>> --to today's WISE seminar, our Work Incentives Seminar Event. Today, we're going to be talking about Ticket to Work and and free support services for people who have a disability and are ready to return or begin working. We've got lots of great information for you today and some really good presenters to get that information to you. Mike, if I can have slide two, that would be great. Today, you're accessing today's webinar through our WebEx platform, and you've been automatically connected by your speakers and your computer. So you should be able to hear everything through your computer. If for some reason, something goes wrong, and there's a storm, you know, the east coast is being flooded out today, I understand. If there's a big storm that's interfering with your internet access, we do have a toll free number and an access code. So if you can write this down just in case, so that you can call in to catch up with us. The number is 1-855-749-4750. That's 1-855-47-- ugh. 1-855-749-4750. The access code that you'll be asked for is 648-163-740 and then hit the pound sign. You did receive the PowerPoint for today's presentation in an accessible PDF. And the text is all located in that link that you got to today's webinar. So you already have the materials available to you. Next slide, Mike. Webinar accessibility is something that is very, very important to us and we want to make sure that we can have as many people enjoying the benefits of this and the full benefits of the session as we possibly can. So what we want to know from you is that, you know, if you're having a problem. If you're having any kind of problem hearing, seeing, accessing the information that we're trying to convey to you today, please let us know. And more importantly, let us know what type of problem you're having and if you know of a fix, let us know what types of programs we should be using to help make this a better experience for you, because we want to make sure that's happening. So be sure to get in touch with us when you do that. Next slide, Mike. We do have captioning today, real-time captioning is provided at www.edi.cornell.edu/ captions.cfm?activity_id=5037. Those captions can be found in the lower right-hand corner of your webinar platform. It may appear to be a pretty small box right now, but if you click on the arrowhead next to it, you can expand it to make it larger. And you can make it pr--

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--if you need to. It's going to minimize your chat and question and answer boxes, which you might want to get to later. Next slide.

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Today's presentation transcript and audio recording is to be available on our archive within two weeks. [static] We're going to have it posted at www.ilr.cornell.edu/ edi.m-wise-webinars/cfm. Now, not only will this presentation be available, but they'll be pretty much dozens of others that are available on general topics concerning Social Security Disability benefits and SSI and specific topics relating to specific groups of people with disabilities. So you can check out this webinar again or any of the other ones that we've done. There will be question and answer sessions during today's session. We have a couple of breaks that we're going to take, so that you can use the question and answer box to get those questions to us. If you do have a question and can't quickly access that question and answer box because you have expanded it because of captioning, you can send your questions to webinars@choosework.net and that will get the hose questions to Jamie. She'll be able to get them out to the speakers today. Any time after the webinar, if a question bursts upon you as soon as we hang up or overnight, you can get those questions answered by writing to support@choosework.net. There are lots of ways to get your questions and answers answered. Next slide, Mike. Now, you do have panels that you can control. Your audio and question panels are the most important ones. If you do have any problems with your audio that's coming through your computer and you want to use that telephone line, you're going to want to click on the arrowhead next to audio and it's going to open up a box and you can say, "I will call in," when you click on that. It's going to give you today's number and you can call that number. That number that I gave you earlier. Or you can just simply call in and you'll be able to access our session. The question and answer box is critical. We want your questions today. Some of you have already found it, I understand, and are posting questions as we speak. If you click on the arrowhead next to Q & A, it's going to open that box for you. And as you can see down at the bottom of that section of the slide, you'll be able to type in your answer or your question, I should say [laughs] and hit send. And that's going to send those questions to Jamie, as well. Now, Jamie is going to be our question monitor today and our question voicer today. She is going to get lots of questions because we have 1,000 people who have registered for this webinar. We will not get to all of your questions. So Jamie's going to be picking the questions that are relevant to the greatest number of people. If you're asking questions specifically about your personal situation, we would prefer that you contact us after or contact the help line because this is not an appropriate from to discuss personal information. Next slide-- [phone ringing]. This is just showing you the audio panel once again and as you can see, you click on "use phone," it's going to reveal today's phone number and access code and you'll be all set with that to get in if you do need to switch over. Now, we have, before we start with the agenda, some work for you. We have five very short questions that we'd like you to respond to because they're going to let us know who you are, who we've reached, and how you heard about us, so that we continue to do marketing and outreach to appropriate and potentially new groups of people. So Mike, if you'd run those polling questions for us, that would be great.

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Mike?

[ Silence ]

Have we lost Michael? I hope not.

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All right, well Michael might be tied up with something else right now. He's our tech guy and is doing about 20 things at once. So let's go on with our presentation and I will mark down the polling questions for a later point when we take one of our question breaks. So today's agenda, if we can get onto slide eight. We're looking at the Ticket to Work Program, Work Incentives, and Your Employment Team. We're going to talk a little bit about National Disability Employment Awareness Month and we've got some great speakers. We have Shauna Dahlgren and Raina Gulbrandson from Nebraska Ticket to Work and Shauna is going to talk to us about the Ticket to Work program, Raina's going to talk about Work Incentives, and then they're both going to talk about Your Employment Team. Please know that once you decide to go to work, we are here to support you and there will be a vast array of people and services waiting for you. But first, what we want to do before we move into the Ticket to Work program is allow you to get to know Ben. Ben's our little cartoon character and he is going to walk us through the Ticket to Work program. So Mike, if you could queue up Ben's video.

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Jamie, if you're muted, could you unmute for a minute?

>> Yes, sir, my apologies. This is Jamie. Should we show Ben's video a little bit later once we get Mike back?

>> Okay, I just wrote to see if we can get Mike back. Okay. Thank you very much.

>> Okay, and then Ray, I'm sorry. Is it possible for me to take control of the slides from Mike?

>> It is if he gives them over to you.

>> Okay.

>> So I will let him know that. All right. So why don't we show Ben's video a little bit later? Thank you, Jamie, for letting me know what was going on. And Shauna, Shauna Dahlgren and Raina are going to talk about the Ticket to Work program. If you could give us a little bit of information about yourself, that would be a great thing.

>> Okay. This is-- my name is Shauna Dahlgren and I actually work for Easter Seals Nebraska. And I am part of the Ticket to Work program at Easter Seals Nebraska. And I guess that is what I needed to say about that. I actually work with individuals and provide work incentives and benefits counseling, similar to what Raina does, as she will talk about in a little bit. And Raina, do you want to go ahead and introduce yourself and then I will move on to talking about the ticket program?

>> Sure. My name's Raina Gulbrandson and I also work at Easter Seals Nebraska. I work in a different program than Shauna. I work for our WIPA Program, which is our Work Incentives Planning and Assistance Program and we serve the state of Nebraska with benefits planning services. I'm a community work incentive coordinator and kind of head up the program here.

>> Okay, thank you. So to go ahead and move forward with talking a little bit about the Ticket to Work program. Basically, one of the first things that you want to do is to gather some information and resources about your individual situation, which is really going to be key to planning your own individual journey towards employment. Ticket to Work and Work Incentives can really help make the journey a very good one for you. But being informed is really the most important thing. A lot of things can happen and individuals will be unaware that they are going to happen if you're not informed ahead of time. So basically, to get started, really only you can decide if working is the right choice for you. So it's not necessarily about what anybody else-- what has happened with somebody else's situation or what is right or wrong for somebody else that you know. It basically is just what's right for you. So some things about why people would want to choose work. Basically, there are-- you know, that's individualized, too. But there a lot of reasons people might want to choose work. One is to have more income. One is to gain more independence or gain independence at all. To meet new people and to learn new skills or maybe even utilize some of those skills that you haven't been able to use for awhile. The Ticket to Work program really supports career development. So it's not necessarily just about finding a job for a person. It's about finding the right job for that individual person. And so some people need to start out at maybe a lesser number of hours or maybe they need to figure out what they can do now if they're not able to do what they've done before. So it really is starting at the individual's place, where they're at at that point in time and kind of planning for the future. So maybe look at short-term goals versus long-term goals and kind of making that plan for you as an individual. The Ticket to Work program is for Social Security disability beneficiaries that are age 18 through 64 and is a free and voluntary program. So just because an individual receives Social Security Disability or SSI benefits does not mean that they have to participate in the Ticket to Work program. But if an individual does choose to participate in the Ticket to Work program, it is at no cost to the individual to participate in the Ticket to Work program. Okay? So that's really just a in general, here's kind of what the Ticket to Work program is and who it's available for and I'll turn it over to Raina to talk about the disability benefit programs and the work incentives. So I think, were we going to do a question period first?

>> We're going to start that after we talk about the benefits programs.

>> Okay.

>> Right before we start work incentives.

>> Perfect.

>> Okay, so I'm going to talk a little bit about the differences between Social Security Disability Insurance and SSI, which is Supplemental Security Income, just so that we kind of have a basis before we talk about the work incentives that are available for these programs. The Social Security Disability Insurance program or SSDI, that program is for individuals who have what's called an insured status and what that means is that the person who's receiving that payment, they have enough work history and through the time that they've been working, they've paid into the Social Security trust fund. And so when you see FICA taxes being taken out of your paychecks, those funds are going into the Social Security trust fund and that FICA stands for Federal Insurance Contributions Act. And the majority of those funds are Social Security tax and then there's also a small Medicare tax that people pay for through employment. And employers also cover these funds for you, too. So it's half contributed by the worker and half by the employer. So the SSDI program [pause] it was originally based, but the Social Security program was originally based on the fact that people would pay into their retirement. So [pause] basically, the program was started for retirement purposes and then, I believe it was in the 50s or so that the program expanded to help those with disabilities. So an SSDI payment, it's based on how much you have worked. It's based on the onset date of your disability and it's based on your age. There's sort of a complex formula to determine how much that payment would be for an individual. They call that a primary insurance amount. And anyone can call the Social Security Office and ask you know, "What would my payment be right now if I became disabled?" And they can tell you that over the phone. You can also look it up on the website. Now, when someone's younger, they can become insured a lot faster than someone who's over age 31. So basically, you earn what's called quarters of coverage based on the quarters and how many quarters you have. That is how you become insured status for this program. And then once you have a payment, that payment, the amount can never go down. It can only go up based on increased work. There's also a few other benefits that are similar as far as work incentive goes. There's what's called a childhood disability benefit and a disabled widow benefit. And those benefits are based off of another individual's work record, a spouse or a parent's. So we won't go into detail about those today. Next, I'm going to talk a little bit about the SSI program, which is completely different from the SSDI program. And because it's a needs-based program, it's created for aged, blind, and disabled individuals who basically have limited income and limited resource. And the resource limit to be eligible for SSI is $2,000 for an individual and $3,000 for a couple. These monies are funded through the general tax dollars, so they are not considered Social Security funds. If someone is only receiving SSI, the maximum they can receive is $721 per month and that's what's called the federal benefit rates. It does usually change from year to year, and the amend is meant to cover the basic cost for an individual's food and shelter. So it is meant to be just a basic payment to help sustain an individual and provide them with food and shelter. Now, some people may be eligible for both programs. Like I said, with the SSDI, those payments, they range depending on your work history and I've seen payments as low as $300 and I've seen payments above $2,000. So that's kind of one of the differences with the SSDI and SSI. With the SSI, $721 is the most an individual can receive. I'm going to talk a little bit more about the differences between these two programs. First of all, the SSDI program, they're concerned only with work activity. And so an individual, if someone becomes disabled and they own a significant amount of property, they have significant funds in retirement, or even they have other money coming in that's not from work, it doesn't matter. They can be Bill Gates and still receive an SSDI payment. However, with SSI, they're concerned not only with work activity, but they are concerned with any type of income that you have coming in. They consider SSI a payment of last resort and so that program is going to look at everything that you have coming in to your household, into your name, into your bank account, to determine whether or not you're eligible for the SSI, since it is a payment of last resort. And then of course, they are concerned with the work activity in addition to your other income and resources, too. So another important difference between the program is that the SSDI program, that program is concerned with-- since it's concerned with work activity, what they want to know is when you're earning-- when you're actually working and earning that money, as opposed to the SSI program, which is concerned with when you receive the money. So this can create confusion, especially for an individual that's receiving both types of payments. When someone is receiving SSDI, I always let them know that it's important to track their actual hours worked. And Social Security looks at that from the first of the month to the last day of the month for determining gross income for a particular month. And then the SSI program, they're going to be looking at how many paychecks did you receive that month and what was the total combined amount. Another important difference with the SSDI and SSI programs is the health insurance that's associated with them. So with SSDI, you will become eligible for Medicare after a 24 month waiting period. And that starts-- that waiting period will start with the date of your entitlement to benefits. And for SSI, generally, in most states, that person will be automatically found eligible for Medicaid. So if someone's even receiving one dollar of SSI, they can become Medicaid eligible in most states. The other important thing about the two programs is that each of them have their own set of work incentives. And so I think next we'll go ahead and move on to that topic. And as we go through them, I'll clarify as far as which program the work incentives apply to, whether it's the SSDI or SSI program.

>> Okay, why don't we pause and see if Jamie has any questions to this point?

>> I do. Thanks, Ray. Shauna, what was the age range for Ticket to Work?

>> The age range is 18 to 64, so basically, at this point, you can participate in the Ticket to Work program up to the age of 65.

>> Okay, thank you. And-- hang on one second. I do want to take a moment to remind everyone that in your webinar console, you can use the Q & A box to ask any questions you might have. At this point, I think-- Ray, do you have any additional questions?

>> No, we don't have any additional questions here, but if we want to take a little bit of a break, we do have Mike back. Apparently, he was reading polling questions while we were going ahead with the presentation. [laughing] And WebEx strikes again. But if we can get Mike to ask those five polling questions at this point, we can take a little break from the substance.

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Can you hear me, Mike?

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[static] Yes, I can hear you, Ray. Can you hear me?

>> We can hear you, now, yes. [laughing]

>> All right. I ran the polls and we actually got enough responses to cover what we needed, so--

>> Oh, all right! Okay. Well, thank you, guys. Everybody out there, I appreciate your doing double duty. Mike, can we run Ben's video right now?

>> Certainly. Just give me just a moment to pull that up.

>> Okay. And we'll give our speakers a little bit of breathing room before we start talking about Work Incentives.

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>> And or Medicare. It can help you go to work, which can give you a greater sense of purpose and help you give back to your community. [background music] With time, you will be able to replace your cash benefits with your earnings from work, putting you on the road to financial independence, with the peace of mind that your benefits will be available to you if you need them due to your disability. Meet Ben. Ben qualified for the Ticket to Work program because he is age 18 through 64 and received Social Security Disability Insurance. If Ben receives supplemental security income, he would also qualify for the program. Ben wanted to work, but needed to understand how work would impact his benefits, especially his health care. Ben did some research and found out that obver 316,000 people with disabilities have participated in the program. After doing more research, he decided that Ticket to Work was just the ticket he needed to be successful in going to work. When Ben contacted the ticket help line, they talked to him about support from Social Security he could use to go to work. He found that with Social Security's Ticket to Work and Work Incentives, he might be able to work while keeping his Medicaid or Medicare, with the peace of mind that if he needed to stop working due to his disability, there would be a fast track back to restarting his benefits.

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With the ticket program, Ben had a choice of service providers, employment networks, and state vocational rehabilitation agencies. He was able to select one of these service providers to work with him one-on-one to help him reach his work goals. Both could offer him specialized services and he could choose which was right for him. VR agencies work with individuals who need more significant services. The services that Ben could receive include benefits and career counseling, education, training, and job search support. ENs are private or public organizations that may help with career counseling and assistance of job placement and more. Different ENs offer different types of services, so Ben could pick an EN that was just right for him. Ben also had the option to receive services from his state VR agency and then when those services end, he could work with an EN to receive additional services that would help him find a job or keep an existing job. Ben took some time to think about his options, and decided to assign his ticket to an EN. Ben's commitment to participate in the Ticket to Work program forged a partnership between him and his service provider. They both agreed to work together and jointly develop the plan that was just for him. His plan defined his work goals and described the specialized services that the EN would provide or arrange for to help him meet his goals. Ben's route to employment through the ticket program is a two-way street. In return for assistance in getting a job, Ben pledged to Social Security that he would pick specific steps determined by the plan he developed with the EN within time frames set by Social Security to work at a specified earnings level or complete certain educational or training requirements. Taking the agreed upon steps toward employment with time frames set by Social Security is called making "timely progress." By taking these steps, Ben was able to fully take advantage of the supports and protections that the Ticket to Work program provided. You can be like Ben. The Ticket to Work program is here to help you become and stay employed, meet new people, and gain fulfillment and financial independence. We know it's a big step, but there is so much help for you all along the way. The ticket program offers many tools and resources to help you learn about starting your journey to financial independence. Are you ready to work? Call the Ticket to Work Help Line at 1-866-968-7842. For TTY call 1-866-833-2967 to talk to one of our knowledgeable representatives or visit www.socialsecurity.gov/work to learn more. Good luck on your journey to financial independence. We are ready to help you on your way.

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>> Okay. Thank you, Mike. I'm going to assume Mike's getting that video out of the way and we're going to be back to slide 18, so we can continue with our discussion about Work Incentives. Take it away.

>> Okay, the Ticket to Work program that we just watched the video about, that is considered one work incentive available for individuals. That program is for both SSDI or SSI recipients. So what we're going to do is we're going to talk about several other work incentives that are available. But first, I just kind of want to give an introduction to, you know, what is a work incentive. Work incentives allow individuals with disabilities to enter or re-enter the workforce without the fear of the immediate loss of their benefits. And so if you can imagine, if someone just spent three years trying to obtain their disability benefits and needing that to basically survive on to pay their bills and their mortgage payments, if there were not work incentives available for that individual, it would be highly unlikely that they would step foot in the workforce if it meant that their benefits were going to be terminated right away. The other thing to be aware of is that, for individuals with disabilities, there's already sort of some uncertainty in going back to work just due to fluctuations with medical conditions, and so people are concerned about whether they can start working and how that's going to go. There's just a lot of uncertainty there. So work incentives [pause] have been created by Social Security. They're a special set of rules so individuals have an incentive to go back to work if they can and at whatever level they may be able to. They allow individuals to have time and receive training to learn new skills, including going to school, pursuing education, improving skills that you already have, trying a new job, a different type of job than you've done in the past. Starting a career, as Shauna mentioned earlier, and in general, gaining confidence just knowing that you're contributing to the workforce and the community. So next, we're going to talk about the work incentives, some of the most common work incentives that are available for individuals. First, we'll talk about the earned income exclusion. And this program is for SSI, or this work incentive, I'm sorry, is for SSI recipients. And basically, when Social Security looks at how much SSI to give an individual, it can range anywhere from that $1 up to $721. They're going to look at all income coming in. And well, obviously, if they're looking at earnings and if someone is going to earn $5 and their SSI is going to go down $5, depending on that individual's situation, they may not want to work. So what they've done is that they've created a formula basically that allows earnings to be counted differently, so that income from work is favored over other types of income. And when they apply the earned income exclusion, what they do is they basically, they do not count the first $65 that anyone earns and after that, the SSI payment is only reduced $1 for every $2 that's earned. So basically, if someone earns $865 in one month, they would not count that 65 and then they would divide the $800 by 2 and Social Security would only be counting $400 of that 865 when looking at how much to reduce their SSI payment. Next, I'll talk a little bit about the protection from medical continuing disability reviews. Every once in awhile, Social Security, they want to look at an individual's situation to see if they're still medically disabled. People are generally on the-- a one year, a three year, or a seven year cycle, depending on the type of disability that they have. So in order to create an incentive for individuals to go to work, they've established the Ticket to Work program and that's what Shauna has been discussing in this webinar and the Ticket to Work program, it can protect someone from having a continuing disability review if they are making progress in their work. So ultimately, the original goal of the ticket, someone who's using a ticket, would be to work at what they call trial work level, which we'll talk about next. And eventually get off of their cash benefits and there's several different ways on how they measure timely progress and it can be a mixture of earnings and also school. Next, I'll talk about the trial work period. The trial work period is available to anyone who receives SSDI or one of those other title two benefits, the childhood disability benefit or the disabled widow benefit. Because Social Security wants to encourage work and they want to encourage work at an individual's full potential, they allow individuals 9 months where they're able to work as much as they can, as much as they want to, without losing their cash benefits. So the way that they count those 9 months is if the individual earns $770 in one month's time or if they're self-employed, they also look at the number of hours worked. If an individual works more than 80 hours in a month, they, Social Security will count that as one trial work month used. And everyone gets 9. They can be used-- some people use them all in a row. They may start working and you know, making $900 a month and they continue that work. They're going to be using all their trial work months right in a row. They do not have to be used all consecutively though. They can be used sporadically. Let's say an individual tries some work and it doesn't work out. They may have used two or three of their trial work months and then a few months down the road, they try a different kind of job and use some more of those trial work months. Now, when someone starts their trial work period and five years have passed and they haven't hit that number 9, those original trial work months will begin to expire. But once you hit your 9th trial work month, your trial work period is over and you do not get another trial work period during that same period of disability. So what we tell individuals is to track their work, basically because a lot of people use their trial work period without even knowing that they've done that. And it's important for individuals to be on the same page with Social Security as far as how many months you've used, how many you have left, and that is because after the trial work period your level of work can affect whether or not you receive your SSDI benefits. Once the trial work period is over, Social Security is no longer concerned with the $770 amount. What they become concerned about at that point is, is the individual working above or below substantial gainful activity, which they call SGA. There's a lot of acronyms [laughs] with the work incentives, so it can be very confusing sometimes. There is another safety net in place after the trial work period and if you do work above SGA, you'll have a grace period, and then after three months, your benefits will cease. But there is a provision called the extended period of eligibility and basically, that's a three year time frame, 36 months, where if you do work above SGA and lose your benefits and something happens and you're just not able to keep that work up for whatever reason, you can obtain your Social Security benefits right back just by informing Social Security. So during that 36 month time frame, you remain eligible for a payment. Your benefits haven't been terminated. They're more in suspended status. So that's another safety net built in that applies and it starts immediately after the 9th trial work month. Next, I'll go ahead and talk about the continuation of Medicare coverage. And this is an extremely important work incentive for individuals who want to go off their benefits, but are still in need of some health care. Basically, after that 24 month wait, after receiving their SSDI payments, you're able to have access and eligibility for Medicare, and that's federal health insurance coverage. As long as you're receiving your cash payment, you're going to continue to keep that Medicare. Now, you may have to be paying a premium for part B, which is outpatient coverage and then part D, prescription drug plan, depending on your income and resource level. But you have eligibility for these programs. What Social Security has created is an extended period of Medicare coverage and so if someone's cash benefit ceases due to work, they're able to remain eligible for that Medicare coverage for at least 93 months after the trial work period. So that's a significant work incentive and resource for individuals who lose their cash benefits due to work. Next, I'm going to talk about continued Medicaid eligibility. And that-- this is one of the best work incentives that I like to tell people about. If someone has received SSI in the past and if they're received it for at least one month and if they work and their SSI payment reduces to zero because of that work, that individual will be eligible for Medicaid under 1619b status. And that's a determination that Social Security makes and it's communicated with the state Medicaid system. During this continued Medicaid eligibility, you're able to earn a decent amount of income and still maintain your Medicaid coverage. So there's just a few things that you'll need to basically prove. One of them is that you actually do need the Medicaid in order to continue working, and generally, that's not an issue for people because they do continue to have medications or appointments or service-- medical services in order to continue working at the level that they're at. What Social Security's going to look at is whether an individual is above a threshold. And that threshold amount is different from state to state. In the continental U.S. it ranges from $26,000 up to $68,000 depending on what state you're in. Most states, it's somewhere in the $30,000s. But you're able to earn and still keep your Medicaid coverage. And in the meantime, you also maintain eligibility for that SSI payment if something were to happen. There are a few things that the individual in the 1619b status needs to be aware of and that is that resource limit still has to maintain-- you still have to maintain under $2,000 in resources for an individual, $3,000 for a couple. And you also have to not have other earned income that would basically kick you out of the SSI eligibility status. So if someone had, you know, $1,000 a month coming in from some other source other than work, they would not be eligible for 1619b. Another work incentive is the expedited reinstatement process. This is another great work incentive for individuals who work off of their cash payments and are terminated from their benefits. It basically means their record is terminated. So if someone was in 1619b status, that record would continue to be open. And the same thing if someone's in their extended period of eligibility with their SSDI, even if they weren't receiving a payment. If they're in that time frame, they would not need to use EXR. So it's one of the, kind of one of the last work incentives available for people. And it is available for both SSDI beneficiaries and SSI recipients. A few, I guess rules, a few factors that Social Security looks at is whether or not your benefits terminated due to work, that is one of the requirements. Expedited reinstatement means that you have-- you can re-apply for your benefits and use a faster process and you can also-- you can also receive up to six months of benefits in the meantime, while they're making a decision. So this is a great work incentive available for people. They have to be working under SGA to use that. And their work has to cease because of something related to their original disability. So if someone was found-- someone was losing work or reducing their work because of a completely different kind of disability, they would have to do an initial application. And expedited reinstatement, it's available for five years after the termination of that cash benefit. And I think that-- that's all I have to say about these particular work incentives. There are several others. There's a path plan, there's impairment related work expenses. There's some specifically related to self-employment. And I guess I would refer anyone to the-- online to the Social Security red book. You can basically just Google that and pull that up and it can tell you more about these work incentives that I've just talked about and also about some others that may be applicable.

>> Okay. Thank you very much. Okay, Jamie, why don't we take a break and take some questions before we talk about Megan.

>> Okay, thanks Ray. And we do have a lot of questions. And I want to remind everyone that we are presenting a lot of information today and we may not be able to get to your question. But we do encourage you to contact the Ticket to Work help line and their phone number is 1-866-968-7842 for voice or 1-866-833-2967 for TTY. And you can also log on anytime and visit www.socialsecurity.gov/work. And I'll be chatting all of that out once I'm done voicing these questions and Ray will repeat it later on in the presentation, as well. So right now, Raina, we have several questions for you about the trial work period.

>> Okay.

>> Are those 9 months, are they all in a row?

>> It depends on the individual work situation. Some people will use them all in a row. They will earn over that $770 amount and they'll do that consistently over several month time frame. Other people use the trial work period months sporadically. They may use one and then not use another one for six months or even you know, two years later.

>> Okay, great. Thank you. And is the trial work period related at all to the number of hours you work?

>> Yes and no. Specifically for self-employment, they're going to look at hours. And that's because if someone is working 80 hours, and that's the number that they use to look at whether a self-employed individual has used the trial work period for a period month, they figure that if someone's working that much, then they could probably be working that much somewhere else doing something else and earning the $770. What I--

>> And that was-- Oh, sorry. Keep going. Go ahead.

>> Okay, I do have individuals track their hours because once you work a certain amount of hours, depending on your rate of pay, you may reach that $770 and you may not. So you know, someone may be earning minimum wage, $7.25 an hour, and another individual could be earning $14 an hour. And so for that individual earning $14 an hour, they are going to hit trial work level faster. They may hit it by the second week in that month and the other individual may not hit it at all, depending on their hours. So basically, yeah, I do have people track their hours and multiply that by their hourly wage, is generally how they figure that.

>> And you mentioned that you recommend that people track their hours. Can you help people with that and how do people find someone that can help them with that?

>> Well, here at Easter Seals, we actually have a benefits planning calendar that we provide individuals with. And it's a great resource for individuals because it has a calendar and then it also has little folders where you can keep your pay stubs. Now, if someone's consistently earning $300 or $400 a month, it's not going to be as big of an issue with tracking hours. But if someone is close to around that $770 mark, then I definitely have their track their hours. And we provide those benefits planning calendars and then we also just have some basic tables that are printed out on a Word document. And just to remind everyone again, what they do is they look at earnings from the first of the month to the last day of the month. So sometimes people may hit a trial work month, you know, if there's 31 days in that month, versus, you know, 30 or 28. So that's depending on which days they're working, so.

>> And do people get any kind of notice when they do hit a trial work month? Does Social Security let them know?

>> Well, when someone starts working, they do need to report that to Social Security and let them know, you know, their start date, their average number of hours, their rate of pay. And once someone sends in their first set of pay stubs for a month, which generally, you should turn in your pay stubs, you know, at the end of the month to Social Security. And they will examine those pay stubs to determine whether a trial work month was used and they will send out a letter that says, "You've used the following trial work months." They will also kind of project, and so they can figure, you know, if you keep working at this level, your trial work period will most likely end in-- and then they'll say-- let people know what month that would be also. So yeah, they send out a letter to individuals. But like I said, a lot of people use them without even knowing. And so it is important to report that income.

>> All right, thank you. Shauna, we have a couple questions for you. The first one is, "If I received a Ticket to Work a long time ago and didn't use it, how do I get a new one?"

>> Well, it kind of depends on the situation. So if a person has previously used their Ticket to Work or had it assigned to an employment network or maybe used it with the state VR agency, if you did not complete that ticket and you have continued to receive your Social Security Disability or SSI benefits throughout the period of time you have not been using the ticket, then your may be able to reassign that, in a sense, old ticket to an employment network. To find that out, if your ticket is assignable, you would probably need to contact the help line and find out from Maximus, who is the program operator basically, whether or not your ticket is available and assignable. So that's really an individual situation. However, if you terminated from Social Security benefits due to your prior work and you have been reinstated on benefits either through expedited reinstatement or a new application, it's possible you would have a new ticket available and could in a sense, start over. So really, to find that out, I would probably recommend contacting Maximus, contacting the help line.

>> Okay, thank you. And do I need to have the paper ticket?

>> No, you do not need to have a paper ticket. They really actually stopped sending the paper tickets out for a period of time. I believe I did recently hear that they're going to start issuing those again or sending notices again in February. But you really don't have to have the paper ticket. You just need to know and have a quote ticket available. And you wouldn't have to take a paper ticket to an employment network or anything like that. That can all be done online.

>> All right, great.

>> It's called a virtual ticket.

>> Thanks. And Raina, we have another question for you. We have a little bit of confusion out there around continuing disability reviews.

>> Okay.

>> First, can you explain what a CDR is and then when you're using that work incentive, when you have protection from it, does that mean you don't have to do it at all? Just kind of review that one more time.

>> Okay. Basically, the protection from the continuing disability review, that's through the Ticket to Work program. And if your ticket is assigned to either voc rehab or an employment network, then Social Security is basically prevented from even looking at your case if you are continuing to make progress. Now, if you have your ticket assigned and you know, you had it assigned for two years, but you haven't yet really worked at even trial work level, that situation, you're not going to be protected from a medical review. You have to be making continual progress. If your ticket's assigned and they look at that progress, Social Security, they won't even look at your situation. If you have a scheduled medical review, which everyone has, they would have a next scheduled medical review. That would not occur.

>> Okay, thank you. At this point, I'm going to turn it back over to Ray to introduce Megan's video.

>> Okay. Thank you, Jamie. Megan, on slide 21, is actually a great lady. We had the opportunity to present a webinar live with Megan after using her video and her story for a good long time. Megan is a success story and is a success story with a pot hole in the road, as many people are going to experience when they return to work. Megan was working and in 2008, was diagnosed with clinical depression and ended up on Social Security benefits. And she found that staying at home and doing nothing was not what she wanted to do. So she began, in 2010, she took her ticket to an employment network outside of Washington, D.C. in Maryland called Transcend. And they helped her get back to work. And Megan was very successful getting herself back to work. Had started picking up some of her old hobbies, like ballroom dancing. You know, was enjoying playing with her dog again, you know, getting back out into the community, into the workforce. Then what happened to Megan was what happened to a lot of people. She got laid off because the unit she was working with was closed. And that was just a product of the economy. It was no fault of Megan's and it wasn't her desire to stay at home again. She was protected by that EPE that you learned about, that extended period of eligibility. So she was able to immediately go back onto benefits. And currently is back at work. And she is not back at work doing the computer work that she was doing, but she's back at work doing what she loves to do. She loves to be active and she is a Zumba instructor and is doing a lot of physical education and activity education for elderly people to keep them active and going. She's a wonderful, wonderful woman and a true success story and she has been gracious enough to share her story with us. So Mike, if you could queue up Megan's video, we can let Megan tell you about herself in hour own words.

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>> The last time we chatted, I was working for Wellstat, which is a biostat company and I was a document control specialist. And then in 2013 of February, I actually got laid off. So I called Transcend to let them know that I was no longer working and what I needed to do to go back onto my disability. And so they set up my Ticket to Work and everything just kind of flowed seamlessly. I filled out some paperwork and let them know and I was receiving benefits that month. I had been teaching Zumba part-time in the evenings, after work, and I let a whole bunch of people know that I was laid off and that I was ready to work during the day. And I just started taking more classes and as I did more classes and was teaching more, I really fell in love with it even more and decided to actually make it my business. I would definitely recommend the Ticket to Work program to others. I would say don't be afraid to do it. You have really nothing to lose because they only stop it when you're making too much. And you know, who doesn't want to make a lot? So I say don't let your fear hold you back and I'm the perfect example of someone who started and who got laid off, and nothing bad happened. Choosing work has made a big difference in my life by making me feel useful and being able to contribute to other people, but also choosing to work has let me help people.

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>> Okay. That was Megan's story. We have an update from Megan. In the process of working, you meet a lot of new people. And Megan met somebody special and they are now engaged. So we are awaiting Megan's marriage and wishing her all the good wishes we can. She's truly a great success story and if you do want to go into our archives, you can see Megan's video or go onto the Social Security website at www.socialsecurity.gov/work. You'll find Megan's story as well as other people's stories who've successfully used that Ticket to Work. And Megan is a prime example of somebody who did suffer a disability and turned that completely around. Okay, we're going to turn it back to Shauna and Raina to tell us a little bit about the employment team. And I'm going to ask them to do this real quick, because we've got 20 minutes left to get through a whole lot more slides. So Raina and Shauna, take it away.

>> Okay, so when thinking about your employment team, as you saw in the video with Ben, there are several options for receiving services when you're participating in the Ticket to Work program are even if you're not participating in the Ticket to Work program. But basically, there are employment networks. There are state vocational rehabilitation agencies. There are the WIPA projects, and then there's the protection and advocacy agencies. So as far as the-- I'll talk a little bit about the employment networks first. And basically, these are organizations or agencies or sometimes, even individuals who have an agreement with Social Security to provide employment services. They-- employment services are provided at no cost to the individual, as I mentioned earlier. They could be a variety of services. They could include vocational rehabilitation services, all kinds of different support services for individuals with disabilities who are participating in the Ticket to Work program. Go ahead to the next slide, Mike. So and services are very different across ENs so it's very important, if you are considering your options, to maybe contact several employment networks in the area and find out what services they can offer for you as the individual. And then you as the individual can choose which employment networks might be best for you or which provider in general might be best for you. But sometimes they can offer career planning, job leads and job placement. They might offer ongoing employment support or retention services. And one very important thing that we've talked a lot about is the benefits counseling or the work incentives counseling. It's just, I can't stress enough how important it is for individuals to understand the implications of working, where they're at with work incentives, if they've tried to work before and maybe what is available to help them now in their transition to work or back to work. Okay? Go ahead to the next slide. So some tips for selecting an employment network. Again, just kind of determine what you as-- what kind of services you as an individual might need. Talk with multiple employment networks. Ask questions. Sometimes you might even be able to find or write down on a sheet of paper what are the most important services for you and then you'll know what questions to ask. Just have those questions planned out ahead of time when you contact an employment network. And then you can kind of compare that list when you get done. Okay? Go ahead to the next slide. So that is, in general, employment networks. Now, moving in to the state VR agencies. They also provide some different types of services. Generally, as mentioned in the Meet Ben video, you hear state VR agencies providing more intensive services for individuals who may need a little bit more support than other individuals. So VR may provide the intensive training, the education. They generally sometimes will even have funding to help with education expenses, rehabilitation, career counseling, job placement assistance. And sometimes, they do offer the work incentives and benefits counseling services, as well. Or like in Nebraska, they partner. Our state VR agency partners with Easter Seals Nebraska to provide those work incentives and benefits counseling services. Or you may be able to get those through a WIPA project that Raina will talk about in a little bit. But no matter-- so it's just kind of important to know what's available in your individual area and knowing where to go to get those services. It may be a combination of agencies instead of just one agency. Okay? And I think the next slide will talk about the WIPA project and I'll turn that over to Raina.

>> All right. So Work Incentives Planning and Assistance projects. They're actually primarily funded by the Social Security Administration so that there are resources out in the community to provide information on work incentives. So every state has a WIPA program and you can locate your WIPA program or programs by going to the choosework.net website and you can click on your state and see what's available as far as the WIPA programs and also employment networks. So the WIPA program, we provide a lot of services for individuals. We look at their individual situation and what their goals are, their short-term goals, their long-term goals. We help them look at whether a Ticket to Work program could be a good work incentive for them to use, if they're a good candidate for that. And we provide information about how work, at whatever that level that individual will be doing, will impact their benefits. And so that way, they kind of have an understanding and [pause] it's very difficult for people because they hear so many things from other individuals who maybe receive disability benefits. There's a lot of myths out there about what will happen when you go to work. So we provide individuals with the correct information and so they can make informed choices about their work. We also help them look at you know, what type of employment elements they might need or whether they may best be served by state vocational rehabilitation services. The overall goal of WIPA is to promote employment and enhance self-sufficiency. So WIPA has people working in their program that are specially trained with work incentives. They're called community work incentive coordinators or CWICs. And these individuals have gone through background checks. They've gone through extensive training and ongoing training. And not only do they provide information about SSDI and SSI cash benefits, but other types of benefits, as well. So Medicaid, Medicare, SNAP, veteran's benefits, housing, we look at anything that individual has that may be affected. So we provide them with written report, written information about how their roles will be-- or how their benefits will be affected. And then we also provide follow up support for when that individual does go to work. We continue to be a resource for them and help them use other work incentives that may be available for them down the road. So that's all basically, what WIPA is. Like I said, you can go to the website and find what's available in your state as far as these programs. And their services are free, so it's a great resource for individuals. Next, I'll talk just a little bit about the Protection and Advocacy Services that are available for individuals. This is another program that's offered in every single state. Individuals working for these programs, they look at laws that are enacted to determine whether or not they're going to have an impact, a negative impact on people with disabilities. So they're studying policies and laws and then they also provide individual representation for individuals who are facing issues with their disability payments or their Medicare or with their employment situations if there are obstacles in the way that are preventing them from working and seeing how those may be addressed. If you want to move to the next slide, I'll just talk briefly about the National Disability Employment Awareness Month. And that is October and this year the them is "Expect, Employ, and Empower." And the purpose of the National Disability Employment Awareness Month is to educate about about disability employment issues and celebrate the many and varied contributions of America's workers with disabilities. So every year, in October, they focus on several different agencies, including the Department of Labor, various employers, industries, and they focus on looking at several aspects of hiring people with disabilities. So they may be looking at accommodations and supports that people need and kind of assessing their ability to provide those. They'll look at employment laws and regulations and how those are impacting the individuals who want to enter the workforce. And then there's also a general focus on recruiting and hiring people with disabilities. Ray, do you have any additional comments about National Disability Month?

>> You know, I think that one of the biggest things, if we go to slide 31, just looking at the logo and the poster. "Expect, Empower, and Employ. What can you do?" You know, we're expecting that people with disabilities can work. And this is directing employers to expect that people with disabilities can perform the job functions that they need performed. And it's encouraging both the person with the disability and the employer who has the job to come together, have a meeting of the minds, and offer that person employment and have that person become empowered by that employment. And there is a lot of power that comes with a job. You know, it's not all about just making the money. You know, it's very much about making decisions and you can make your own decisions because you are employed and have more money. Decisions where you live, decisions how you live, decisions what you want to do, decisions not to have to report to Social Security or to SNAP or to somebody else what is happening in your life because you have gained independence. So I think this poster in and of itself sends some very strong messages. You know, and there are also some recent changes in law, section 503, that is encouraging every employer who receives any federal money to strive towards a goal of having 7% of their workforce be people with disabilities. So not only is there encouragement during the month of October for this to happen, and we hope that rolls over into November and December and January and every other month, but there's now legal encouragement for employers to seek-- to reach that goal. So this is a very big month indeed for everybody. You know, and not only are we putting expectations on employers, but we're putting expectations on people with disabilities, as well. Because look at what it says. "What can you do?" You know, we're not looking at people with disabilities as having limitations. We're looking at people with disabilities as people who can do things. And we're just encouraging everybody to work to their maximum capacity, whatever that may be. So I think that's what I have to add about that, this month and what it means to me anyway.

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>> Do you want to talk a little bit about the monitoring?

>> Absolutely. I will carry on. Disability Mentoring Day, which was actual last week. It's the third Wednesday of every October. So it was the 15th, but that doesn't mean it's a day. It's a day that stands for something. Disability Mentoring is a program of the American Association of People with Disabilities and what is mentoring, if we go on to slide 35? You know, mentoring is lots of things. Mentoring is a very formal relationship, such as an internship, such as an apprenticeship, or it could be a very informal relationship that develops between two people. You know, one who is providing guidance, you know, and one who is providing their experience, their wisdom, technical knowledge. Any kind of support, emotional support or you know, some kind of encouragement, giving you that 'atta boy moment, when you need encouragement and you feel like things are going wrong, they're there to encourage you. So they're more than just an adviser. They're somebody there who's going to be able to show some empathy to your situation and encourage you to continue. And when you're feeling, "Okay, I've had enough. I can't go further," your mentor is there to encourage you and show you just how far you've come. Because we see that a lot. People get to the breaking point and they don't realize how much they've already accomplished. So having someone give you that encouragement and support is very, very important. So if we go on to slide 36, how this process kind of works. If you are thinking about returning to work, but are wondering whether or not you're going to be successful on the job, find somebody. Contact the American Association of People with Disabilities and potentially, they can match you up with somebody in your area or potentially in the same profession or same job. And they can talk to you. Talk to them about their experiences. What kind of bumps in the road did they experience and how did they react to them? You know, and find out how all of that information can encourage your continued ability to work. You'll be talking to someone like Megan, who has succeeded and has experienced a set-back. You know, and they will be very, very encouraging to you. I can assure that. If you're looking for a job, they're going to be able to tell you how to do that. They might help you build a resume. How do you explain that gap in your employment history? You know, what did your mentor tell their employer about a three year gap? You know, are there things you did during that time? Were you taking care of children? Were you taking care of relatives? Were you doing volunteer work? You know, there are ways to explain gaps in resumes that are very productive. And a mentor who has been through these steps can help you do that. If you're currently working, you know, again, and need support and guidance, and we all, let me tell you, we all need support and guidance at some point and on a continuing basis. You'll have someone there to talk to. That's very critical. You know, I mean, I have somebody I can talk to. You know, I have a very dear colleague that I can call and ask questions about how does this work in the University system? How do I get to this point? How do I take these steps to get something? You know, it's very, very important to have someone like that in your back pocket and a mentor can provide that type of service. So if we go on to 37, you know, if you've answered yes to any of those questions that I asked you. Are you looking for a job? Are you stressed out by your job support? Do you think you need some support and guidance? You know, I've answered yes to all of them. I think everybody who's listening has probably answered yes to all of them. Let's see if a mentor can help you overcome those issues. You know, we all need a little help. We all need a little push at times. So get in touch with the American Association of People with Disabilities and see if you can be matched up. And it might be much easier than you think. Look around your workplace if you're working now and see somebody else with a disability. How did they get to where they are now? What kind of problems have they faced? What do they do when they're feeling down a little bit? You know, we just want someone there for you who understands and has had the same experience, so that you can talk to. And that's a very valuable member of your employment team and it's a great resource. Speaking of resources, when we go on to slides 38 and 39, we talked a lot about where to find information, where to find the WIPA programs, where to find the PABSS programs, where to find employment networks. And the best place to look is www.choosework.net/findhelp. It is based-- it's a consumer based website and you can search by zip code, by the types of services people offer, by the type of disability, by languages, or whether or not you're looking for an EN, a vocational rehabilitation service, a WIPA, or a PABSS program. So there are many ways to search. If you type in your zip code, you're going to get every service that is potentially available in your zip code, but then you want to-- you're going to want to refine that because some might not offer the services you need. Some might not have experience with people with your particular disability because they work with different populations. So you're going to want to narrow that a little and that tool will help you get you to the right place. And then, as Shauna said, when it comes to employment networks, you're going to need to interview them. Find out how they can help you and don't be afraid to ask questions. On slide 40, if you want more information or if we did not get to your question today, call the Ticket to Work help line. They can talk to you about your specific situation or answer a general question. And they're located at 1-866-968-7842 and for TTY users, 866-833-2967. www.socialsecurity.gov/work is a gold mine of information. Anybody who is considering going to work can find just about everything you want there. If you want to look and see more information about the trial work period, you'll find it there. If you want to find your local WIPA program, you'll find it there. You'll find all kinds of information, including that red book that was mentioned earlier on the presentation. And you can connect all sorts of ways. You can like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/choosework and everyday, you'll be getting a little note on your Facebook account that says what's news, how to connect with people that can help you. Or if you tweet, follow us on Twitter, www.twitter.com/chooseworkssa. And you'll get important little tweets about what's happening today, what kind of rules perhaps changed today, what kind of benefits are being offered that weren't offered yesterday. So those are the ways you can connect with us. Once again, that ticket to work help line is 1-866-968-7842 and for TTY users, 866-833-2967. And unfortunately, that brings us to the end of the session. We've kept you a few minutes over and I apologize for that. But I do want to thank Jamie for making things very easy for all of us today by answering-- voicing all of our questions. Thank Mike in the background for making all things webinar work. And thanks Shauna and Raina, our two presenters, for sharing lots of great information with you. So once again, if you have questions, get in contact with that Ticket to Work help line at 1-866-968-7842 or for TTY users, 866-833-2967 and we hope to see you on a future webinar. So thanks everybody and have a great afternoon. Take care.

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