we are over time, a little bit over, and I apologize for that but I do want to thank Karen and Katie for being great presenters today and thank Jeff for keeping everything running and Jamie for monitoring the question box and look to your Twitter and email and all of that other stuff and watch for the next webinar. Some of them are on specific topics that might be of interest to you. Thanks for joining us today. [ Background Sounds ] [ Silence ]