[ Music ] [ Silence ] >> Ray Cebula: Good afternoon everybody. This is Ray Cebula from Cornell University's Yang-Tan Institute and I want to welcome you to today's WISE event. We're going to be talking about supports and services that people who are receiving benefits from the Social Security Administration based on disability can receive when they decide it's time to attempt to go back to the workforce. We have a couple of great speakers today that I will introduce when we get to the agenda and we have one person who is out. She had a medical emergency, so I'm going to be covering her part. Before we get to the meat of today's session I just want to take you through some of the technology we have. You have a webinar console on the right hand corner of your screen. There is a Q&A box as you can see up in the corner. If you click on that Q&A box it's going to open the box here. You'll be able to type in your questions or your comments, hit send and Anne Gordon will be catching your questions today and she'll be passing them on to us and I will present those questions to the panel of experts that we have here with us today. I do want you to know that there are close to 600 folks who have registered for today's session and I cannot promise you that we're going answer all of your questions. I can promise you that we will pick those questions that pertain to the most, the largest group of people and we'll take those. However, we do want your comments. We do want your questions and we will throughout the presentation give you the means to get that question answered. You have been connected today with your speakers and microphone on your computer system. If for any reason you need to change that you can click on that use phone dot, that use phone button here and it will give you today's call in information. I'll give you that phone number now. Today's number is 1-855-749-4750. That's 1-855-749-49-- 4750 and the access code is 640435636 and that is a toll-free number. Now, I want to talk a little bit about accessibility. We've built these webinars so that we believe they're accessible to everybody, but we want to know if you're having a problem with anything whether it's getting a question to us, whether it's working with the closed captioning or whatever problem you have please let us know. And more importantly than letting us know that you're having a problem, if you are aware of some program that we can use or some computer fix that might be available to help with your issue let us know about that too because that will help us make the sessions better in the future for the largest number of people. Now, once again I'm going to read that number because I did sort of flub it up. It's 1-855-749-4750. Today's access code is 640435636. Today's closed captioning link is www.edi.cornell.edu/captions.cfm?activity underscore id=4103. And the PowerPoint, excuse me, and accessible PDF and text were received by you today with the URL link to today's session so you do have that information. If you need it again please let us know. In about 2 weeks we'll have today's presentation archived. Mike is our computer guru and we'll make sure that this gets archived within that 2 week time so you can come back, listen to it again. And that will be found at www.edi.cornell.edu/m-wise-webinars.cfm. Now, we did talk about how you can use your webinar console to get your questions to us. If you want to use the chat box that is also in your webinar console please feel free to use that. We do prefer you use the question box though. If you want to email questions to us you can email questions to chooseworkquestions, that's one word, chooseworkquestions@gmail.com. And if you do have a question that comes up for you after today's session or tomorrow morning if you're thinking about something or at any time in the future please feel free to drop a line at support at chooseworkttw.net, that's support at chooseworkttw.net. Now, I am your host and I am also going to be taking you through the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives programs because Sheila has had an issue with getting here today. We have an Employment Network and Katie is going to be with us, Katie Nelson from the North Iowa Vocational Center who'll be talking about Employment Networks and the services that they can provide to you to help you get back to work. LeAnn Russo from the Iowa Vocational Rehabilitation Services Agency is going to talk about state vocational rehabilitation. I'll then provide you with some other resources that you can use to get information and then we'll have our question and answer session. Now, just because most of our speakers are from Iowa today doesn't mean that what they're saying is not going to work in your state. The information that we have will work in all 50 states, maybe working a little differently on the state rehab agency side of things, but for the most part its general information despite the fact that most of our speakers are from Iowa. What I want to do now is actually ask you some questions. So, we're going to put some questions up on the screen and ask you to give us some answers. They are going to allow us to target our next webinars advertising and to build sessions that people want to hear. So, our first question is how did you learn about today's WISE event? Did you hear about it through email, Facebook or Twitter, the website, family or friends or some other manner? Make your selection and hit send. [ Silence ] >> And we're getting close. [ Silence ] >> This is kind of like waiting for a new Pope you know. As soon as I have a certain percentage we'll send up white smoke and we can stop it all. [ Silence ] >> Alright, I'm going to close that poll, a couple to wait before we can open the other. [ Silence ] >> And here we go. Alright, the second question. What do you hope to learn from today's webinar? Do you want to learn about the Ticket to Work, about work incentives for SSI recipients, about Work Incentives for SSDI recipients, about employment networks and state VR agencies or something else? If you are answering something else remember to send us an email and let us know what that is. [ Silence ] >> We do cover a broad range of topics, so some of you who want to hear about something else may very well hear about it anyway. Excuse me. [ Silence ] >> Alright, we'll close that one and I'll wait my 20 seconds. [ Silence ] >> It looks like we've got a lot of people who want to hear about everything, so good mish, a good mish mosh of topics here. So, we'll make lots of people happy today. Now, these are easy questions. What is your gender, male or female? [ Silence ] >> Alrighty, thank you. [ Silence ] >> And once again we have more women listening than we have men, seems to be the case for most of our webinars. [ Silence ] >> What is your age, 18 or younger, 19 to 25, 26 to 40, 41 to 55, 56 to 65 or 66 or older? [ Silence ] >> I see my age is well represented. [ Silence ] >> Alright, and we'll close that down. [ Silence ] >> And the last question I have for you. Some of you may be sitting there at a computer terminal with somebody else. We tend to have people who listen to us in groups, sometimes they're pretty large groups. So, what we would like to know is how many other people besides yourself are with you at your computer screen? [ Microphone reverberation ] [ Silence ] >> This way we have a better idea of how many people are out there. [ Silence ] >> Alright, thank you very much for that. Those questions help us a lot at building future webinars and targeting our information to our audience. And that's going to let me move on. First thing we have is a welcome message from Associate Commissioner Bob Williams. He is an Associate Commissioner at the Social Security Administration and works at the Office of Employment Support Programs and is a great friend to those of us who are interested in using these Work Incentives. So Michael if you could cue up that video. [ Silence ] [ Music ] [ Silence ] >> Bob Williams: Hello and welcome to this 8th webinar. My name is Bob Williams and I am the Associate Commissioner for Employment Support at the Social Security Administration. We run the Ticket to Work and Self-Sufficiency programs, which assists persons ages 18 through 64 on 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 first-hand that people with significant disabilities face many barriers to becoming and staying employed. This is especially true in today's economy. A major reason you receive disability benefits is that Social Security determined that you were not able to work enough to support yourself. But, I also want to you 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 you need to go to work and gain financial independence. I hope today's webinar begins your journey towards greater self-sufficiency. Your life and your future can be better. Thank you for joining us. [ Silence ] [ Music ] [ Silence ] >> Ray Cebula: Okay, thank you Mike. As the Commissioner said the keywords today are voluntary, free and informed choice. We're here to give you information so that you can make a choice as to whether or not starting work is for you. This is a completely voluntary program. So, what can you expect from us today? You can expect information on the Ticket to Work program, a very important program and you can expect information about the Work Incentive programs. We're going to answer some questions to those frequently asked questions. The three of us that are speaking to you today have heard questions over and over and over again from people who just don't believe these Work Incentives work. So, we're going to show you what those questions are and try and dispel some of those myths. We're always going to be giving you more information about where you can get information, lots of great people who are waiting for your phone calls to help you out, to help you make that decision, to give you more information that we may able to do that to give you today and success stories. We have some success stories. We have one today from Robert who has a wonderful success story to share with you. And we'll tell you where you can find some others from people who have actually used the Ticket to Work and gone back to work and gotten off of benefits and become financially independent. So, why would you choose work? And clearly there is more income. The way the public benefits programs are set up in this country there is almost always going to be more income in your pocket every month than there is if you choose not to work. So, that's the first reason, to gain independence. When we talk about independence we mean independence from the agencies that you rely on, how you will no longer have to report to Social Security every time you move, when you get married, when you go to work. You will not have to worry about medical reviews and file reviews and you'll be more independent in the, with the extra money that you have you'll be able to have more choice about what you want to do with your time and how you want to live your life. Meeting new people is a great part of work. You know I hope by the end of today's session we'll have you convinced that work is much more than your paycheck. My story right now is that I met my spouse at work and that's a true thing. You know so I am married, have a home, have two dogs and a car because I work. I know Anne Gordon because I work. I know Michael because I work. I met two new people from the state of Iowa today because I work. Lots of things, extra things come rather than just a paycheck. What if you want to learn new skills? We can tell you how you can learn those skills, where to get funding for it, whether they be new skills in the form of education, technical school, technical skills, learn a computer or potentially using the skills that you have to relearn the job that you once did. Maybe you have to do it a little differently because of your disability, but we can make all of those happen for you and the choice is yours. So, right now we want to share Robert's story. He's a veteran and he spent 7 years in the U.S. Army. After a surgical mishap in the year 2000 he sustained a spinal cord injury and that left him with limited mobility. The Ticket to Work helped him discover his passion for helping other veterans navigate that transition back into civilian life. Now, with what's going on now and the number of veterans that we have coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan he's a busy guy. He's a busy guy and he's doing some good work helping people adjust. So Michael if we can cue up Robert's video we'll let him tell you the story. [ Silence ] [ Music ] [ Silence ] [ Music ] >> Robert Statam: 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 I went in the service for was in communications and I was a Communications Specialist. I spent two tours in Europe and Germany and I spent over about 7 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. It led to some medical issues that I started to have. I became disabled from a surgery kind of mishap where a disc ruptured 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 was some safety nets there. Some of the things that I was worried about I really didn't have-- it was no worry at all. Now, it was until the Voc-Rehab representative for Paralyzed Veterans who again introduced me to the Ticket to Work and I told him I had heard of it and I was aware of it. But, at this time as years had went by I felt a little bit more stronger about actually accepting it this time because I knew that I was at a level health-wise and I thought it was time for me to make some serious decisions and not be living on a fixed income when I such a desire to want to do much more. The program had told me all the things like, well if it don't work out it was still enough of a security net there to say that you don't have to worry about that. They even gave me a year even while I was working that I was still covered under Social Security. They make sure that they are there to assist you and help you in all types of ways not only to put you back in the workforce or give you the skills 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 availabilities of positions for a National Service Officer. At that time there just happened to be some available positions. >> Winston Woodward: He put in the ticket a position that he had to apply the position normally. That position came up and shortly thereafter he was selected as a candidate to be a National Service Officer at the Chicago office. >> Robert Statam: 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 America is of course is a service organization dedicated to helping those veterans with spinal cord injuries, spinal cord disease as we assist all veterans with VA benefits and we advocate for veterans healthcare. I'm Robert Statam. >> Okay. >> Robert Statam: I'm a National Service Officer with the Paralyzed Veterans of America. I greet and meet with especially the new veterans or a new patient that has just come in it for the first time. Coming back to work has probably built up independency, the self-pride and you know I'm an achiever again. You know I've got something to offer society. And you know it's almost like you, you know, 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, 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 ] [ Silence ] >> Ray Cebula: Okay, thank you Mike. Alright, so when you're ready to go to work after we convince you that this is a safe thing and that as Robert told you there are safety nets out there to make sure you're okay. You need to start gathering information. The first thing is to get as much information as you possibly can because the more you plan this return to work the more successful it's going to be and the Ticket to Work and the Work-Incentives are there to help. What we want to do is make sure you're aware of all of those Work Incentives so that you can use every one of them in order to help you become independent. Now, what we like to call this is an employment team and you are the coach of your employment team and it's up to you to put that team together. How do you get started? We fortunately have a program that has no wrong way to start. If you're ready to go to work right now and you want to start building your team, talk to an expert at the Ticket to Work helpline. That's at 1-866-968-7842 or TTY users 1-866-833-2967. You can learn more about the Ticket to Work and the programs that we're going to talk to you about by reading our blog and watching more success stories from people like Robert who have allowed us to post their stories on the Social Security website. And that is www.socialsecurity.gov/work. It's a very fine website that will give you lots of information and its very user friendly. You can reach out to your state VR agency or to an employment network and find which one of those people or which one of those organizations among the many of them is best suited to meet your needs and is the one that you think can help you most and start there. The important thing is once you start building this team is that you stay connected because you are the boss of this team. We are not here to tell you what you need to do to go back to work. We are here to provide you with options and you are here to make the choice as to how you want to proceed and tell us what you want to do to get back to work. Now, let's switch gears and talk about the benefits programs that are provided by Social Security. We're going to be talking about two benefit programs today. The first one is the Social Security Disability Insurance program, known as SSDI and this is a program where people work, pay FICA taxes and are buying an insurance policy from Social Security. It's used when you become disabled, meet the Social Security definition of disability and are otherwise eligible to receive cash benefits. It also comes with Medicare. So, this program is a program for people who have worked in the past. The other program is Supplemental Security Income or SSI and this is a needs based program. It is basically a federal welfare program that provides benefits to folks with disabilities who are of low income and have low resources and we'll talk about those specifics later on. The two programs are very, very different. And what you need to do is figure out which benefit you receive because telling us that you receive Social Security benefits is not going to give us enough information. We need to know whether it is SSDI or SSI because there are two different sets of Work Incentives that apply differently to each program. Lastly, there could be some of you out there who receive both benefits. Some people have worked at lower wage jobs or worked part time and become insured, but those benefits are lower than the current SSI rate so SSI then acts as a true supplement to bring you up to that SSI level and we call those concurrent beneficiaries. Now, for you folks you really need some planning services because you have two different programs with two different sets of Work Incentives all working at the same time. You really need to plan this and to have someone help orchestrate your moves through what can be a very complex system, but not overwhelmingly so. It'll still work out in the end. Now, we told you we talked about some of the myths. What do we hear all the time and these are three of the most common ones. If I go to work I will automatically lose my Medicare or Medicaid. Now, that can't be further from the truth. Somebody who goes to work today who has Medicare will be eligible to receive Medicare health coverage for at least 93 months after their trial work period. That's 7-1/2 years so there's a good long time for you to get used to working before you have to worry about what's going to happen to Medicare. And on the Medicaid side because of the workings of a program that's known as 1619A and B, provided you continue to be medically disabled you could continue with Medicaid for a very long time, a very time if not indefinitely. And in some states, in 45 states now, there is a buy in program for workers with disability who were eligible for SSI and Medicaid and now earn too much. So, you can buy into that program by paying a very reasonable premium. So, there is really not a whole lot to worry about when it comes to healthcare. Now, the second myth that we hear all the time, if I use my Ticket to go to work Social Security is going to perform a medical review and I'll use my benefits. Well, once again it's just wrong. If you are using your Ticket and have assigned that Ticket to either an employment network or to a state VR agency you're making progress in accordance with plan that you've developed Social Security will not perform a medical review. Nobody wants to pull the rug out from under you while you're trying to make this transition back to work. So, the result is if you're doing your part and making progress no medical reviews while you're doing this. And lastly, if I have to stop working because of my disability I have to reapply for benefits and the first time wasn't fun. It took a long time and I can't afford to wait that long so I should not try to work, once again, completely wrong. As Robert said during his story there are safety nets all along the way. One of those safety nets known as Expedited Reinstatement will allow you to walk back into Social Security within 5 years of being terminated from the program because you returned to work and request that your benefits be put back on. And it is the 20th today. It's the 20th of March today. If you were to request Expedited Reinstatement today the chances are that you would receive your first benefit check on May 1st. If we earlier in the month it could be April, but I'm guessing we were so late in the month it would likely be May 1st. That's almost immediately and your healthcare benefits would be reinstated as well. So, there are protections all along the way even after you have left the program completely because of work. Now, Sheila I told you was not able to make it today so I'm going to take you through the Ticket to Work program and some of the Work Incentives. The Ticket to Work, the Commissioner said free, voluntary. I want you to remember that, free and voluntary. It has been created to assist you because you receive benefits based on a disability to go back to work or enter the workforce for the first time or to potentially increase your current work if you are working right now. Now, most people between the ages of 18 and 64 who receive a cash benefit from either program can participate in the program. There used to actually be to you a Ticket that was sent out and mail. Some of you may have it. That doesn't happen anymore you know just the more, the further we go in time the less reality we have so we now have virtual tickets. How do you know if you have one? Well, if you contact the state VR agency or you contact the Ticket to Work number or you contact an EN the first thing they're going to do is determine whether or not you have a Ticket that's ready to be assigned. You don't need the paper Ticket. You can call any one of those agencies and they will let you know if there is a Ticker available for you. Again, when you're ready to work what's the Ticket to Work program going to do for you? If you're ready to earn more money this program's going to help you improve your earnings potential by getting you skills, training or supports that you need to do more work. If you need the personal fulfillment that comes with working, and we talked about that a bit, the Ticket to Work is going to be able to provide you with the assurance and stability that you need to focus on your work and be confident that nothing bad is going to happen. And that if there's a change that is going to happen in your benefit status you already know about it so that you're prepared for that to happen. If you want to be able to get your benefits back because your disability prevents you from continuing we talked about Expedited Reinstatement, a fast track back to both cash and healthcare after you've been terminated. That's a great program. If you're overwhelmed and don't know where to turn we can connect you with people. We can connect you with resources. We can connect you with services that you need to help you develop that plan. Notice I'm using the work planning a lot. A lot of time is spent planning this return to work so that you are aware every step of the way what will happen next to your benefits, to your healthcare. You will be perfectly aware allowing you to make those informed choices. Now again, build that employment team. Once again, if you're ready to think about going to work and want more information call the Ticket to Work helpline, 1-866-968-7842 or for TTY users 1-866-833-2967. Get onto the socialsecurity.gov website, socialsecurity.gov/work, read the blog, watch the success stories. This is a great way to get information without even to have to talk to anybody. So, if you're really just thinking about it and want to know things get on the website. What safer way could there be. Start there. It's a great way to do it. If you're really, really ready to go, contact a local employment network. Where can you find those? Guess where, socialsecurity.gov or your state VR agency and talk to somebody there. Every state VR agency has a Ticket to Work coordinator who can give you some information that can help you make the decision as to whether or not you want to try this. And after you put the team together stay connected, because remember we cannot function without you telling us what you want. Now, were going to talk a little bit about the Work Incentives. We're going to talk about these fast and furious and you're going to need to check that website or talk to a Benefits Planner, an EN or a state VR agency person in order to get more information about how these can help you and will impact your situation and they're only here to help. They're only here to help. What are Work Incentives? They're basically exceptions to the general rules that allow you to go to work, become active, make more money and protect your benefits and healthcare. It's allowing you to move from your current situation and in increments build a bridge to success. Every Work Incentive is another one of these puzzle pieces that gets you closer and closer and closer to working and being independent and being financially stable, and being financially stable. There are many, many things that Work Incentives can do for you and safety nets are the best things. All along the way as you make your journey to work and independence there are safety nets to catch you if something happens. What can you get by using Work Incentives? We've talked about training for new skills, training to improve the skills you already have or training that you may need to relearn to do things that you were doing in the past, opportunities to pursue or gain your education. Maybe you need an advanced degree at this point. Maybe you want an Associate's Degree. Maybe you want some type of technical education. There you have it. We can get you connected with places to do that. You can try different jobs. Maybe you're not sure right yet what you want to do. Well the Ticket to Work and working with VR and or an EN agency is a great way to try different jobs to see what suits you best. You know again, we're not here to tell you what job you should have. We are here to find out what you're interested in, make suggestions and help you decide what you want to do, start a career. Maybe right now you want to start a career. You want to become a real estate broker. You want to become an attorney. You want to become a counselor. There's nothing to prevent you from doing that. All we're doing today is opening doors too information that will allow you to do what you want to do and too gain confidence. Again, planning this return to work journey will allow you to be confident when you take a step forward in that you are perfectly aware that your healthcare and your cash benefits will either be in tact or you will know what is going to happen. In the best of all possible worlds when your benefits go away they are replaced with earnings. You know, so this is a gradual, general switch from benefits to earnings that you can make at your own comfortable pace. No one's forcing you to do this. We're not telling you to go to work tomorrow. This could take you a long time if that's how you want to do it. Now, we're going to talk about the most common Work Incentives and each one of these topics that we're going to talk about we could spend a day on. So, we're going to talk about them very generally, but they're very, very important. Now, if you receive SSDI, supplemental-- I'm sorry, Social Security Disability Insurance, you see how easy it is to get these programs confused. The first Work Incentives you have is a trial work period or TWP. Now, this period, trial work period allows you to test your ability to work and that's just what I want you to do. I want you to wait until you're ready to work and then go for it. During that trial work period you can earn as much as you want and work as much as you want and there is no impact on your cash or your Medicare benefits. You receive your full payments no matter how much you earn. Now, you have to report this to Social Security and you have to continue to be disabled, but for that 9 period earn whatever you want. Do whatever you want testing that ability to work without any thought of losing benefits. Now, these months do not have to be in a row. They do not have to be at the same job. Remember a few slides ago we talked about your testing out different jobs. Maybe you want to spend 3 months doing one thing and then switch to another thing for 3 months. You know, what we're looking at now is an amount of money. If you earn in 2013, 720 dollars in a month you have used 1 trial work month. Known, you can use that by earning 720 dollars or you can use 1 trial work month by earning 4000 dollars in a month. It doesn't matter. It's the same thing. You've used 1 month. You use 9 of those months within a 5 year period then what we move into is the next period. Again, for Social Security Disability Insurance recipients only, it's the extended period of eligibility or EPE. This is 36 months, 36 continuous months that run immediately following your trial work period and they run whether you're working or not. During this 36 month period you can go off of benefits and onto benefits with a phone call. We're looking now at your ability to perform substantial gainful activity and that figure this calendar year is 1,040 dollars, 1,040 dollars. If you earn over that you do not get your benefits. If you earn under that you do. So, as your income fluctuates, if it does fluctuate and goes over and above you need to report to Social Security. My income is now below, pay me. Have I said anything about Medicare? No I haven't. That's because you're covered by Medicare during this period of time. So, we haven't done anything to your healthcare at all. We're just looking at an increase in, an increase in earnings. On and off with a simple phone call provided you continue to report your income to Social Security. So, the rules of the game are basically report, report, report. Now, we have to switch over now. We're going to draw a line here and we're going to start talking about Supplemental Security Income. So, the SSI program also has some really significant Work Incentives and they're all dealing with earned income. This earned income exclusion results in Social Security counting less than 1/2 of your monthly earnings when they determine how much SSI you'll be eligible to receive. There is a specific mathematical formula and the calculations are all done in a specific Witter, but the truth of the matter is less than 1/2 of your income counts so that if you earn 1000 dollars in the month of March, I'm going to play with my calculator right now. Social Security will only count 457 dollars of that money. Less than 1/2 of 1000 dollars counts so you're still eligible to receive a bit of SSI. You're still eligible to receive Medicaid and you've earned 1000 dollars. There is no other way that this can work for an SSI recipient. If you return to work you will have more money. We talked about Expedited Reinstatement, but let's do it again. Remember it applies to both programs. If your income drops below this figure, substantial gainful activity, 1,040 dollars in this calendar year because of your disability you're not able to earn that much money. You can contact Social Security and be put on benefits next to immediately. And again, we said March 20th it's likely to be May 1st that you get your check. You will receive temporary benefits for 6 months while Social Security determines if you can be reinstated or not. Now, the vast majority of applications, upwards of 95 percent of requests for EXR are granted. This happens after you are terminated because or work activity. So, Social Security is still looking out for you even though they have nothing to do with you anymore because you're not a recipient. For 5 years after you were terminated you can still get your benefits back Expedited Reinstatement. And we also talked about the protection from continuing disability reviews. If you have taken that Ticket to Work and you have assigned your Ticket to either an employment network or to a state VR agency and you are making progress with your plan to return to work there will be no continuing disability reviews to look at your medical situation while you are working on that plan and that is a very, very powerful thing. That is going to give you confidence to know that nobody is going to look at your work or your earnings and say you are no longer disabled until you have completely finished using your Ticket to Work. That's a very, very powerful Work Incentive. And that brings up to the Employment Network and I'm going to turn you over to Katie who is with the North Iowa Vocational Center and she can introduce herself a little bit more. And she's going to talk to us today about Employment Networks. So, take it away Katie. >> Katie Nelson: Thanks Ray. This is Katie Nelson. I work for North Iowa Vocational Center and we are currently an EN in Iowa. I guess when you're ready to use your Ticket like Ray said you would want to call the Ticket to Work helpline at 1-866-968-7842 or for TTY users you can call 1-866-833-2967 to speak with a Benefits Counselor and at that time you'd want to request a list of Employment Networks that serve your area. You can also visit the Social Security website at www.socialsecurity.gov/work to access a list of Employment Networks near you, next slide. Questions you may want to ask the potential EN would be how many people have you helped through the Ticket to Work program? What kinds of companies do you work with for job placements? What kind of jobs might be available to me or how often will we be communicating and meeting? I know a lot of ours as an EN is done through social media just because of location, but all ENs would work differently. [ Silence ] >> The EN should explain how the Ticket program works and the services that it provides. The EN should ask about your work goals and intentions about work. That's the biggest one right there. If your goal is not to eventually become self-sufficient and being, working above the SGA then that might be, it might not be worth doing the Ticket to Work. So, you want to make sure that is something that you want to do long-term and have those supports available on the team that we talked about. The EN should talk with you about any fears you might have because it is new. It's going to be different so you want to talk about those fears. You and the EN will develop an Individual Work Plan that includes your employment goals and the services the EN will provide to help you get there. And all ENs would maybe provide different services, so it would depend on the EN that you contact on what kind of services you both agree on and what kinds of help and supports you need in order to get a job. Your signature on the Individual Work Plan actually assigns your Ticket to the EN. The EN may have some other routine forms for you to sign allowing it to work with. Releases are a big one. A lot of times ENs have to work with Social Security in order to get the background and what kind of benefit you are receiving whether that's the SSI or SSDI. Sometimes you know if you're a beneficiary receiving that you may not know which one you're getting. The EN can help you in finding that out by getting a benefits query from Social Security. You can un-assign your Ticket at any time. So, if you change your mind and decide you want to work with a different EN or that it's just not working out, it's not a good match you can actually un-assign your Ticket at any time and sign up with a different EN. Social Security postpones your Continuing Disability Reviews. They're postponed as long as you are timely progress towards employment. So, as long as you're working with an EN and trying to find employment those are postponed until you decide that you no longer want to work towards that goal or until you reach that goal and don't need to have those continuing reviews anymore because you're off of benefits. [ Silence ] >> Some ENs, some of the services that we can provide is resume development and also advice on how to fill out a good application, depending you know person to person. Depending on your past there are some things you do not want to put on an application and most ENs can help in filling those out so they look acceptable and they're ones that employers would want to accept. We can work with you on interviewing skills and tips on how to explain long absences from work without disclosing that you have a disability or what your disability is and can work with you on job accommodations. Any information or resources we can help advocate for you to the employer and also give the employer different information that they might not be aware of. Tax incentive information, those do change on and off so we can definitely talk to potential employers on your behalf what those tax incentives would be for them. And we can also give out referrals to other resources in the area for beneficiaries if they're not sure what's available to them, but something that ENs would be able to hand out and get them different supports that they could contact if needed. [ Silence ] >> A few other services that we're able to provide, any job leads or information on employers who are hiring, going to job fairs and then recruiting for events. A lot of those are, again, through social media and if you as a beneficiary aren't aware of it those are things that the EN can provide you. They can give you different ideas and where to find that information. We're able to access resource centers, so computers if you're unable to utilize a computer or you don't have internet access, emails, phones and fax machines. A lot of things that are sent to us we send out like post-- pre-stamped envelopes so people can send those back, any information that we need for them. If they don't have internet access we're able to look information up for them and give it to them and also fax machines. We can send out information for them as well if that's in the plan. We also do job development on your behalf. So, as a beneficiary if you're not sure who to contact or how get that, even that interview that's something that we would be able to help with. Either you know go to the interview with you depending on location or do practice run throughs on what kind of, I guess, questions they will ask you during those interviews to prepare you for it. We can also give you referrals to other organizations that can help you. And we can continue to provide you services through the Ticket even after you're finished working with Voc-Rehab. So, a lot of times we do follow along. I'm not sure which ENs do that, but North Iowa Vocational Center does. We do, we provide follow along for people who have obtained a job and have been successful for 90 days and then Voc-Rehab closes the file and a lot of times we'll help support them in maintaining that job to make sure that you're still happy as a beneficiary and that your employer is satisfied with your work. We're kind of that go between. Again, all ENs can be different in that, but that's kind of what we do. >> Ray Cebula: Okay, thank you Katie. I'm sure we're going to have some questions. Some of them are coming in now and we're going to have some that you can answer a little bit later on. But, right now we want to look at the other half of the support providing team and that's the state Vocational Rehabilitation agency and we have LeAnn Russo from the Iowa VR Services Agency, so take it away LeAnn. >> LeAnn Russo: Thank you and some people call me Renee Russo, but truly that's not my name. So anyway, I'm LeAnn Russo. I work at Voc-Rehab and I'm happy to be part of this conversation today because as Ray mentioned if you are receiving SSI or SSDI you are automatically eligible for Voc-Rehab services. And I say Voc-Rehab, VR, it's all the same. It's vocational rehabilitation, vocational meaning restore rehabilitation or rehabilitation meaning or vocational is work and rehabilitation means restore. So, we want to help restore you as a beneficiary or an individual with a disability that requires our services, we want to help you get back to work or reenter work if you require our services. So, if you are interested in working and you decide that you want to Voc-Rehab there are 80 Voc-Rehabs across the United States in our territories. There's one in every state and sometimes the Voc-Rehab agencies and the Department for the Blind Agencies are drawn together. That's why there's more than 50 instead of just one for each state. But anyway, they are available to you. They're easy to access. They're part of the website that you've been provided with already. When you come to our agencies we're going to talk specifically about what you want to do for work and we're going to tailor our services once we make you eligible to your needs. So, there's no cookie cutter approach. There's no generalized, this is what everybody gets or doesn't get. It's all tailored to be appropriate to what you as an individual needs to work. That's the goal of Voc-Rehab and that's been the goal since 1916 to get people with disabilities out working so we know that's better for everybody. If you don't want to work with a Voc-Rehab you can certainly talk to another Employment Network. All Voc-Rehabs are Employment Networks, so our ENs and to find out what services they may be able to offer you too. So, the good news is that as a beneficiary you're automatically eligible. The bad news is that some Voc-Rehab agencies have a waiting list for services. So, while you may be eligible it doesn't mean that you are able to be served right away. You might have to go on a waiting list depending on each state's funding or the constraints they have with staff capacity, things like that. In Iowa we are able to serve individuals who are found to be the most significantly disabled right away. There's no waiting list. We have two other categories, the individuals who are significantly disabled and then the third category is those who are otherwise eligible for services. So, a waiting list for the significantly disabled is oh less than a year away, but hopefully we'd be able to make a case for an individual on SSI or DI that there are services we can offer you and your individual situation may allow you to be made eligible under the most significant disabled eligibility requirements that we have in place. So anyway, I don't want anyone to be fearful about exploring Voc-Rehab. No agency within our system is going to force you to do anything. We're all governed by the element of informed client choice meaning that we've got staff trained to be aware of what benefits, benefit planning includes and the effect that going to work will have on your benefits so we-- if we're unable to provide certain benefits, planning services, to you we do have the ability to contract out for those services. And so, we've got some very specialized people that we have contracts with that if we cannot provide the services to you then we will contract out to at least provide you with benefit planning services because we want you to be informed all the way throughout the program. What would happen is you would come in and apply and that anybody can do that. You can do it online and we can get information to you if it's not available to you on the Social Security website about accessing services at least in Iowa. But, a plan would be written once you're made eligible because again it's an eligibility based system not an entitlement based system, but once you're made eligible and you are automatically eligible again. I don't think I can say that enough because we want to expand our pool of individuals that we serve just because we know how the return on investment for people going to work is, is so great. So, we would write a plan, you and a counselor, a trained counselor, a professional staff person would write a plan on what it's going to take to get you employed. That's the objective and that's what everybody has happen as they are eligible for voc rehab services. We partner with other agencies and have relationships with businesses and community rehabilitation partners and Katy talked about the relationship that we have with the community rehab provider that their program is in Mason City, Iowa. So, we've got those all over the state. We've got certain partners that are employment networks under the partnership plus umbrella that's available through social security and that allows us to handoff a Ticket-holder after we provide our services and they no longer require more services from voc rehab. We would hand that Ticket-holder off to an employment network such as NIVID that you just heard from. So we know that the employment plan is going to be individualized. It's going to be what you need to get to work. You and the counselors that would assigned to you would sign a plan that you would both agree to. In signing a plan your ticket is put automatically in use by a voc rehab agency. If your ticket is currently assigned to another employment network you would have it unassigned during the time that you're receiving services from voc rehab and our counselors in Iowa can help with that process. We want to make sure that we do have services available to you through another employment network when your file closes. We can take about the handoff in the next slide, but I do want to make note of the fact-- I know that everybody mentioned this, but as long as you're making progress towards your employment goal you are exempt from a medical review and that really, like Ray said, it is a very good and powerful thing. So, we want to make sure that you do assign your ticket to voc rehab and you're making progress. There are no time frames within our system in which you have to be in and out of a voc rehab nor is there a timeline for a Ticket-holder. There's no times that that ticket would expire. No expiration date for a ticket, so we want to just make sure that progress is being made. And if we do have to backtrack or if we have to change your employment goal, that happens and so that's doable within our system. So, we just want to make sure that progress is occurring in some manner. We do have a conversation with every beneficiary that comes and applies to voc rehab because we know that benefit planning is one of the most important elements as you transition into the world of work. So, I talked about the partnerships that we've got with partnership plus types of partners that allow us to handle off a Ticket-holder to another employment network because voc rehab services are short-term in nature. The services might be something like oh we're helping an individual get a prosthesis or we're sending an individual to school to be trained or we're helping a small business owner launch their business. Those are the different types of services and again, they're all individualized, but the benefit besides the individual services that you get from voc rehab, as a Ticket-holder your medical disability would be deferred. So, you would also have the benefit and this has been mentioned before of expanding your financial resources as a result of wages that you'd be earning while you work. So, we want to help you achieve your work goals. That's the goal of every voc rehab in this nation. So, as we move on I want to make sure that I convey that benefit planning services are available by frontline staff here within our system. But, because we're a little bit new to this area, we have some experts available and we have the luxury of the benefit planners that were provided to every beneficiary that we served within our system in the past, free of charge. We don't have that now, though we train staff and admittedly they are new to this and we certainly don't want to get into a position where we'd be providing advice that would result in any overpayment to a beneficiary. So, I did mention that we're able to contract out for benefit planning services to make sure as you go to work you're understanding what you're earning, any impact that they would have on your SSI or SSDI. I mentioned that voc rehab is short-term as far as services go. It takes an average, I just found this out today, about 3-1/2 years in which individuals receive services from Iowa voc rehab and that may vary across the nation, I don't know. But we do want to make sure that there are services in place once we close a file. And that would allow us to you know feel comfortable making-- knowing that if there was a need that an individual beneficiary had that might come up allowing them to advance in their position or if they needed a reasonable accommodation or they needed somebody to help them gather other documentation for social security that that support would be available to them. Voc rehab keeps a file open 90 days after an individual is successfully employed and that's just a minimum. It an be longer than that but we want to make sure that after that 90 day or whatever period of time when a case is closed that we allow an individual the additional support that they may need. Again our program is voluntary. The Ticket to Work Program is voluntary and the handoff to an employment network is voluntary. But we do feel like it's a win-win situation for everyone involved. We have the support available to them and I want to make sure that, of course, I talked about the overpayment situation, which I think is the greatest fear that a beneficiary would have. So, we want to make sure that there is support available to help the earnings get reported, to help provide whatever documentation may be needed and to help an individual achieve whatever they can achieve. That's the goal of every agency that voc rehab partners with and what we do. So, that's our job and we're here to help. That's what I want to make sure I emphasize too. So, if there are kinks within our system we want to be made aware of them. We have federal and state partners that are very interested in our successes, so last year we had over 2100 Iowans achieve employment success and I hope that anybody listening in Iowa that could be you. So, please call us and please feel free to call your local state voc rehab agency. They truly are there to help. That's the way the program's been designed. So, let us hear from you please and thank you for this time. >> Ray Cebula: Thank you so much Lee Ann. That was a great deal of information. It's going to be very, very helpful to all of our folks who may want to choose a VR agency to help them get back to work. Now we need to give you some other resources before we move into your questions and we've got a lot of really great questions. After today's sessions there is going to be a Facebook Q&A. So, if we don't get to your question please feel free to hang out from between 4:30 and 5:30 eastern daylight time and we will have people there who can answer your Facebook questions. You can get to this session by going to www.facebook.com/choosework. To participate you need to have a Facebook account and if you don't most certainly you can create one by just getting on to Facebook at www.facebook.com/help/createaccount. And if you just get to the Facebook home page it's real easy. Even I can do it. If you need that Facebook page to be made accessible or you're using technology you might want to log into www.facebook.com/help/accessibility. If you want to participate in that using HTML go to http://m.facebook.com forward slash choose work hashtag ! forward slash choose work? V=feed & underscore user=0. Again, if you can't access Facebook or you choose not to set up an account you can always send your questions to chooseworkquestions@gmail.com or visit the Choose Work blog after the session to access the Facebook Q&A transcript. You know you might not have your particular question answered but lots of people are going to be asking lots of questions that might very well help you. Where do you get more information www.socialsecurity.gov/work. You can find out where your local employment networks are, where your state VR agency is located and where that ticket to work helpline is and any means of getting into this program will work for you. Most certainly give a call to the Ticket to Work helpline at 866-968-7842 or for TTY users 866-833-2967. And if you want to follow along with us you can like us on Facebook at facebook.com/choosework and you'll get updates as we go along. And if you are a member of the tweeting nation you can follow us on twitter at twitter.com/chooseworkssa. And once again, that Ticket to Work helpline where you can make all things begin is at 866-968-7842 or for TTY users 866-833-2967. Now, the questions that we have we have tons of questions. And one of the them I'm going to take right away. It concerns expedited reinstatement and there were several questions about that, concerning layoffs, concerning terminations. Remember I said that you are terminated from the program because you have gone back to work. And you're work then drops below that SGA level. What could just be a work slow down because your disability has required you to work fewer hours. It could be that you quit because the job is not working out. It could be that your were laid off. It could be that you were fired. The reason why that work stopped or drops below 1040 dollars a month does not matter. The next question is, is can you continue to do that and is that inability based on your prior disability? It sounds a little confusing but it's really not. Okay, I've got a question for both of our panel members. How do I choose between an EN and VR agency? >> LeAnn Russo: As far as the VR agency they may be able to provide more types of services than a traditional EN because we've got funds that help with medical or psychological or adapted equipment, training for employment, occupational tool, licenses, personal assistance, supported employment, job coaching; we've got a lot of different services that we're able to offer whereas a traditional employer network may not be able to have the latitude and service provision that a voc rehab agency does. So, it depends on what you need. If your service needs are not very great or if an EN can satisfy those needs, you have the right and ability to contact the EN or compare what they can offer and a voc rehab might be able to offer to. And we do work in conjunction with each other. It's just a matter of who gets assigned a ticket. But if you're looking with voc rehab, voc rehab gets the ticket assigned until the case is closed in which an EN could have that ticket. >> Katie Nelson: I agree with LeAnn you now you want to interview both the EN and your local voc rehab and decide which one would be best for you. You know on our end we refer a lot of people to voc rehab first and then we kind of take over once voc rehab is done. All ENs are different though. That's kind of what we tend to do our end. >> Ray Cebula: Yea, I think that's a very important aspect to this because it's almost like a gift card. Yea, you can buy whatever sweater you want. You know if you like the red one buy the red one. If you like the blue one, like the blue one; so it's up to you to interview employment networks that serve your area to see what they can do for you and are they able to help you? They may not have experience working with people with your particular disability. You know, so you want to move on to the next one? Talk to the VR agency and see where you're going to get the best set of services that matches your needs. Now, I have somebody here who's already been hired. What do you think they should do? They haven't started working yet but they have a job. >> Katie Nelson: On my end as a EN, this is Katie. I would say to contact an EN to see if they provide follow along services. >> Ray Cebula: I think that would be-- >> LeAnn Russo: Well, I concur with Katie, yea. >> Ray Cebula: Yea, I agree with that too. And you know hopefully that EN could also make a connection with the benefits planner so that the follow along services can occur and you can get a plan put together so that you'll now what will happen to your benefits when it should happen. How about starting your own business, is it possible to start your own business with the ticket to work program? >> LeAnn Russo: Yes, it definitely is and most voc rehabs if not all offer a self-employment type of program that's available or they-- if they don't provide funds for that program they may have another partner that provides those funds that-- within Iowa we have a very viable self-employment component and that's just in the interest of full disclosure. That's when we call in the expert benefit planners because reporting those self-employed wages are a little bit different. So, we want to make sure that we're providing good services to individual entrepreneurs that want to start their own business but we really have a lot of options available through our voc rehab agency. >> Katie Nelson: I would think it would be specific to each EN. Not all ENs would be able to work with people who are starting their own business because they wouldn't have the knowledge. >> Ray Cebula: Yep, that's absolutely correct, absolutely correct and that's why it's up to the recipient, the person who wants to go back to work to interview to find the appropriate team members for their support team. How about this, I want your opinions on this because it's an interestingly worded question are ENs and I'm going to add VR into this mix. So are ENs, VR or potential employers allowed to ask about my disability or any medications that I'm taking? >> LeAnn Russo: A VR is definitely able to ask about that information if you want services from us because our eligibility is based on and individual's disabling condition and the services that you would obtain from voc rehab would spring from whatever that disabling condition is so you know we'd want to make sure if you're not working we help you find a job that's not gotten to worsen your disability or create any, you know any other conditions that you have to deal with. So, as an EN voc rehab would require you to disclose information about that just because our decisions are made based on your eligibility, which is based on your disability. >> Katie Nelson: As an EN I would say kind of the same thing. On our end, if you aren't open and explain exactly how your disability affects work I don't know how successful we will be in helping you in either obtaining or maintaining employment. Open communication is a big key for ENs. On the employers standpoint I would say employers do not need to be aware of what your diagnosis is or what medications you take. >> Ray Cebula: Yea, and everybody-- I love this, everybody is right. I think it's a great thing. The question was very, very, as I said, strangely worded because the ENs and VRs, now I'm talking as an advocate and attorney for disabled people, the ENs and VR have to know what the disability is and have to know what medications you're taking because they need to know what they can do to help you get back to work. But when we're getting to the employment situation, you do not need to reveal your disability to your prospective employment, your employer nor does that employer have any business asking you about it until after they have made a job offer to you. There are places that we can send you and that Ticket to Work helpline can you get in contact with folks who can answer those questions in much more detail, because they're not easy questions. And somebody here has tried to contact ENs without any success. They're not getting phone calls back. What would you recommend that they do? >> LeAnn Russo: Well, I would recommend that they call their nearest or local voc rehab agency because that agency as an EN is aware of the difference ENs that are available to individuals, plus the website information is good information with a report card as far as who is active and things like that. So, if you're not having any luck I'd say rely on voc rehab to help kind of facilitate things for you. >> Katie Nelson: I would agree or contact Social Security possibly to see if they have a list or the website like LeAnn said is a good place to find that information. As an EN we have to update that yearly. So, hopefully the information is current and accurate, but it just might be wrong phone number on there. >> Ray Cebula: Yea, exactly the Ticket to Work helpline is also another place where you can call to get a current active list of ENs in your area. Their status changes and it might have changed recently, but I would not give up. I would just continue to call the ones that are listed in your area. Okay and the last question we're going to be able to take is I already work part-time. Can I use this program to expand my work effort? >> LeAnn Russo: You sure can use voc rehab because we want to allow individuals the opportunity to work at their full potential. And it used to be that maybe voc rehab took the position in the 80's when I started well they're working. They've satisfied the requirement for us to help them get to work. But now, we've kind of taken a step back and we really want to help people get into good, well paying career types of opportunities. So, if you're working part-time and there's more that you can or want to do, then I would definitely encourage you to contact your voc rehab agency for additional support towards an employment goal. >> Ray Cebula: Alright, okay and that is going to do it for today's session. Once again, there is a Facebook Q&A and I'm going back to show you how to access that if you want to participate. Get onto facebook.com/choosework and they'll get to some of those questions that we won't be able-- that we weren't able to answer during this limited time. You'll have an hour to get that done and by all means contact the Ticket to Work Helpline. Contact a local EN or contact the state VR agency to get specific answers to your particular questions. And thank you panelists. It was great fun working with you and I look forward to the potential again and everybody online, please watch for the next webinar. And we'll have this up and ready for you to access again in about two weeks. So, join that Facebook discussion and I'll wish you all a good afternoon. Thank you very much.