Please stand by for realtime captions. Good afternoon, everybody. This is Ray Cebula from Cornell University employment and disability Institute and I want to welcome you to today's work incentive seminar. We are going to be talking about free supports and free services for people who have a disability and our ready to go to work. We have got a great panel for you. We will be taking questions, but as we go through the slides to introduce today's session, I will be telling you how you can go about asking those questions. There are several hundred of you out there and we cannot let you all talk at once. Accessing today's webinar, if you have turned on your computer you are connected to your microphone and your speakers. We have shut off your microphone so you cannot speak. But you should be able to hear me through your speakers.. If something happens to your Internet or the system goes haywire which it does, this is like like to be, you can dial in and the toll-free number today is 1855 749 4750. He will be asked for an access code and that code is 640 051 831. Today's PowerPoint and and accessible PDF in text are located in the link that you received to connect with today's event. With that came along in your confirmation and access letter that was sent to you after you registered for today's session. Accessibility for these webinars is very important to all of us. We want as many people as possible to be able to participate in fact, we want everybody to be able to participate so if you do have a problem with today's webinar, of any kind, what I want you to do is let us know. You, us know in the chat box, you, us know in the Q&A box are you can e-mail us afterwards and if you are having an issue about what's more important and letting us know if you have an issue is whether or not you know of a solution to that issue. If you have a problem and know how we can fix that, let us know that as well so we can make this a better experience for everybody. Real-time captioning is available today at. Closed captioning link is http://www.edi.cornell.edu/c aptions.cfm?activityid=5113. The captions can be found in them media viewer panel and that is at the bottom of the right-hand side of your screen in your webinar console. If the arrowhead is pointing at the words media viewer, or media viewer is not opened so click on that arrowhead and it will open and right now I can see what the captioner is typing. If you want to make that larger, you can close some of the other boxes. You can close the participant box, close the chat box and close the Q&A box until you need them, that will make that media viewer larger for you. The webinar presentation, today's presentation, the transcript and the recording will be available in approximately two weeks in our archives and our archives allocated at www.ilr.cornell.edu/edi/m-wi se- webinars.cfm. We will have the webinar question and answer period and what we are going to do is rate after each presenter is finished to take questions. Now, the Q&A box is where we preferred you put your questions and if the Q&A box has that little arrowhead pointing at Q&A, he it is closed. You going to want to open it and a box will appear, you can type in your question, hit enter and your question will appear on Jamie's screen. She will then pass that question on to me and I will voice that question for you. Withseveral hundred of you in the room, and people coming in every second, as I'm looking at that number scroll away, we are not going to answer all of your questions. Kandra, can I ask you to mute your phone? Ray, IMU to it. Okay, you are you are not new to do on the screen. Correct, but that is not me. Okay. There we go. Thank you. Sorry about that, folks, but like I said, it a live TV so when you type your question into the Q&A box it will appear on Jamie's screen. She will send the questions to me and I will voice the questions for you. You can also submit questions to -- if you happen to think of a question that you should have asked our wanted to ask was something burst upon you as soon as we shut down, we can still take your questions. You going 20 e-mail questions to support at @ choose work.net. And you will get an answer to your questions. We talked a lot about this but I'm going to review this box one more time just to make sure everybody is on the same page. You've got your audio panel and you've got your Q&A box. Here is that little Q&A box down here. Click on the arrowhead, this box will open up. What do you are going to want to do is type your question here and hit send. It is going to then show up in Jamie's box. Once again, if you do have an issue with your audio, you have been connected by default to your computer speakers, go to the very top of the page, click on the word audio, then audio conference and this box is going to open. Here is your use phone, click on I will call in and the phone number, the access code and your ID will appear and you will be able to dial in to keep up with us. All right, before we get to the agenda , it is my job to put you guys to work. We have a series of questions we want to ask you, they are nice and short and we just want to know who is listening to us. How you found out about us so that we can use that information for outreach for future webinars. Our first question is how did you learn about today's webinar? Did you hear about it via e-mail, Facebook or Twitter? It website? A family or friend? A with the agency or something else? If you answer something else, please let us know what that was. We are going to wait until my magic percentage, I have a secret percentage and as soon as we get to that I will stop the question. Until we get to that people have to participate because I said so. We are getting very, very close. There we go. 20 seconds. Let's pull will be shut down. 10 seconds. Good participation, folks, thank you very, very much. All right, I am going to open the second polling question. What do you hope to learn about -- doing today's session? The Ticket to Work, the work incentives for us as I, the work incentives for SSDI, employment networks and vocational real dilatation, legal retention and advocacy or something else? On this one and it is also important if you want to learn about something else to let us know because we have been know to take your suggestions and build webinars around them. You might be creating a webinar by giving us a good suggestion. We are waiting for that magic percentage again. There we are. 20 seconds. 10 seconds. All right, poll number three. What is your gender? This one is going real fast. We are going to close that, 20 seconds. 10 seconds. Another one, what is your age? 18 or younger, 19 to 25, 26240, 41 to 55, 56 to 65 or 66 and older? I didn't get to finish the question and we are already up to my percentage. Give it another second. 20 seconds to go. 10 seconds. Last but not least, there are times we know that some of you are watching this webinar with other people so besides yourself, how many other people are watching the screen with you? We've got at least one particular way non-out there. -- party going on out there. Close that down, 20 seconds. 10 seconds. Thank you very much for your participation, folks, a lot of you participated and that gives us a lots of information. Let's close out of those and get back to the presentation. Today's agenda, UF been welcomed, I'm going to introduce our speakers now go I'm going to tell you who they are and they are going to introduce themselves. We have two community work incentive coordinators or benefits planner's as we like to call them to present with you today. [Indiscernible] is going to take over when I stop and then Kendra Berry will take over a little later. I will come back and join you for some extra resources at the end of the session. Just know these two people, these two women have been very well-trained and know no this stuff inside and out. Between the brave us, think we will be able to get you answers to most of your questions. What if I'm ready for work? We are going to provide you with information on the Ticket to Work program, very important program for everybody who is on benefits decide that they might want to work. We are going to -- talk about timely progress reviews when you are involved with your ticket, there is going to be somebody watching to make sure that you are engaged and participating and making progress in according with your plan. Substantial gainful activity, what is that? It is much more than just a number. Kendra will tell you all about that. The trial work period, what does that mean for those of you out there who are receiving Title 2? My job is great , I like working but what about my benefits? We are going to talk to you about what work will do to your benefits. We will talk about the extended period of eligibility. We are going to talk about Medicaid and Medicare. And we are going to talk about a very important work incentive called expedited reinstatement. We will take your questions as I said at the end of each speakers presentation and then I will come back with some additional resources for you. We have two different Social Security programs. The first we are going to talk about is the Title 2 program, otherwise known as SSDI, Social Security disability insurance. People become insured for so so security disability when they work and pay into the FICA system. People need towork for a period, a specified period of time as well as become disabled according to the Social Security guidelines enabled to qualify for this program. The other program we are going to talk about is SSI, supplemental security income. It is a very, very different program. It may sound similar, but it is remarkably different. It is a needs-based federal welfare program that provides benefits to people using the same disability standard but to those people who may not have a sufficient work history are may not have any work history. There are two different ways of getting into the Social Security house, each door will have different work incentives so it is going to be very important to pay attention to our speakers. Some of you out there might receive both. So security disability insurance and supplemental security income. When that happens your SSDI benefits are below the federal minimum and, level that SSI provides. So you truly in that case may be eligible -- somebody is screaming out loud so if your phone is not mutant again, let's take care of that, but Social Security disability insurance recipients they have the benefit lower. Then thefederal minimum set by the government for SSI recipients. If that is the case, the government is going to kick in some SSI to bring you up to that SSI level. Those are the way into the program. Now that we know how you got into the program, then it is going to show us how to get back to work and talk about some of the resources that are available so Mike, if you can queue up Ben's begin for us, that would be great. -- Ben zigbee deal for us, that would be great. Independent, fulfillment, community involvement, these are some of the benefits that work provides. By working, you can earn more income, meet new people and to learn new skills. What is the Ticket to Work program looks how can it help you? To get to work as a free and voluntary program from Social Security the provides you employment support purposes to help you go to work also provided access to Medicaid and/or Medicare. It can help you go to work which can give you greater sense of purpose and help you get back to our community . 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 visible to you -- you to disability. Meet Ben, he provided to [Indiscernible] because he's age 18 to 64 and receives so Security disability insurance. If tonight is in supposed mental it is pretty cap euros or five for the program. Ben wanted to work when you to understand how work would impact his benefits especially his healthcare. Ben gets research and found out that over 360,000 people 16,000 people with disabilities have participated in the program . After joining more resort she decided that Ticket to Work was just the ticket he needed to be successful I'm going toward. When Ben contacted the ticket helpline they talk to them about sports from Social Security he could use to go toward. He found that with Social Security to get to work and work incentive you might be able to work okay because Medicare Medicaid with the peace of mind that if he needed to stop working due to his disability, there was the past track fast-track back to restarting his benefits. With the ticket program, tenet had a choice of service plumbing network and stay vocational revocation agency. He was able to select one of the service providers to work with him one-on-one to help them reach his work goals. Both could offer him specialized services and you could choose which was right for him. Your agencies work with individuals who need more significant services. The services that connect receive include benefits and career counseling, education, training and job search support. -- [Indiscernible--Audio cutting out] [Lost audio] [No audio] Folks we know the sound is gone, if you look at the bottom of the screen you could grade along with what's happening. Mike is working on this in the background to see if we can get it fixed for you. Wewill be covering everything that Ben is talking about during the webinar so if the sound doesn't, back, he will not be missing any information. Jamie is also going to be sending out the link to Ben's a video so you will be able to access it and listen to it again. As I said, this is like live TV, sometimes things just go a little bit haywire. All of these phone numbers will be given to you again as well as well as the Social Security website. Let's get rid of Ben. Here we go. You asked, we answered, what if I am ready to go to work? Who is going to talk to us about that? [Indiscernible] is going to talk to us about that so if you introduce itself and to tell people what you do and where you are from, we can get on with the presentation. You need to unmute your phone, [Tyra] Hello. I can hear you fine , thank you. Thank you, tin cup I'm sorry, my name is Tyra [Indiscernible] and I work with the disability rights network of Pennsylvania and we work throughout the Philadelphia but to Politan area. I am what's called a community work incentive liaison in which we are trained on so Security work incentives. You asked, we answered, what if you are ready to go to work? Taking the next step. Making sure that you have all of the information will help you reach your goals and journey towards employment so they Ticket to Work and work incentive are two things that can help make your journey a smooth one. Starting out, only you can decide if work is right for you, it is your choice, it is optional. You have to decide for yourself. There are many reasons why people choose work. Of course, the obvious is to earn more income, gain Independence, meet new people, learn new skills, and many people have many different reasons why they choose to go back to work. The Ticket to Work program, it it supports development for people with disabilities who want to go back to work. Of course, is for people who are receiving Social Security disability benefits and our between the ages of 18 to 64 and it is a free and voluntary program. What are the work incentives? They work incentives are some special roles that allow beneficiaries to receive training for new skills, improve the skills they already have him maybe pursue education, try all different jobs, start a new career in the simply to gain competence and that's what they work incentives are for. You asked, we answered, what happens when you're ready to go back to work? You will hear a lot of Social Security lingo today and one of them is called substantial gainful activity or SDA for sure. I'm going to talk a little bit about that. What is substantial gainful activity or SGA? SGA is a measure of your earnings level. Substantial means work that you are performing at six to begin physical or mental full or part-time work activity. Gainful work means that your work is or generally considered for pay or profit even if you do not actually make a profit. The amount of your monthly earnings considered substantial gainful depends on the nature of your disability and work activities. In 2015 if you are work earnings average over $1090 per month then you are not blind your working at the SGA level. Also for 2015, if your work earnings are over $1820 or more per month and you are blind, you are working at SGA level. Obviously, those numbers are different if you are considered blight by Social Security standards. What is Tammy progress review? If you are using your Ticket to Work you will hear this term as well. Mostly you will work with were women network that your ticket is assigned to. What is Tammy progress review? -- it measures how your success in achieving you work goals, you and your implementing create an individual work plan that includes your work education training goals. It is the progress that you make towards those goals and it is reviewed every 12 months. An example of time the progress review [Indiscernible] a resource that social Security publishes each and every year and it can be found online. On the Social Security website. An example of the speed 10 is at your first 12 month review -- Tyra, we lost your audio again. I think you might have hit something on your phone. I'm sorry. You are back with us. I'm not sure where I lost you guys. I'm on the Redbook example. Let's start with that slide over again. Okay. As I was saying the Redbook is obese was that Social Security publishes each year and it can be found online. The TPR an example out of the Redbook about the speed 10 is that your first 12 month review work three out of coldness that's trial work period you have met TPR or you have completed 60% of a full-time course load for when you towards a degree or certificate. The number of months per year that you worked in the amount of completion towards your degree certificate or other programs will increase with each 12 month review. More about TPR timely progress review, if you you do not meet the TPR requirements, you can continue to participate in the Ticket to Work and your cash in Medicare or Medicaid benefits will not be affected. However, you won't no longer be excused from the continuing disability review. Meaning when you utilize your Ticket to Work you are excused from that continuing disability review or CDR. If you are not making progress you no longer are excused from the medical review. What is the trial work period? Or TWP? The trial work period is a work incentive specific to SSDI beneficiary so it is a nine-month time period when you can test out your ability to succeed at work. It is not necessary for you to work your nine months in a row, it does not have to be consecutive. As long as you report your activity so Security you are able to earn as much as you want during the nine-month period. You will continue to receive your full SSDI cash benefits and you will continue to receive your Medicaid or Medicare or both benefits. The nine-month trial work period starts the first month you are entitled to your SSDI benefits for the month he filed for whichever is later and if you are using a Ticket to Work during a trial work period, that continuing medical review is postponed. Your benefits may stop before the end of year trial work period if you recover medically. Thank you at this I'm going to turn it back to Ray. Okay. Thank you, Tyra. We actually do have a couple of questions for you. Somebody missed your comments about a CDR and they are wondering if you can explain the concept of what a CDR is. A continuing disability review is something that everyone that is receiving Social Security disability benefits goes through, the time period is based on your disability and it is that time when you are reviewed to find out if you have the same disability that got you on Social Security disability benefits. Everyone that is receiving benefits goes through this review periodically. If you are utilizing your Ticket to Work my that review is postponed. Okay. Thank you very much and somebody said they just got a new job, should they have told somebody? Absolutely. If the beneficiary responsibility to report that they are working to their local Social Security office. And make sure they report their earnings each and every month. Hey, that report needs to be made to Social Security, when should the report be made? It should be made by the sixth of the next month that they are working so it is month they are working be sure they save their a Stubbs and report their earnings to Social Security by the sixth of the next month. Thank you very much. I think that's going to do it for the moment. I am looking through to see if I can -- a couple more questions came in as you were talking. It looks like they are going to be a little bit later. Thank you very much, Tyra. We will probably have more questions for you before the day is over but we are going to move now to Kendra Berry and I'm going to allow her to introduce herself and take us through the rest of today's session. Kendra? Thanks, Ray, can you hear me? I certainly cannot. Perfect. Technology is never my friend so glad everyone is a bearing with us today. My name is Kendra NIMHD in a to work incentive quarter Nader here in Indiana. I help supervise the WIPA does that help people understand how working impact and fits. Let's take it for the next slide. My job is great but what about my benefits? After the trial work period comes to the extended period of eligibility or the EPE. The EPE is a 36 month period that comes after the trial work period ends where depending on how much you earn, your benefits may or may not , that month. The 36 month be entitlement begins after the trial work period even if you are not working. During the EPE, Social Security can restart your benefits without a new application , without a disability determination and without a waiting period. The best example I like to give people is say you are working and you are earning $1000 a month. That would be below SGA but come November, December, January, you pick up extra hours and your checks are for $1200 a month, that is over SGA. During your extended period of eligibility or EPE, you would not be entitled to receive your SSDI checks for the month of November, December and January because your earnings were over SGA. But if you are scheduled back to normal after holidays and give your you are earning 1000 again, your SSDI check with start up again. It is another safety net that Social Security provides for you so that depending on your earnings you have the knowledge that your SSDI check will be there. If you are able to successfully work your way off benefits and your earning above SGA during the 36 month EPE, there are other work incentives available for you in the future and this is my favorite one. It is called expedited reinstatement or EX are and it is a five-year period where if you are disability causes you to be unable to earn above SGA whether that means your hours, you cannot work as many, or that you just cannot work at all anymore, you are not feeling able, you can request EX our. What is expedited reinstatement and how can it help you? This is for both SSDI and SSI beneficiaries. EXR is a work incentive that applies to both SSDI and SSI and that is so important because this is a five-year period that offers you a fast track to benefits reinstatement if you work your way off benefits and make the reinstatement request within five years of your benefits stopping. For an example, your working and you are able to work full- time, your earnings $3000 a month. You and SSDI was sipping you would user trial work period, you would use your EPE and your benefits would stop because you are earning an amount, well above SGA for those of you on SSI there's a calculation that's use but your SSI check would have stopped as well. So you get [Indiscernible] after that happens, you work for two years, you had been doing great but you just cannot handle it anymore. Instead of having to go through the whole applying for Social Security and going through a waiting period and maybe having to appeal it, you can request expedited reinstatement from Social Security and have your benefits restarted the following month. This is an amazing safety net and it is my favorite to work incentive because most people concern is that it took them so long to get on their disability benefits that they are afraid to go through the process again and EXR provides you with a five-year safety net that you can have your Social Security restarted if you get sick again in the future and cannot handle working. While Social Security reviews were benefits reinstatement request so you have to stop working and you requested from Social Security you are eligible to receive temporary benefits for up to six months also also security makes the determination. What they would do is look at is your disability the same as it was previously and how has your disability impacted your ability to work now. You may also be accountable for the care and/or Medicaid train this period and that is something that we will talk about here in a minute. That for the last thing on EXR the biggest thing is that went to make that request for EXR after you stop working or your earning below SGA, you will receive temporary benefits for the six-month period while Social Security reviews your case so it is the best safety NET you. If you are on this call and you want to try working but you are afraid of what will happen, this is a wonderful way. It is great to note out there work incentives are there to support you and one of the things that we do is we do benefits counseling. Wehelp people who are on SSI or SSDI understand the work incentives of how they will apply to you. That is something that is a free service to you and the resources that Ray will be talking to you about later. You ask what about benefits? How will working impact by Medicare or Medicaid? This is important for those of you who may just have insurance or for those of you on SSDI in for those of you on SSI so it should apply to everyone. How will working impact Medicaid? Let's start there. Your state may allow you to buy Medicaid if you are disabled and no longer entitled to free Medicaid because you are earning money through work. You make off I for this if you one, meet the definition of disabled under Social Security meaning you are receiving Social Security and two, that you would be eligible for SSI payments if it weren't for your earnings. That depends on the program that you are on. If you no longer are receiving SSI, the state decides if you are disabled. Your state will not consider whether you are working when it makes that decision. I can give you an example for my stay and I'm here in Indiana but this is something that is going to be specific to the state you live in because there are different regulations at the state level. Here in Indiana for those on SSDI we have a program called med works [Indiscernible] and it is the buy-in program that allows you to purchase Medicaid insurance when you are working and the reason this exists is because business earnings level for Medicaid that says if you are earning above certain level then you would not qualify for insurance and that's a big concern for people because medications are expensive and co-pays can be expensive or therapy or counseling, just to see your doctor. Here in Indiana you can purchase Medicaid if your employer earnings are above $70,000 a year. Going to work is not going to cause you to lose your insurance. How will working impact -- give me two seconds. I want to make sure I cover everything for Medicaid because it is such a big program. Can you go back a slight for me? Live TV, it isn't it fun? For those of you on SSI is a federal work incentive available to you. This isnot state specific and this work incentive is called 1690 B and it says that until your earnings are above a certain level you continue to remain eligible for Medicaid and this is again national that you one not use Medicaid just because your SSI check stops. That is another big concern for SSI recipients is going to work will cause you to lose your insurance. Here in Indiana, the amount for 1619 B is a little over $37,000 a year. Until you are - - your earnings are above $37,000 year in Indiana how you would be eligible for 1619 B protection and you would keep your Medicaid. After -- once you are earning to go above that if you are able to work more and earn more, you can qualify for the med works program here. It so important to get benefits counseling for your specific situation because everyone's receiving different things. Some of you may have SSDI and Medicare and others may have SSI and Medicaid, some of you may get food stamps, HUD, all sorts of different assistance and what benefits counseling will do is help you understand what work incentives apply to you and how much you can earn before things will start being impacted. Now I'm ready for the next slide. How does work impact Medicare? If you are on SSDI you become eligible for Medicare after 24 months in most cases. You will not lose your Medicare coverage by going to work. There is afederal work incentive called extended Medicare that provides at least 93 months of consecutive Medicare coverage for part A , Part B, if you are enrolled and prescription drug coverage, Part D if you are enrolled. There is no premium for part A so going to work you will have seven years and nine months of extended Medicare coverage. Even if you are only able to work part-time, you are not going to lose the insurance coverage that you have. For those of you who want to try working full-time and more, you meet be offered benefits to your lawyer and sometimes that can be even more beneficial than Medicare or other benefits you are receiving. You will have a lot of options and you are doing the right thing right now now by listening on this call to learn about what's available to you and how working will impact the benefits you receive. The 93 month extended Medicare starts the month after the last month of your trial work period. To qualify you must already have Medicare and be working at the SGA level but not be medically improved. That means your disability is still the same -- your just working with your disability. Although cash benefits may based off duty are working, you Medicare will continue for that seven years and nine months and that such a long period. I talked to last year we had over a thousand referrals of beneficiaries with questions about how working would impact their benefits and one of the biggest concerns is insurance just because it can be so expensive if you do not have insurance for co-pays and medication, even things like if you need a cane , classes, all of those things, insurance will cover so knowing that you will have that insurance coverage is a big relief to the people that I talk to personally. How does work impact Medicare and Medicaid? Still [Indiscernible] if you are under the age of 65, disabled and no longer entitled to free Medicare part A, not the hospital coverage, because you successfully returned to work you may be eligible for a program that helps pay your Medicare part A monthly premium after the extended Medicare coverage has ended. To be awful for this you must continue to have a disabling impairment and again that means that your disability is still the same ago you must sign up for premium hospital insurance part A, have a limited income, have limited resources and not already be audible for a decade. Thisis something that you would want to talk to someone personally about because it depends on your situation, but this is something you would not have to worry about until after you have gone through your trial work period for SSDI and your extended Medicare period of that seven years and nine months so this is the way down the road but we want you to know all of the safety nets that right available to you because it provides you with that chance to see how much can you handle, do you want to try part-time or do you really want to give full-time ago if you can handle it. Every state has its own office but that's why it is so important to talk to someone locally. You can call the 1(800) Medicare or for TTY 877 486 2048 and the numbers will be posted and you will be asked for your Medicare number and transferred to the main menu. You choose other choices and then another question and you will be transferred to a representative. Be prepared to tell your state and their [Indiscernible] toll-free number for additional information. This is a great way to get specific information or your state on the Medicare and how working will impact you or if you just have Medicare questions in general, but to learn more about how working will affect you, contact your local WIPA office or your vocational rehabilitation, Ray will give you a lot of resources but talking to someone and in learning what work incentives apply to you will be the best way to go for you. Ray, I think I am turning its back it is back over to you for questions. Okay. We have a lots of questions. They have been coming in fast and furious and Tyra I promised you I would have lots of questions for you so I do. I'm going to start with Tyra right now because I think this is a good question for you. What if I believe that an employer is not hiring me because of my disability? Is there anything I can do about that? Hello, thank you for the question from the audience. Every state as an organization called [Indiscernible] and [Indiscernible--Muffled audio] local office and they [Indiscernible--Muffled audio] Social Security - - [Indiscernible--Muffled audio]. Contact your local [Indiscernible] office [Indiscernible--Muffled audio] each state does have a -- an office so please -- or you can call your local WIPA [Indiscernible] office. Okay. If I do contact a protection and advocacy agency for health, what are the fees involved with that? All the services are free of charge to Social Security beneficiaries. All right. That is great. Thank you very much. What else do I have for you? I think I'm not going to ask you another question just yet. I want to do this in some kind of order. I do have a question for you, Tyra. Somebody is asking can you refresh their memory how long is the trial work period? Great question, the trial work period last for nine months which does not happen consecutively meaning you can work a few months here, a few months there and -- tell you have your lies all your trial [Indiscernible] spent to read very much. Now Kendra, let's move on to you. We talked earlier about making sure that that person reported their job, how do somebody go about doing that? Reporting your earnings is so important and the best thing to do is to make a list of all the agencies you are working with because you need to be able to make sure to report to Social Security and you would want to address that your SSDI caseworker or SSI caseworker for those of you who are concur beneficiaries receiving both SSDI and SSI would want to report your earnings twice to Social Security to make sure that each side on SSDI and SSI has copies of that. When I talk to people and give them information on reporting you have a few different options. You can call in and report earnings depending on what work incentives you are utilizing or you can make copies of your pay stub and send those in. We encourage people to report monthly and to keep doing it. Sometimes you will get notices from Social Security that you do not need to report your earnings, still tell people to send them in any way so that you have the documentation that you submitted those. You can ask them in and get a facts confirmation, you can mail them in, you can bring them in in person and ask for a receipt and you want to do this with Medicaid, with HUD, with food stamps, with all benefits that you are receiving. Okay, Kendra, if somebody gives me a receipt for reporting, what should I do with that? You should have a file and it should be a reporting earnings and you should save your receipts there. It is great to keep those that you keep track of that I tell this agency about how much I made last month? And you can go back to it and creating a folder and keeping it on your desk, keeping it in your kitchen which is [Indiscernible] that I need to know did I pay this bill, wherever you are going to see it and remember to report it to remember to keep it, that's what you should do. Okay, Kendra, I have one for you here. This is a good one. Is there a different SGA amount for SSI instead of the 1090 figure? For SSI recipients and let's go back over its, two different programs. SSI issupplemental security income and the difference between SSDI is it is a [Indiscernible] base program so any earnings you have are going to impact the amount of your SSI check. It there is no trial work period for SSI , but I can give you an example of how SSI works. I favorite example is if you go to work and you earn $885 a month. That's working around 30 hours at minimum wage. SSI -- Social Security uses a cancellation to determine what your SSI check will be based on your monthly earnings. They do not count the first $85 you earn and after that they count half. Of the $8085 you earned, Social Security will count for hundred dollars. It they subtract that 400 from the federal benefit rate of 733 which is what you could get maximum amount in SSI, that would make your new SSI check $333. That scares a lot of people because they think my check is going from 733 2333, but you earned a hundred $85 and you are getting $333 SSI. Your new monthly income is over $1200 and up with a lot more money and the other benefits working on SSI is that you are paying into the system, paying your taxes and you are earning credits to become insured under SSDI in the future. Going to work on SSI while there aren't as many work incentives there our lots of benefits and there's still our safety nets for you like the expedited reinstatement or EXR, the five-year safety net that if you cannot work anymore because of your disability you can get back on benefits easily. Doesthat answer the question, Ray? I think it does just fine. Somebody is asking what is -- you use the acronyms WIPA and EN, can you tell us what those are? I love my acronyms and I know we said we would be given you a lot of legal today and that is some of the lingo. WIPA is working instead of planning and assist prospect, every state has at least one and record count cap I believe there are around 85 nationally. What he is is a Social Security grants funded project that provides free benefit counseling to any SSI or SSDI recipient who is interested in working. I work with one of our WIPA, we cover 58 counties here in Indiana and people call us with questions. Sometimes we get them out sheet and a different work incentives and there's even more work incentives that we did not talk about today and a lot of times what we do for people is we write them a report. We will ask you what is your goal looks where do you want to work? How many hours a week do you want to work? How much you want to earn monthly and we will use that information to explain to you how that job goal will impact your SSDI, your SSI, your Medicare, you Medicaid, food stamps, HUD, all of those. We will tell you what work incentives apply to you which can help you apply for those work incentives when the time comes and we will help you understand who to report to and how to report everything. This is a free service available to all of you in the US for your receiving SSI and SSDI in want what to work. You can get information about the contact information for your local WIPAs on some different websites that Ray will talk about in a minute to go as far as EN works that is an employment network and the implement networks are out there to help you find a job and it has to do with the Ticket to Work program and all of the different free resources that are available to help you if you want to find a job and keep that job. Okay, thank you. Jamie is telling me that Tyra was a little bit garbled during her answer to the question about somebody being discriminated against and did not tired because of their disability. Folks who do run into that situation and receive Social Security benefits are entitled to free legal services and free legal advise to the paths program, protection and advocacy for beneficiaries of Social Security. Every state has a protection and advocacy agency that you can call for disability issues and they do provide free legal assistance on lots of disability issues. Fortunately, all of those agencies are located on the Social Security.gov website and I will give you that in just a bit. Tyra, I have a question for you. You talked a lot about the Ticket to Work. Can somebody go back to work without using the ticket? Absolutely. The Ticketto Work is complete the voluntary by Social Security so someone can go to work without utilizing their Ticket to Work or is assigning -- employment that work or state VR agency. Okay, thank you and I'm going to follow that up with Kendra. If I do not use by Ticket to Work do I have to use a benefits planner? I'm going to give a lots of information for this so I'm going to answer questions that you did not ask. Benefits using the Ticket to Work is that there's no continuing disability review from Social Security while you are ticket is assigned and in use. It is beneficial for you to choose to assign your ticket like Tyra said, totally voluntary. It is up to you and all of the services that we are telling you about, you can choose to work with different agencies if you want to. The WIPA , voluntary as well, I encourage people to contact because it is good to know what is going to happen to a benefits when you go to work. A lot of you listen to the call because maybe heard some with http://www.edi.cornell.edu/c aptions.cfm?activityid=5113, maybe you heard from your mother mothers mother's brother sister's cousins uncle that everything will stop when you went to work. And listening in on this call gives you information that that is not the case, there's a lot of safety nets provided by Social Security. The other benefits in using your ticket is you can get connected with an agency that can help you find a job but they can help you with everything from creating a resume, doing practice interviewing, to filling out applications , too once you have a job, they can call you if you have questions, you can call them. They provide you a support system so the services that we talk about today, the different agencies you can connect with, they are free for you and there to help you on your journey that can help you decide if working as a good idea for you and help you reach the goals that you have. Okay I'm a -- to 10, we have a good question for you. When somebody goes back to work, how much do we have to disclose about our disability? And should we? That's another great question. Disclosing your disability is completely up to you , that is an individual decision. And you do not have to disclose anything regarding your disability or if you are receiving benefits or not. Again, I want to encourage you to contact your local protection advocacy organization to help you further answer any specific questions that you may have regarding disclosure. Yes, I have to second what Tyra says, that's a very important decision to make and is very much an individual decision that everybody should discuss with a PABS agency before you make the decision on your own. There is a question here that I think I am going to take. How canwe explain being out of the workforce for a long time? Lots of people are out of the work orders because of their disabling condition. For a good amount of time and an employment network can help you determine how best to explain that. Theemployment networks are the people who might be in a position to help you build a resume and putting a resume together requires you to put in something about that five or six year gap when you were unable to work. What did you do during that period of time? Did you volunteer? Were you taking care of somebodies children? Wii U learning to garden? What types of skills and that two biggies did you pick up or engage in drink that period of time? There our lots of ways to explain that, but once again, that is a very, very individualized issue and I would really suggest you talk to an employment network about that because it is very critical to explain that. Kendra, this Ticket to Work thing, does it just assign jobs to people? Not at all. The Ticketto Work is not a temporary replacement program. Ithink a lot of people think that. They think they will also merge and assign the ticket and someone is going to give them a job. That is not how the Ticket to Work program works. When you assign your ticket you can choose from a list of different agencies, there are national agencies to month so if you are some and maybe you are already working for -- or you can find a job on your computer don't really need all of this help, you can choose to contact and national agency and work with them . There are some benefits to choosing to work with a national agency versus a local one. You can also choose to assign your ticket to a local agency and get some of those are get some of that assistance that I talked about, creating a resume and interview skills and assistance applying for a job. You won't just be placed somewhere, what you have chosen an agency to work with, if you're going to to someone local and want help finding a job, they are going to ask you questions, what is your disability? You need any help on the job? What do you want to do? They are not just going to save we have a stocking job, we will put you there. If your goal is to find a 30 hour a week secretarial position, they are going to help you try and reach that goal. If you want to find a factory job, they are going to help you reach that goal. The benefit of this is that these agencies that assist you, they do not get paid until you find a job and you keep that job so they really are working for you. You are not paying them, it is a free service so assigning your ticket has so many benefits to its, it is a great idea and you can call the Ticket to Work topline and get more information if you have general questions about it and they can also send you information about all of the different agencies and employment networks in your area. Okay, thank you. I'mgoing to take the next one because we have lots and lots of questions about advanced degrees and advanced education and whether the ticket and this program we are talking about can provide those services. It is one of my favorite answers, it all depends. If you are in a profession that you can no longer work in because of your disability, and an advanced degree will help you become employable then there is a potential that Social Security would allow an advanced degree or this date VR agency would help you with that advanced degree. If you are starting out, if you look at my situation, I'm an attorney, I had to go to school for seven years, if I were starting out with state VR or with an employment network and said they want to go to law school, I think there might be a question about that. They might want me to see if I can do something with a four-year degree first. And then if I'm successful with that, let's talk about the next three years worth of schooling. It all very much depends upon your individual situation and your individual disability, but it is all very possible depending on your individual circumstances and something you should discuss with your EN or state VR agency which ever one you pick to work with. All right, back to you come a Kendra. If I have accessed expedited reinstatement, what happens when I return to work? I hear you and I am here. [Laughter]. That is a wonderful question and I hate giving this answer but it really depends on your situation. It depends on the length of time you have been working . It depends on a few different things. This is again another situation where the best thing you can do is to contact either the Ticket to Work helpline or to get in touch with someone at a local WIPA project. If you use expedited been statement depends on how long, how long you had been off the benefits and what will happen. Ray, if you have anything else to add, please feel free. It really does depend on when you return to work, it depends upon how much you are earning. It is a potential where you could be receiving a check and keeping your earnings if you are -- if your earnings are too high but it really does depend upon your individual situation. And it is another reason for working with somebody like to 10 or Kendra because they will be able to figure that out for you. They will be able to put a plan together. We aregetting tons of questions about training and education and what I want to tell you folks is remember I gave you that archive, let me find that site again. It is www.ilr.cornell.edu/edi/m-wi se-webinars.cfm and if you go onto the website you are going to find all kinds of webinars. Many of which dealt with VR and employment networks. They are going tobe there to provide you with that information so you might want to listen to them and see if you can find anything because there's always the potential for advanced degrees, for initial degrees and a question that just came in, retraining. Many people want to go back to the same job that they had before they became disabled. Many people can do that, it just may be an issue of learning and being retrained how to do that job given you are new situation. And that is going to lead me right in and if Kendra or Tyra have anything to add, please jump in but we have lots of questions today about working from home. Andworking from home is most certainly a potential. You will want to talk to an employment network about positions that you can do at home. I work at home. Jamie is working at home. So those jobs do exist. Thequestion is where are they and what kind of equipment do you need and the state VR agency or the employment network to that Ticket to Work can help you get everything you need by using Social Security work incentives to put together a home office and to find you a home placement. Whetherit is because of a chronic illness or because of a disability that just is making you less mobile than other people. Home work is possible under these programs. Kendra, I'm going to give you this one. If VR closes my case, is there an advantage to assigning my ticket to somebody else? There definitely is. Ilove being able to give definite answers.. If VR closes your case and you are still interested in working, the point of the Ticket to Work program is that you have options. The employment networks are going to be a great option for you. The employment networks are again local or national agencies that do not get paid until you find a job and start working. They are like a VR for those of you that have worked with vocational rehabilitation or VR before, you create a plan with your counselor and you choose an agency to work with. This cuts out the middleman, there limit networks you can choose to sign your tickets of them and they will provide you a similar services that you would [Indiscernible] QVR so you definitely still have options. Okay. Thank you. I amtrying to get through some of these new questions that are coming in. Because they keep coming in, you know that. While you are going to questions I'm going to throw something out there as far as [Indiscernible]. I also work at home and have a chronic illness. I have a lots of autoimmune problems like lupus and although I have not had to be on disability, working at home makes it so much easier. For me I work sometimes irregular hours and the other benefits working at home is I spent have the time in my pajamas so working at home jobs are out there, Ray knows what I'm talking about. [Laughter] I did not mean to lab. The jobs are out there and you can find them in the website that Ray shared for some of the archives of the presentation, there's a lot of good information out there. The presentation last month was on federal jobs available and those are great resource to you and I would recommend looking through those and seeing what's available. But justknow that just because you have a disability, it does not mean that you cannot find a job that's a good fit for you. Absolutely, thank you for that. Thank you for the chuckle. [Laughter] If somebody wants to find an agency to help them find a job at home, where would they start? I wish I had a good answer to that and I really don't. You do, Kendra. [Laughter] To his work.net That's a great place. I think the resources that we are going to give you are going to help a lot with that. The fact of the matter is to find one of those home-based jobs, you going to be looking for an employment network and choose work.net does give you all of those employment networks and it is a very easy fine -- finder tool that you can type in your state, you can type in your zip code, all of the ENs that provide services to your area real appear. Andwhat you need to do is basically shop, you need to look at each one of the profiles and determine what types of people these ENs work with and what types of jobs can they find in the sum of the ENs, one of the most recent webinars that we did we had in EN that specialized in home employment so they are out there. You just need to look for them. Let's see, Kendra, one more for you and then we are going to have to move onto our resources. If an employer provides you with healthcare, what happens to our Medicaid or Medicare? Another question where it depends, Medicare coverage is going to continue. Part A is free so as long as you are in the extended period your Medicare coverage would still be there. Medicaid, it depends, it is going to depend on a few different things, where you live, what your earnings are and what you are paying per month and in some states if you choose to take another insurance you can keep Medicaid coverage and the insurance premium that you pay can go towards helping you keep that Medicaid coverage. The biggest thing to realize is it depends on the level of insurance you need. You may find that going back to work you are able to work full-time and take an employer sponsored insurance program and that's enough for you and that is not a bad thing. For those of you may be you are not going to get that goal, maybe part-time is going to be good for you and it is important to keep the state and federally funded insurance programs, it is going to depend on your goal and sewing to depend on your earnings so one of the questions is not necessarily a cover all answer. Thank you both. What weare going to do right now is continue with our resources because we are getting close to running out of time. They are lots of resources out there and lots of people are asking where to look. The fortunate thing about this program is there is no wrong way to get into it. You can get in any way you want to. We talked about employment networks. Wetalked about state VR agencies and somebody just asked me a question if I am working with a WIPA agency can meet - - and they direct me to these others? Most certainly. There is no wrong way into this program. Let's talk about some of the resources that are available to you. Here is Megan, Megan was diagnosed with clinical depression in 2008. In 2010 she connected with an employment network in Maryland. She was a success by 2011 she was working, she was already in her extended period of eligibility and her cash benefits stopped because she was working at such a high level. In 2013, she needed to access expedited reinstatement because her unit at work closed. She was able to access benefits because of her EPE, her extended period of eligibility and was able to do that without a new application been filed. Right now in 2014 she is back to work as a Dzumba instructor and is working with elderly folks, keeping them active and is actually looking to hire some new people to work order. We have a short video so Mike, if you can queue up Megan's video? We will hear about it to success story. -- a true success story. The last time we chatted I was working for will step that which is a biotech company and it was a document control specialist and then in 2013 of February I actually got laid off. I called [Indiscernible] to let them know I was no longer working and what I needed to do to go back on to my disability and so they setup my Ticket to Work and everything flowed seamlessly. I filled out some paperwork and let them know and I was receiving benefits that month. I hadbeen teaching Zumba part-time [Indiscernible] after work and I let a whole bunch of people know I was laid off and I was ready to work during the day and they 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 a business. I would definitely recommend the ticket to a program to others. I would say do not be afraid to do it. You have really nothing to lose because they only stop it when you are making too much and who doesn't want to make a lot? I say do not let your fear hold you back and I am the perfect example of someone who started and who got laid off and nothing bad happened. Tickets work is beta big difference and my life by making me feel useful and being able to contribute to other people but also choosing to work has let me help. Okay, Megan is a participant in some of our former wise events and has talked very openly about her success and enjoyment of returning to work. If some of you have stories, please let us know because we love to share success stories. And Megan is a wonderful success story. To find help again there is no correct way but here is another way into the system. You can visit www.choose work.net./ find help to search for the right FITR and as I said, you can search by zip code, the types of services offered, the types of disabilities that that agency serves, languages spoken or provider type, you can search specifically for and EN, a VR agency, a WIPA or a PABSS. I can, no wrong door here. Each one of these agencies can refer you to the appropriate place to start. If you contact PABSS and they believe you should be starting with a benefits planner, they will be referring to this but you to tea WIPA, if you cannot have your they may be referring you to WIPA as well and on and on. For more information we know it is getting late in today's webinar and we know there are hundreds of you out there who as asked lots of great questions and if you need some answers to your questions whether they be general or specific to your situation, please contact the ticket to help work line and they can be reached at Work Incentives Planning and Assistance and for TTY for TTY users, 866833 2967. Or you can visit with co-social Security.gov over at/work. The social Security website is loaded with information and is a very safe way of getting information to begin that journey back to work. No one is going to know you are on the website it if you are not ready to talk to somebody at the Ticket to Work out fine cap line, check out the website first. You can get more information from us. You, like us on Facebook -- you can like us on Facebook, you can follow us on Twitter if you like sure information that is immediate and new. Watch the Ticket to Work BPOs, shared those success stories on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/choos ework and last but not least you can check up with us on LinkedIn. That today brings us to 4:30 and we will be sending you a survey when I close this webinar you will be receiving a survey on it takes about 30 seconds to fill out. We would appreciate your feedback. Iwant to thank Jamie and Mike in the background are making this all work and getting me all of those questions and I want to thank Tyra and Kendra for being very, very exceptional presenters and sharing lots of useful information. Wishing everybody a great afternoon and check out the website to look up some of those old archived webinars. It they might answer your questions and follow us again so you can join us next month for our webinar. Have a great afternoon everybody. Thank you. [Event concluded]