>> Good afternoon everybody. This is Ray Cebula from Cornell University's Yang-Tan Institute. We are getting the slides loaded down. There they are. They just appeared on my desktop. I want to welcome you to today's webinar. I'm going to be here with David Mitchell from Maryland who's going to take us through a lot of great information. And we have some questions for you. We also just want to now alert you to the fact that we have a survey coming up. So, when you sign up today in about a second or two there'll be a survey coming up on your computer screen. And we will remind you about that again before we sign off. But, we do appreciate your feedback. So, if you take 30 seconds to fill that out for us we'd appreciate it. So, today we are having a discussion about the Ticket to Work and about the supports that are available for folks who receive Social Security benefits and SSI benefits on the basis of disability and are considering going back to work. And there are lots of great, great programs that David's going to share with you. Today you are on a webinar and you should have a console, a webinar console on the right hand side of your screen. We can't let you talk today, because there are lots of you there. There were hundreds of you out there and that would just be a bunch of mayhem. We do want your questions, however. So, at the top of your webinar console you'll see Q&A. You'll see our Q&A button right there. And if you click on that button it's going to open up the box, which you can see over here. You can type your question in, hit send and those questions will appear on our desktop. So, we can then present those to the speakers as they're making their presentation or we will be taking a break in the middle of the session for a Q&A session and at the end. I can assure you, however, that we will not get to all of your questions. And what we will do throughout the webinar today is give you phone numbers and websites and lots of information so that you can get answers to your specific questions. So, we're not going to leave anybody hanging today. Now, you're automatically connected to today's webinar through the speakers in your computer. If you have any difficulty because of the weather or because of your internet connection you can switch by clicking on the audio box. That little audio button here is going to open up this box and you can use the I will call in on your phone. You'll open up and it will present you with the phone numbers and attendee information. And let me get that for you right now. Today's toll free number should you need your phone is 855-749-4750 and the access code is 6419445, I'm sorry, 641994524. That's 641994524. The closed captioning is available at www.ilr.cornell.edu/ edi/captions.cfm ?activity_id=4109 and Jaime is posting all of this for you in the chat box. If you have a question we do prefer that you use the question box, but watch that chat box for Jaime posting websites and phone numbers and such. Now, the webinar PowerPoint, the one that we're using today and accessible PDF of that and text are located with the link that you received in your confirmation and access letter. So, you already have that. We will be posting this presentation at a later date. In about two weeks it usually takes us to get things up and posted to the website and that can be posted at ilr.cornell.edu/ edi/m-wise -webinars.cmf. Now during today's question and answers if you don't want to use the question box or are having trouble with it you can always email the question. You can email it to webinars@choosework.net or if there are any questions that you have after the session has ended you can always write to support@chooseworkttw.net. Now, I got to go back a few. We're very, very concerned accessibility. You know what we need to know is that everybody out there who wants to participate in our sessions can and can enjoy it to the fullest. So, if you have any accessibility issues or concerns please let us know. You can post them on the question and answer box today. You can send to webinars@choosework.net or support@chooseworkttw.net as well as posting an issue that you may be having. If you're aware of a fix, if you're aware of a special program or some steps that we can take that you know of that work for you let us know about them because not only will we be able to recognize that there's an issue, but if you can provide us with a solution that will work all the better. So, please let us know if you have any difficulties. Now, today I'm going to be providing you with hosting. I'll give you some introductory information, take you through some basics. Then we're going to turn things over to David Mitchell who is with the Maryland Work Incentive Networks and he's going to talk to you about the Ticket to Work program and the work incentives that Social Security makes available to you. I'll then talk to you about employment networks, about state VR agencies and then the other resources and then Jaime will pop some questions at us. She'll go through and take the questions that apply for the greatest number of people and we can take care of those questions. Now, I said we had questions for you and so I have five real quick questions for you and the more information we get the better. The first one's nice and easy. How did you find out about today's webinar? Was it via email, Facebook or Twitter, a website, family or friends or other? Just let us know and we'll know how to continue to advertise these presentations. And I'll stop as soon as I get what I think is my fair share of answers so everybody participate. [ Silence ] Alright, we're going to shut that down and I have to wait 20 seconds before I can move to the next one. [ Silence ] And here we go. Alright, 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? And if you do want to know about something else you might want to drop us a note. Let us know what that is. [ Silence ] Alright, looks like everybody wants to know about everything so we'll be all set. We'll make everybody happy today. Alright, close that down and we'll wait 20 seconds again. As I tell everybody, sometimes this makes me wait, sometimes it doesn't and I can never tell, but we're waiting today. [ Silence ] And question number three. What is your gender, male or female? [ Silence ] Alright, thank you very much. Get our 20 second window again. [ Silence ] Okay and what is your age, 18 or younger, 19 to 25, 26 to 40, 41 to 55, 56 to 65 or 66 or older? [ Silence ] Wow, we have a perfect, almost a perfect bell curve on this one. Okay, thank you very much. We have one more easy one for you. This information helps us direct our sessions, helps us advertise, lets us know who is listening and where we should focus our efforts in the future. So, it's very, very helpful information for us. And last but not least we know that sometimes there's more than one person sitting at a computer console. So, what we would like to know is besides yourself how many people are sitting with you? If there's nobody with you hit zero and then just count up from there. We've actually heard about viewing parties before that had great, great big numbers of people. And we'll close that down. [ Silence ] It made me wait every single question. [ Silence ] Alright, thank you very much for that information folks. Now, we are very happy to have a message from Bob Williams who's an Associate Commissioner with the Social Security Administration. And as you can see he's with the Office of Employment Support Programs and that is the branch of Social Security that takes care of all of the work incentive information and makes sure things run smoothly on the agencies end. So Jeff, if you could cue up Commissioner Williams' video. [ Silence ] [ Music ] [ Silence ] >> 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 the Ticket to Work and Self-Sufficiency programs, which assist 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 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 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 future can be better. Thank you for joining us. [ Music ] [ Silence ] >> Okay, thank you Commissioner Williams. As always we're very, very happy that he took the time to create that video for us and let you know how important these topics are to him. So, what can we expect from today's session? We're going to give you information on the Ticket to Work program and the work incentives. Now, there's a lot stuff that we could be covering so we're going to go through highlights of all of this. But, it is a great program that is yours for the using. We're going to give you some answers to those frequently asked questions or what we like to call those urban myths. You know what do people think when we tell that they should try to go back to work when they're receiving benefits. Where can you find more information? Because what we really hope for today is to put more questions in your mind and make you curious about work incentives so that you might take some steps to get some more information and begin your own journey to work. And we're going to share some success stories about people who have used their Ticket to Work and used it quite nicely to get themselves back to work. Now, why would you choose work? Clearly you can see that pile of money right there and that is the most obvious reason. And it's only one reason. But, there is always more money at the end of the month if somebody makes a meaningful and a well-planned return to work. There's always going to be more because those people working with you are going to make sure that happens. Gaining independence, gaining independence from the agencies that you need to report things to and gaining independence that comes with more money, being able to make more decisions and to make decisions about where you live, how you live and where you want to have this job journey go. Meeting new people, you know you always meet new people at work. You're not isolated sitting at home. You know I met my spouse at work. There are all kinds of stories about how many people you meet at the workplace and how you can make more friends and do things. And you know that's a great benefit that people don't necessarily think of when we talk about the benefits of going to work. Learning new skills, you know not only do you learn skills on the job, but using the Ticket to Work if you need new skills the Ticket to Work can help you get an education. It can help you get some kind of vocational training, some computer training or it might even help you do the job that you had in the past differently and remediate some of the impact that your disability has placed upon you. Now, when you're ready to go work what's going to happen? In order to get back to work you need to gather information. You need to get some resources and this is key. It's key to planning that journey. Remember I said a well planned return to work is always going to ensure that there's more money. But, it's much more than that. A well planned return to work is going to make sure you avoid a lot of the pitfalls that happen when someone just tries to go to work today without really thinking about it. And we're going to show you how the Ticket to Work and all of these work incentives can help make that journey a smooth one and tell you how to build that plan. Now, when you're ready you're going to be putting together an employment team. And now, it's very important to understand that you're the coach. You know we are-- David and I are just members of your team. You know we're just going to started back and listen to what you want and then we will make some suggestions and you will tell us how we should be doing things to help you. Now, we have a no wrong door policy. You can start building your team any way you feel fit. A couple of ways are to speak to an expert. You can talk to somebody at the Ticket to Work Help Line and that's 1-866-968-7842 or for TTY users 866-833-2967. You can learn more about the Ticket to Work and work incentive programs by looking at the blog, viewing and listening and reading success stories of other people who have used their ticket and have gotten back to work that have gained that financial independence from the benefit system. And there are some great stories there. They're all available on wwwsocialsecurity.gov/work. If you want to start by talking to an employment network and I said we'll talk about those employment networks in a bit. All you need to do is find one that's going to meet your needs. Employment networks vary greatly. They vary in coverage of area and coverage of disability. So, you need to shop a bit to find the one that suits you the best or you can start at your state vocational rehabilitation agency and every state has one. So, you can start there or by going to a private EN. Where can you get that information to find them? Right there at socialsecurity.gov. Once you start building this team it's very important that you stay connected because as I said, you're the coach of the team. We are doing what you want us to do to get you the profession or the job that you want. And without your contact and your direction we really can't move forward. So, you really are the boss of us in this situation. Now, very quickly to run through the benefits that people are receiving because different work incentives work with different benefits. We have Social Security Disability Insurance, SSDI. This is a program where when you do work and taxes are taken out, those FICA taxes are taken out of your salary you're buying insurance. You're buying it for retirement and you're buying it in case you need it because of disability. And once you work long enough and pay in a sufficient amount of money you become insured for Social Security Disability Insurance. The next program is the SSI or the Supplemental Security Income program and this is a needs based federal program. It provides a basic level of income. Now, some states provide extra money called the state supplement. But, this does not require you to have worked and paid into the system. These two programs, SSDI and SSI are very, very different. And your first job is to determine which benefit you have because we need to know that in order to help. As I said, some work, and as David will echo some work incentives apply to one. Some apply to the other. And there is some of you out there that we call concurrent beneficiaries and you receive a little bit of both. You know in the SSDI program, which I called an insurance program, if your benefit because of what you've paid into the system is lower than the federal SSI rate and you are otherwise eligible for that program SSI will kick in to bring you up to that federal minimum level of income. Now, I told you we had some myths out there. We had some common misconceptions and I want to go through those right now. These are the most common ones we hear right now. If you try to go to work you will automatically lose your Medicare or your Medicaid. Well, that's what people think and despite my talking about this with people for 30 some odd years they still believe that to be the case. And I'm here to tell you today that that is incorrect. That you can return to work and both Medicare and Medicaid will remain with you for a very long time. There is potential for Medicare to last up to 93 months. That's seven and half years after your trial work period. And there is potential at least in 46 states for people to buy into the Medicaid program provided they remain disabled and they're working. So, there's really no worries at the beginning of this return to work journey that you're going to lose your healthcare. You know I like to tell people to focus on work. Focus on learning to get up in the morning. Focus on getting to work on time, learning that new work culture or relearning that work culture and don't worry about anything else. The healthcare's going to be with you for a good long time. The second question we see a lot is that if I use my Ticket to Work Social Security is going to perform a medical review and I'll lose my benefits because of I went to work. Now, nothing could be further from the truth. You know there are times during that return to work journey that Social Security is supposed to looks to see if now because of that new education or that new training you're able to work. But, if you are using your ticket and you're making progress according to your plan Social Security will suspend those medical reviews so benefits will payable until you work your way through that plan. Nobody wants to pull the rug out from under you before you're ready for that. And the last one is that if I do go to work and I have to stop because of my disability I'm going to have to apply for benefits all over again. And since it took me three or four years to get onto benefits the first time I don't want to wait that long or I can't afford to wait that long. So, the bottom line is I should not try to go to work. Wrong again. The Ticket to Work Act, that new law that came into being in 1999 created expedited reinstatement or what David will describe to you as EXR and that's a safety net that is available to you even after you have been terminated because you are working. So, we have a safety net that will work and get you back onto benefits after you've been terminated. Now, there are limits and I'm going to leave that for David to discuss. And right now David I'm going to turn things over to you so that you can begin talking about the Ticket to Work program. >> Thank you Ray. Welcome everybody. My name is David Mitchell. I am the Director of Maryland Work Incentives Network, the once and future WIPA projects of Maryland. And I'm happy to be with you today. So, let's talk about this ticket. A couple things to know about the Ticket to Work program, first off it's completely free. You shouldn't have to pay a dime for any of the services that you get through the Ticket to Work Program. Next thing to know is it's voluntary. You do with it whatever you like, right. It's your ticket. It's got your name on it. It's your thing. You're in charge of it. You can do whatever you like including nothing. There are folks out there who are, they're happy to do everything for themselves and they say I can find my own job, my own training and all that. And to that I say more power to you. But, most people I deal with and-- would like to have help in a variety of ways and I think that's absolutely wonderful that you get the help because finding work by itself is difficult. Finding work when you have a disability is even more. Finding work when you're getting benefits from the large government bureaucracy known as Social Security is even more so. So, get the help you need to get you where you want to be. So, there are a variety of resources. To learn more about the ticket, to learn more about your ticket eligibility there is a help line available. Ray had mentioned it earlier. I will repeat that number is 1-866-968-7842. For those of you who use the TTY it is 1-866-833-2967, you also online to socialsecurity.gov/work. Okay, there are a variety of things that the ticket program and the other work incentives can do for you. First and foremost everyone wants more money, more income always helps, alright. The ticket program can get you services to help you improve your ability to earn more money. You can use work incentives to again get you to the point where you can earn more and have more, always good. That by itself and just working always comes with some self-satisfaction of accomplishing things and fulfillment. And again, the programs are designed to give you the chance to get that through work and through other means. Now, what many people want to deal with or are very concerned about is what happens to my benefits. Don't want to lose them because I don't know, it is hard enough to get them in the first place. The neat thing is, as Ray mentioned, there are safety nets, alright. So, you can get benefits back in almost all circumstances after you've been working and something happens. You know you can get those benefits back again. All this stuff, all this stuff we talk about working by itself, working benefits and all these programs, it's a lot. And I don't fault anybody for getting overwhelmed with all the stuff that's going on. There are resources that available. The ticket can help you get connected to these resources to help you find work, find training, manage your benefits while you're going through all of this, communicate with Social Security. All that's available for you to help you along your path, okay. Next, okay and I mention again the, doing this, getting whatever help you need as many parts of an employment team as you can to get you where you want to be is basically developing an employment team, your team, alright. Again, starting with the folks at the Ticket to Work Help Line, that number I mentioned earlier I'll say again, 1-866-968-7842 or TTY 1-866-833-2967. That will help you get the ball rolling. That is a good starting point. They can give you a list of the other services that are out there, employment networks. And they'll give you more information about the ticket itself. Do some research, learn about the ticket. Again, you can go to the website socialsecurity.gov/work and find out about the ticket and if there is other programs that are available for the use, when you've got that start looking around for an employment network. Employment networks are agencies that have contracted with Social Security to provide services to you to help you find and retain work. Each place is a bit different. There are lots of them out there. Some of them are local. Some of them operate regionally. Some operate nationwide. They types of services they offer can vary from one place to the next. What I typically recommend is that you think first what do you need. What services will help you get from where you are to where you want to be? It could be simply getting training. It could be getting contacts with potential employers, putting together a decent resume, helping you manage your benefits, transportation issues, lots of different things. Each place is different. Think first what services will help you get where you want then you look at these employment networks and find out which one of them will suit your needs. And that's where you go with that. And again, connect; stay connected with your employment team, the employment network and whoever all else is there to help you on your road. Okay, now we're going to switch over to a video I understand. >> Yea okay, thank you David. I'm going to take this one. Robert is a veteran who has volunteered to tell us his story. And he has a great success story and he can explain to you what happened to him. He had a surgical mishap while he was in the Army and he sustained a spinal cord injury that left him with limited mobility. After a while he decided that he wanted to return to work and use his ticket. And while using that ticket he discovered his passion for helping other veterans navigate the transition back into civilian life and has a fulltime job doing that. So, Jeff if we can cue Robert's video to let him tell his story that would be great. [ Silence ] [ Music ] [ Silence ] [ Music ] >> 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 and it led to some medical issues that I started to have. I became disabled from a surgery kind of mishap where a disc 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 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 program 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. >> He put in the ticket. The position that he had to apply for 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. >> 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 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. My name is Robert Statam. >> Okay. >> 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 my 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 ] >> Okay, thank you Robert. As you can hear, Robert bought the Ticket to Work and getting back to work put his life on track. And you saw photos of him fishing and playing basketball and doing all kinds of things that he might not have otherwise been able to do had he not gotten that little bit of extra money. Robert is among those success stories you can look at and listen to on the Social Security website at wwwsocialsecurity.gov/work. Now, he mentioned throughout his little presentation, discussion with us that he was using the Ticket to Work. And he was talking about being on benefits for 12 months. And I don't know what that all means so I'm going to turn you back over to David who's going to share what all of these work incentives are. Okay, David take it away. >> Thank you Ray. And again, that shows up what I was talking about earlier about developing an employment team. He was connected with the VA, but he also used the Ticket to Work so he had two different sets of resources going. So again, use any and all resources you have available to you. Now, when it comes to work incentives, that's a term that most people don't understand. I keep telling people my dream is to have, one day have a job that I don't have to explain. When the persons' on benefits as this says, a person is benefits. They have some income, oftentimes not a whole lot, but enough to get by. And health benefits that come with that. They look over; they see other folks who have employment that provides them with income to get by and sometimes more than enough to get by. And in some cases health benefits that come with that. And they say boy, I'd like to be over there and I'd like to get over there. But, maybe I can jump from one side to the other, but what if I miss? What if I don't make it? But, there's a gap there you see. And if I fall into that gap I might hurt myself. So, a lot of people say ah, never mind. I'll just stay where I am. I'm here to tell you that there are bridges that have been built, safety nets that are there to help you to cross from one side to the other and sometimes back again and sometimes partway across for a while. So, that's what work incentives are all about, to help you get from one place to the other. From where you are to where you want to be. Okay, next slide. Alright, a variety of things that work incentives and the Ticket to Work can do for you. It can help you get training to get you new skills so you can be better able to find a job. And it can improve the skills you already have. There's training or on the job training. There's student education and a variety of ways that that can happen. So, the ticket, other work incentives that exist to do that for you, trying different jobs. That's, you know there are ways to do that that you can try jobs. Sometimes things don't work out. Try a different job. That can be done. Start a career. Now, to some people it's not just a job that they want. They want a meaningful career that has some growth potential to it. And gaining confidence, again, employment in and of itself has this intrinsic value to it that gives somebody confidence to say I can. When people with disabilities keeps hearing things that you can't and we're all about what you can. Okay, work incentives. Now, I've spent the last five years of my life delving into this. So, these are just a brief overview of some of the more common work incentives that I deal with regularly. When somebody calls me up and asks me about what, you know they went to work. How much can they earn? How much can they work? The first question I ask them is which benefit do you receive? As Ray mentioned earlier there's SSDI and then there's SSI and a few people get both. So, first so those of you who receive SSDI, the first work incentive available to you because most of the work incentives on SSDI have a time element to them. The first one you come across is a trial work period. And it's just like it sounds. It's a time for you to try work for a period of time, alright. There are nine months altogether. They don't all have to be used in a row. During this time you can earn anything. There's no upper limit on what you can earn during the trial work period. It's simply a matter of okay, you worked; you earned some money. That's a trial work month. You add it up to nine. That's your trial work period. Nothing bad happens to you. It's a good idea to keep track of them, but it's a good thing. A lot of people hear that, thinking that all these things, they're bad. No, this is really good, alright. You can try a job out. It-- again, it doesn't have to be in a row. Find a job; you work for a couple of months. If it works out great you can use all nine months straight through. But, if it doesn't work after a couple of months, okay. You used two. Those are trial work months. You still have seven left to go. Once you complete the trial work period you enter the next phase called the extended period of eligibility. This goes for 36 months. That is three years, right after the trial work period. During that time your benefits will not be terminated because you're working. They look at your income, your countable income. They complicated the concept there, but basically it's your income. If it's below a certain level then it just continues. If it's above a certain level benefits are suspended and not terminated. The level I like to talk about is called substantial gainful activity or SGA, but again, during that time benefits can be only suspended not terminated because you're working, which means if something happens job ends, you get your hours cut back, you get sick again benefits are reinstated right away. You don't have to apply again. All you have to do is notify Social Security that something happened, your income went down, benefits start right back up again. Now for those of you on SSI, there is a bit of math involved. The neat thing to be aware of with SSI is you always come out ahead financially by working. First thing they do is apply the earned income exclusion. So you earn some income in a month, the total income you have Social Security will look at that. The first thing they do is subtract 65 dollars. They're not taking that money from you. They're just doing the math take 65 dollars out of it. What's left after that and possibly some other deductions is divided by two. That means that less than half of your earned income is counted for SSI. So your SSI and that may go down, when you add that to your earnings, you'll have more income. It works to your financial advantage to work when you have SSI. Now Ray mentioned something earlier called expedited reinstatement. And this is a big safety net, alright. It's available for both SSI and SSDI and I usually don't need it that much but it is available. That means if your benefits do get terminated and that's a very harsh term, terminated. That's basically benefits have stopped and it's taken five years, something's happened, your income goes down and you still have that disability that's still affecting your ability to work, benefits can be reinstated. You don't have to apply again. Simply request expedited reinstatement. They'll do medical review. They'll look at your income. You can get up to six months provisional payments. That's basically your benefits after six months while they're processing this, alright. So, this is a really great safety net and available to you as you're working towards getting back on your feet, okay. Now, as we mentioned earlier, something about the Ticket is that protection from medical review. Now, when somebody gets disability benefits, Social Security will determine that periodically they'll check up to see if you still have a disability. They are part and parcel these medical reviews. However, if you use your Ticket, your sign your ticket to an employment network and you make what's called timely progress, and timely progress basically means that over time you're walking down that road, you're crossing that bridge from where you are to where your want to be. You're getting a little closer to the point where you're earning enough to replace your past benefits, as long as you make enough progress down the road over time they say okay. As long as you're doing that we're not going to bother you with this medical review. Because Social Security says-- when somebody tells them that they're assigning a Ticket they say this person intends to work. And somewhere down the road tends to earn enough to replace the cash benefits. Wow, we like that. We're going to remove this little thing, this medical review, this issue for you for a while. Now work, earning enough, to replace past benefits doesn't have to happen right away. It can happen over the course of a few years, depending on the circumstances as long as you're making that progress no medical reviews. Okay. >> Alright, David. As you were going through that slide you can imagine what happened to that Q&A box. So, we're going to stop right now before I take over and you're going to answer some of these questions. The first one I have here is how do I get a Ticket to Work? How do I get this thing and how do I get it going? >> Okay. If you're receiving benefits you should automatically be eligible for the ticket. Now when they started this program they used to mail out a large card with Ticket to Work written on it to everybody on benefits. People lost them and they didn't understand them. They got thrown away. You don't actually have to have the axial paper ticket anymore. You can call up the Ticket to Work helpline and they can confirm that you are eligible for the ticket. You can contact the Employment Network. They can take care of all the paperwork for you. They shouldn't have to worry about having the actual thing in hand. >> Alright. And on that trial work period that you were talking about, is part-time work figured into this? And the question said if I'm working part-time would I get 18 months trial work instead of nine months working full-time? How do they figure that trial work thing out? >> Okay, [inaudible] is simply measuring not your full-time or part-time, simply what is your gross income. And it's-- if gross income is less than 750 dollars, they don't even count that at all. If you're earning 750 or more in a month they simply say that's trial work month. So, they just go, take when you report your income, which I strongly recommend when you find work you file Social Security and you send them your paystubs. And they'll say okay this month he earned this much, that's a trial work month. This month you earned less than 750, that's not a trial work month. So, the number of months when you earn 750 or more you get denied and it's never more than 900, that's your trial work area. >> Okay and how does that work for the EPE? Does it work the same way? >> Not exactly. >> With part-time? >> Not exactly. They again will look at your gross income and then it may factor in other work incentives. Some people may have deductions they can take and determine your countable income. These work incentives may include expenses related to your disability that you need for work or if you get assistance on the job, they're going that could affect what's counted. If your countable income is below a certain level the SGA, substantial gainful activity, if your countable income is above that SGA level, which is right now 1040 dollars for most people, for people are blind that level is 1740. If it's above that then benefits will be suspended and then again they're only suspended so they track your income over time. If it goes down again you notify and you can have your benefits reinstated. But the fact here is-- >> Okay. >> Is it's straight through. It's three straight years. >> Okay, so that sounds like one of those great questions to contact the Ticket to Work helpline on or to get in touch with your local WIPA program to see how that's going to affect you individually. Let's see, how do I find out whether I have received SSDI or SSI? >> Okay, this sounds like it would be a simple question, but sometimes it trips some people up. Many people don't know which they have. If you have the award letter that Social Security sent you when you first started getting benefits, it should state on there which one you get or whether you get both. If you correspondence, you get letters, notices from Social Security, it should say supplemental security income that's SSI. If it says retirement disability insurance that's SSDI. If you're not sure contact the Ticket to Work helpline. They can check it out. The Work Incentives Planning and Assistance projects are getting up and running as we speak. So, shortly you should be able to call one of them and they will be able to help you sort it out. Or you can simply call Social Security directly and they can help you as well. >> Alright. And the other question I actually have two more questions for you David. I'm going to keep you busy today. >> Alright. >> If I work will my DI increase if I then need to use EXR to back on the benefits? >> The answer to that is possibly. The amount that a person gets in SSDI is determined by their work history, how much they earned over their lifetime. And it's a very complicated mathematical formula that is used to determine it. Basically so, but if you work again and that work that you do in the meantime increases your average it might bump it up a little bit. So, it could happen. It will never go down. It could be less, but it might in some cases go up. >> Alright, in the last one I've got for you right now is if I worked with a VR agency prior to getting SSDI benefits will ticket let me know try again? >> Hmm. If your case with the VR agency was closed before you started getting benefits you should have a fresh Ticket available to you. If you're still with VR when you started getting benefits that's a question I have to look up to be perfectly honest. >> Well you know I think, and I asked you that. I kind of sent Jeff because I wasn't quite sure myself, but I think I agree with you that if you were--- if you're still working with benefits that that ticket might very well appear and the question is was it assigned to VR? And you should always ask. I think that the person who has that ticket, who owns that ticket should always ask when they're working with the VR agencies to whether or not they've taken that ticket. But clearly I agree with David on this point that if you do get benefits after your case is closed you should have another shot at this whole ball of wax. >> On thing that they're supposed to be aware of is and a lot of people don't, is that you have a ticket and you do open a case with your state's rehab agency. That ticket is considered to be in use with that agency. Some people aren't aware of that, that it automatically assigns it. So, again you can use your ticket in one place. Some VR agencies do share tickets with certain other agencies, but it's basically-- that does throw some people off. >> Yep, okay I think we've taken care of that question that that person asked. She seemed happy. Okay here's a very interesting one. Do you have to be receiving SSDI or SSI to use the VR program? >> The answer to that is no; it's not required. VR agencies are available to anybody who has a disability. Now people who have disability benefits that is they have a ticket are considered a higher priority? In terms of-- particularly if your VR agency has a waiting list to get into and many of them do; my state does. Then those on-- who have tickets get a higher priority. >> Alright, okay. And I think I should have actually taken that one after I did the VR part but I guess you took care of that one for me. So, thank you David. And let's, alright and let's get on with the present patient and you've got lots of questions that may be answered by this presentation, but we will get to them again. We're going to be talking about the employment networks and this is part of building that employment team. What do you need to do to make sure we're building that team? When you're ready once again call the Ticket to Work helpline. And you need to contact them at 866-968-7842 or for TTY 866-833-2967. And there will be somebody there who can give you some basic information much like we're doing now and then get you in contact with employment networks that serve your area. And it's very important to realize that all of these employment networks that we're talking about serve different areas. Some might serve the entire country. Some might serve just your zip code or your town. So, we want to find someone that is available to help you given your disability, your location and what you need. You can also again find that list on www.socialsecurity.gov/work. That's a very easy way if you have access to the internet to go online and find the entire list. And you can type in your zip code and only those that serve your area will appear. The thing that you need to know about employment networks is that all are different. You know once you've found the area that you're looking for I mean if you find everybody, I'm in Boston. So, if I find all of the ENs that work with people who live in Boston what I need to then do is start shopping and I mean shop. I'm going to start interviewing them because remember I said you are the boss. You're the coach of this employment team and some of the questions that I want to ask these ENs are how many people have you helped using this ticket to work. You know have you been successful. What kind of companies do you work with when you're placing people in jobs? Around here you might be talking about working at Raytheon. You may be talking about working at many, many different hospitals. Where do you place people? What kinds of jobs might be available out there for me? And how often are we going to talk? Are we going to talk on the phone? Are we going to communicate by email? Are we going to meet in person? Yea and getting this information from each employment network that you're interested in is going to help you make that selection as to who can provide you with the best services. You might also want to ask them what types of disabilities are you able to work with. Because if somebody tells you that I have no experience working with somebody with mental health issues and you want to move on to the next employment network, if you have a physical disability and you call someone and it says well I specialize in individuals with mental impairment, then you've called the wrong person. So, make sure there's a good fit here. Make sure there's a real good fit. Now that employment network should explain to you how this ticket program works. And the ticket program we have a question in the box right now. What is this ticket program and how does it work? The ticket program is everything we've talked about. It is your way into what David told you is a free and voluntary program that will provide you with access to this employment team and people to help you plan to work. Now it's a very good thing and it's basically everything that we're discussing. You know but that employment network should explain the program is going to work in your situation and what services its going to provide. Now it'll provide just about anything depending on the employment network. If I need some durable medical equipment that's going to be provide. If I need some technical training, that could be provided. Somebody asked is it possible to start working at home? Sure it is, more and more people work at home. As a matter of fact I'm working at home right now. You know so I have a dog on either side of me and I'm very happy working at home. That is possible. Starting your own business is possible, but it depends on what that EN has experience doing. So, if your goal is to work at home or to start your own business at home, you need an EN that says yes, I've helped people do that in the past. Now the EN should be asking you about your work goals and your intentions about work. This is a two way street here. David said this EN through the Ticket to Work is providing you with free services. Now, how are they doing that? They're doing that because you agree to go back to work. And as you continue to work the EN gets paid by Social Security. So, that EN has an interest in making sure that you want to work and this is voluntary. You can choose to do this and that EN can choose to work with you or not. Now, the EN should be addressing any fears that you have. Many ENs are going to be able to talk to you about those work incentives that David talked to you about, the trial work period, the extended period of eligibility EXR. How does my SSI get affected when I go to work; all of those, or any fear that you have what if I can't continue to work? You know how to get-- you know what if my stress level increases and I'm not able to continue or how about a reasonable accommodation that I might need? When do I tell my employer about that? All of those questions the EN should be able to talk to you about or they should be able to drag someone like David into your employment team. David mentioned the work incentive planning and assistance programs that are coming back online. Get a benefits planner on that team as well. You and the EN are going to develop an individual work plan. And that is going to include your employment goal, the employment goal that you want, not the one that we make up for you, but the one you want and what types of services and equipment you need to get there. And it all be delineated in steps, broken down into small little milestones that will show you not only are you doing this but you're meeting those goals so that those medical reviews don't happen. And there's a question here, what happens if you have no transportation. Well, it is possible that some of these work incentives that are used by that Ticket to Work can take care of that issue, either by paying for bus passes or for setting aside money to allow you to purchase a vehicle and to purchase transportation. Now, remember though, that car that you may buy is not your employment goal. You buy the car to get to the job. Now when you sign your plan you have given your ticket to that employment network and what that means is that you sign it, the Employment Network representative signs it and you have signed a contract. I have agreed to work with you. You have agreed to work with me. Now that doesn't mean you're stuck. That doesn't mean you're stuck. You can unassign your ticket anytime. Just because you've changed your mind about going to work your disability gets worse, you realize that you're not going to be able to do what you thought you could do because of your disability or I don't want to do this. I think I need a new EN. For whatever reason you can do that, but unassigning your ticket is a very formal process. You can't just walk away, because you've got an employment team sitting there waiting for you to coach. You need to tell people; best to write a letter and copy it to Social Security and the Employment Network saying I no longer want to work with you at this point. Now you will have a 90-day period while that protection for medical reviews continue and so if you want to reassign it you can reassign it and find something new to work with. And remember that while you are working with your EN and your making progress with your plan you will have your continuing disability reviewed, those medical reviews postponed provided you're making timely progress. And as I said there's a plan in place, so you know exactly what you need to do to make that progress. Now what can an EN do for you? Now ENs do lots of things and again that's part of what you need to talk to your Employment Network about. Some of them can help you develop resumes. Some of them can help you fill out applications or give you advice as to how best to fill out applications. You know lots of people are concerned that while they have been receiving Social Security benefits there is a gap in their resume. How do you explain that five years away? Well there's lots of ways to do it and the EN should be able to help you do that. Have you done volunteer work? Have you done some babysitting? Have you helped people organize things? Have you helped care for another relative? There are lots of things you can say about your personal experience, fill in those gaps and the EN should be the expert on who you can rely on. Interview skills and tips and there are lots and lots of things that you need to know before you go to an interview. You know that EN can do some research about those employers. They should have worked with the employers in the first place. And it is very important to go to that interview with questions because that employer is always going to say now do you have any questions for us? And it's always a good thing to have a few questions. That employment network can give you those tips. They can give you some skills about what types of questions can be asked and how you might want to answer some of those questions. Job accommodation information, what is a reasonable accommodation. Now we're not going to talk about that at any length today and there was just a webinar done a couple of weeks ago. It should be in that archive that we talked about where the EOC Commissioner Feldman talked to us about that. So, that's a great place to look for that. But if you do need a job accommodation whether it's I need to start at 8:30 rather than 8 o'clock I need an extra break. I need a desk that will allow me to stand up. You know any of that, that employment network can tell you how best to go about asking for that and when you need to do that. When do you need to do that? Tax incentive information, now the employers should know about that. But there may very well be some tax incentives out there for you as well, because a lot of what David told you about starting your own business might very well be tax deductible expenses. And again, referrals to other resources, that employment should be able to refer you to people. If they're not able to do things for you directly, to refer you to people who can do that, who can do that. Now we've got one question I want to answer right now and the question is the progress, that timely progress of using your ticket, directly related to your employment plan or is it set. Is it based on guidelines by Social Security? And the answer is both there is a set of guidelines set up by social security and you need to make progress in accordance to that, but those steps and those goals should be built into your individual plan. And so there is time to get trained. There is time to get education. And it's going to require a couple of months work at what David told you was the trial work level. The next year, that next 12 month period is going to require some different things. So, it's a combination of guidelines and your individual plan. What else can that employment network do for you? Certainly job leads and information on employers; who's hiring? Where are the job fairs? Where are the recruiting events? You know access to resource centers. You know the one stop centers are great places where you can use computers, internet, set up an email account if you don't have one, use their phones and fax machines. That EN may very well have those surfaces on site; do some job developments. You know there are lots of employment networks that can actually help create jobs where there wasn't one. You know and that might be something that you start out at home or work with an employer to create something to take care of a need that that employer has. You might be the person to fit that niche that the employer knows. And if the employer and the Employer Network is doing job development they may be able to create a job when non-existed and continue to provide you with services through the ticket after you're finished working with VR. Now, we talked about VR a bit and David said that you're ticket is considered to be in use. That doesn't mean if you finish your VR program if it's gone there is still a value there. So the VR agency could be the agency that you choose to work with to get your training. It may very well then be after VR has closed your case that you need some further on-the-job supports, job coaching, some equipment, some assistance. With asking for that reasonable accommodation if that comes up, well you can then assign that ticket; the value that's left to an Employment Network who can provide you with ongoing support services. So, that's a great, great program. And it's known as Partnership Plus, that was created after 19, 2, oh God. I'm way older than I'm thinking. It happened in 2008. I'm in the wrong decade. Okay, so let's switch gears and talk about VR services. Well Eugenia, she's asking if the EN is required to take my ticket. And no, remember David said this is voluntary. So, the Employment Network's going to be interviewing you with at the same time. If I'm the Employment Network I am going to talk to you and make a business decision. Do, I really think you're going to go to work, because if you're not going to go to work I'm not going to want to work with you because I'm never going t be paid. It's as simple as that. So, they are not required to work with me. If they have no experience working with somebody with spinal cord injuries they can say, no, I don't know how to work with you. You know what they can't do is discriminate against you because of your disability or because of your national origin or things like that. But they can make a business decision. So, let's talk about State VR. Again they're in every state. You are automatically eligible for VR services because you receive social security benefits based on disability. Both SSI and SSDI are paid to people on disability and as David indicated it gives you a priority. It gives you a priority. They're going to develop an employment plan with you as well. And you can receive assistance doing that. You don't need to do that on your own. You don't need to do that on your own. Now, you're ticket can be assigned to VR if you want it to be. And as soon as you sign that employment plan your ticket is either going to be assigned or, as David indicated, in use, which allows that continuing disability protection to come into being. So, while you're either using your ticket with VR or have assigned it to VR you will be protected from those medical reviews. That's a real important thing. You know, when you're using, you know when you begin to work with your VR agency and you're using that to get-- they're going to discuss or you should if you're counselor doesn't bring it up, the opportunity to have an EN continue with you when VR closes your case. Now VR usually closes the case after you've been working for 90 days. You know, and lots of us think that's not really long enough, that you might need a little more support. You might just need the comfort of having someone available to talk to for longer than that. That's where the EN comes in and when that VR agency closes your case you then take that ticket to an Employment Network for follow up services. An incredible part of this program and that's the Partnership Plus. So, the EN and the VR agencies are pretty much doing the same thing you know only to a different extent. You know and VR tends to take cases that are very, very time consuming and expensive you know whereas the private ENs tend to be smaller. A lot of them are smaller and just can't afford to do that, but are willing to work with you after VR does. Let me get through some other resources for you. I want to remind you about that survey that's coming up because we are getting up there close to 4:30 and I hate keeping people late. But remember survey pops up a couple of seconds after I sign out and close the webinar. So, please give us some feedback. Now again we're not going to get to all your questions, you know that because they're coming in rapid fire right now and we only have three minutes left. Take that ticket to the Ticket to Work helpline: 866-968-7842 or if you use a TTY 866-833-2967. If you want to find an Employment Network, find out information about the Ticket to Work or any of these work incentives listen to those success stories or read that blog. Visit socialsecurity.gov/work. It's a real friendly website. It gets you lots of information and you don't have to talk to us. So, you just need to click and you're going to be there and find out some information. Now, we of course, have all kinds of ways for you to keep in touch with use. You can like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/choosework or you can follow us on Twitter and that's at www.twitter.com/chooseworkssa. And for those of you who have individual questions or are ready to start, if we've encouraged you enough to start working that Ticket to Work help line is always available at 866-968-7842 or 866-833-2967. And I'm seeing that we have a minute left. So, let's see there are lots of questions here. Alright I'm going to take this one. How do I get to be a VR-- how do I get to a VR person that helps people who are looking to get a ticket who is paid from Social Security? Thank you, the webinar is totally awesome. And thank you for that too. How do you get to be a VR person that helps people do this? If you have the skills that are available, that are necessary you can become an EN. You know working for VR requires you to have a vocational rehabilitation degree. Being an EN does not. So, you can do that and actually going to socialsecurity.gov/work will help you start that process if you are looking to do that. There's also an agency out there called NENA, the National Employment Network Association, nena.org that could help you put a business plan together to do that and so we might have a new Employment Network after this. How do you like that? Can individuals on a developmental disability wavier register for the Ticket to Work program? Most certainly, anybody on any type of waiver program or social security benefit can use the Ticket to Work. What that does because you're on a DV wavier program, it just adds an extra question. What happens when you go to work to your waiver eligibility? And the EN should be able to provide you with information about that as well as a benefits planner. Now, I'm not sure. Dave, do you know whether the WIPA programs have been posted on the worksite yet? >> I don't know. If they have been not all of them are quite up and ready for prime time yet. >> Yea. >> But I'll check. >> Okay and you know that socialsecurity.gov/work will shortly have the WIPA programs, those counselors who can also provide free services to you to put a plan together and answer all of those questions. If they're not up there yet as David said they are just beginning to get ready for prime time and get ready to serve people. They will be up and running shortly. And that's going to take care of it. So, please if we have not gotten to your question call that Ticket to Work helpline at 866-968-7842 or 866-833-2967 for TTY users. And thank you David for helping me out today. Thanks to Jamie and Jeff, in the background, making all things webinar work; have a great afternoon folks.