>> Hi everyone. Thank you for joining us for Ticket to Work and work incentives, a two-part series. Today is part two, Social Security Disability Insurance. Alright, hi everyone. Thank you for being with us today. I'm so sorry for the delay. I have already welcomed you several times so we are just going to move our way through. So for assessing today's webinar you can manage your audio using the audio option at the top of your screen. It will look like a microphone or telephone icon. All attendees will be muted, and we encourage you to attend by choosing listen only from the audio menu. This will enable the sound to be broadcast through your computer. So please make sure your speakers are turned on and your headphones are plugged in. If you do not have sound capabilities on your computer or you prefer to listen by phone, you can dial toll-free, at 1-800-832-0736 and the access code is 8458462 pound. Continuing with accessibility, we have real-time captioning provided during the webinar and the captions can be found in the captioning pod, which appears below the slides you're looking at right now. You can also access captioning online by going to http://www.captionedtext.com /client/event.aspx? Customer ID=846&EventID= 3349213. And for questions and answers, please use the Q and A pod to submit any questions you have during the webinar and we will direct those questions accordingly during the question and answer portion. We do have close to 250 people on the line now so we will get to as many questions as possible and we appreciate your patience. If you are listening by phone and you are not logged into the webinar, you may also ask questions by emailing questions to webinars@choosework.ssa.gov, and please note the webinar is being recorded and the archive will be available within two weeks on the choose work website at http://bit.ly/WISEarchives. If you experience any technical difficulties during the webinar, please use the Q and A box to send a message, or you may send an email to webinars@choosework.ssa.gov. As I mentioned, I am your moderator Nancy Boutot with NDI Consulting and we have our presenters back from last month, both Debi Schwartz and John E. Marshall Jr. both with the Social Security Administration and I'd like to tell you a little bit about them. Debi Schwartz is an area work incentives coordinator who is based in Ohio and she has specialized in work incentives since the year 2000 and has been with the Social Security Administration for over 36 years. She has traveled the country representing Social Security and Ticket to Work, to promote awareness of the options available to individuals with disabilities. In 2001 Debi published the Emergency Book, which is a workbook highlighting the needs for excellent medical records, keeping an organization. In 2016 Debi was awarded the regional commissioners citation for her work at SSA. John Marshall Junior is an area work incentive coordinator as well and he is located in the Chicago metropolitan, northern Indiana area. He is a policy specialist with an expertise in work incentives. John has over 35 years' experience at the Social Security Administration, and is also an outreach, access and recovery coordinator for individuals who are homeless. And John has also received a commissioner's citation for his work. So we are very happy to have both of them back with us again today. And some of the topics that we are going to cover today are Social Security disability benefits, my Social Security accounts, Social Security's Ticket to Work program, work incentives, tying it all together, additional resources and of course questions and answers. So having gone on with that introduction I would like to now turn it over to John. Good afternoon everyone. Our goals during this presentation will be to help you to gain a greater understanding of Social Security's Ticket to Work program and work incentives. We want to help you learn how to achieve financial independence through work. And we also are going to help you learn who can help you on your path to work. Next slide. First, let's talk about Social Security Disability benefits programs. Now there are two programs within the Social Security Administration that deals with ben-- with disability benefits. One is called SSDI, or it's called Social Security disability insurance, and some people call it SSDI. And then there is SSI, and that is Social Security income benefits. Next slide. Now Social Security disability insurance, or SSDI, is just what it says, it's an insurance and it's based on working, and you pay for it-- pay for Social Security disability insurance when you pay FICA taxes, FICA taxes that come out of your check. And so it's insurance based. And-- and-- and it's based on the amount you get, that you-- that you pay in FICA tax. The amount you get, in order to get a quarter of coverage, in order to become insured, goes up about every year, and this year a quarter of coverage is $1300-- $1300. In a year, or four quarters, were equal to $5200. And so when you become disabled, when you have the onset of your disability, we're going to be looking to see if you have at least five out of the last 10 years of quarters of coverage. In order to be insured for Social Security disability insurance. Next slide. Supplemental Social Security income, or SSI, is a needs-based program as opposed to being insurance based like SSDI was. Now if-- if this is needs based we're going to be looking to try to see-- to try to deal with your food, clothing and shelter needs with this particular benefit, and we look at your income and resources to try to determine whether you're going to be eligible for this benefit or not. We also-- if you-- we also take into account if you're married, your spouse's income and resources. And if there is a child that's receiving benefits from-- for supplemental security income. We also take into account parents living with parent's income and resources when we're-- when we're considering the eligibility for supplemental security income. The bottom line for a supplemental security income and what makes it different from any other-- from social security disability insurance is that it is needs-based and is based on your food, clothing and shelter needs. Next slide. Now it is possible for you to be able to receive both Social Security Disability Insurance income and-- and Social Security Supplemental Income, both SSDI and SSI. If the Social Security Disability Insurance income is lower than $755 a month. Next slide. Now let's discuss using my Social Security account to understand your benefits. Next slide. Now you can open a my Social Security account very easily. You can open your account online at www.ssa.gov/myaccount, all one word. To register you must be at least 18 1/2, a valid email address, Social Security number, and a U.S. mailing address. Next slide. Here are the things you can do with a my Social Security account. You can request immediate benefit verification letter, you can verify the benefits or benefits that you receive, you can request a replacement Social Security card, with some restrictions in certain states and the District of Columbia, you can request a replacement Medicare card, you can change your address and phone number and you can start or change your direct deposit through a my Social Security account. Next slide. And now we're going to turn it over to Debi to talk about Social Security's Ticket to Work Program.

>> Thanks John. Established in 1999, the Ticket to Work legislation provided additional supports and opportunities to individuals with disabilities who wanted to return to work. I'm rather partial to the legislation since it crated the Awick position, so it has been one of my favorite parts of it but it really did take the Social Security work and incentive that were already in place and added additional supports so that individuals with disabilities could have help in returning to work efforts. As we go to the next slide I can explain a little bit about what the Ticket to Work program is. The Ticket to Work program is a national employment program. In addition to state vocational rehabilitation services, which were available prior to the Ticket to Work program, we also have hundreds of employment networks throughout the country who can help with the employment support an individual may need in order to return to work. They support career development for people with disabilities, it's available for all Social Security disability beneficiaries, ages 18 through 64, and your participation in the program is completely free and voluntary. As we go to the next slide, let me explain to you how Ticket to Work program works. You can choose your provider from over 500 employment networks in the state vocational rehabilitation agencies. Talk to them, research the ones that are available in your local neighborhood and find one that you feel comfortable working with. Make sure that the employment network you choose will provide the services and supports that you need to be successful, because you and your provider will be creating that plan for employment that describes what services and supports that you need to meet your goal, and you will have to agree on that plan. By working towards that plan, working through the checklist, you will reduce and eliminate your need for Social Security benefit payments by replacing them with earnings from work. Over time you will earn more, save more, and gain greater financial stability and security. Next slide please. Now we're going to talk about some of the work incentives that Social Security has in place. These are placed there in order to assist you in making a positive transition in your efforts to return to work. On the next slide, we can see some special rules that help you. You're going to be through the employment network or state [inaudible] receiving training for new skills or improving the skills you already have, you can pursue your education, test your ability to work through different jobs, or start your own business. And in some situations through some of the programs we have, may actually be able to pay for some of those work expenses. Next slide. These Ticket to Work incentives are special rules that help you regain your benefits if your earnings decrease, or if you no longer are able to work, assist you in saving money and help you to gain your confidence in your ability to become self-sufficient.

>> There's a list of three of the most common ones that are used, the trial work period, the extended period of eligibility, and the continuation of Medicare coverage. Now we're also going to cover a couple of other ones today, but these are the ones that you're most commonly going to hear in conversation when you're working with either your employment network or the state VR, maybe if you're on the ticket to work hotline or you are working with one of the work incentives planning and assistance benefit analysis employees they may use these terms. So, just so that you start gaining some familiarity with them. The first one we're going to cover on the next slide is the trial work period. What is the trial work period? After you start receiving Social Security disability benefits, the trial work period allows you to return to work either to an employer or operating a business in self-employment and do that position for up to nine months or for nine months without having to worry about your Social Security benefits being suspended. Now in order to trigger one of those months you have to earn over $840. The reason for this is if you're only working a day or two a week making less than $840, you're less looking at that moment, maybe that's your first step in testing your ability to work, but were wanting to save those trial work period months for when you're really working more hours and looking and to focus into transitioning into additional work. Those nine months do not have to be in a row, so if you try a job, it doesn't work out, you don't like it or it makes your medical condition worse that you're not able to continue for the intervening months you are not charged a trial work period month. Only the months that you are earning more than $840 and you have to use all of those months within a five-year period. Now, you'll notice on here that it indicates that if you're self-employed we don't use the $840 figure in triggering a trial work period month. Instead, if your work is as a self-employed individual it's valued at how many hours a week or month that you work. The reason for this is that often, at least in the first year or so of your new self-employment business, you may not have much of a net profit. So, it makes it a difficult task to determine whether or not you're testing your ability to work. So, if your net profit brings you below $840 yet you worked more than 80 hours in that month, we would still consider that to be a trial work period month. Now in order for us to calculate these trial work period months, it is very important that you report this work activity to Social Security. Now the reason for that is that we don't know when your trial work period starts. You might say okay, I started this job I know I have nine months and I'll get back in touch with Social Security later on after I've used those nine months. But we understand some things happen, sometimes we will get earnings enforcements or notices from IRS that you've had earnings, but by that point it's a year or so down the road. We see the gross amount that you earned not the months that you worked. So, we don't know if you worked two trial work period months, used six, maybe you used all nine. So, by reporting your work to Social Security and keeping us up-to-date on how much you're earning each month we can along with you help monitor that nine-month trial work period make sure that we're counting those months in a timely manner. You'll notice that there's a note that says no other work incentive may be used during this trial work period. We're not talking about assigning your ticket. We're not talking about continuation of Medicare. What we're saying is it's strictly going to go by how much money you're earning, we're not going to be looking at some of the other work incentives that we will discuss here in a minute. On the next slide we're going to talk about what happens after the trial work period. Once you have use that trial work period that part is finished and you move on to the next step in that process. Whether you're working that month following the month of the ninth month of the trial work period or not that starts the time on that 36-month period of eligibility. Now it may be more than 36 months, but if your earnings are never below, but that 36-month period is what is used after that extended period of eligibility. At this point we are no longer looking at the measurement of your ability to test whether or not you can work now we want to look at the value of your work. And this goes back to the same determining limits that we were looking at when you were first determined to be disabled. And that is comparing your earnings to the guideline called substantial gainful activity or SGA. In 2017, SGA is $1,170 per month or for individuals who meet the statutorily blind regulations the amount is $1,950. These are gross wages, not your wages after taxes. It is when you've earned the money, so it's the pay period in which you earned the money and we will count it during that month, during that period of time. And when we look at those earnings there are other work incentives that we can now use that may lower that income so that earnings above the $1,170 mark may end up having a countable value of less than $1,170 so that your cash benefits can continue. We will go over those in a little bit. Self-employment is looked at a little differently because again, the net profit from your self-employment for the first two or three years may or may not reflect the exact nature of the effort that you are putting into that work because of all of the startup costs that you can deduct. Depending upon how long you have been receiving benefits there may be some additional development that needs to be done. But because we are going to be working with you as you go through this process, Social Security will work with you during that trial work period and then going into and rolling into the extended period of eligibility to determine whether or not that additional development is necessary. We can go on to the next slide we're going to start talking specifically about that extended period of eligibility. As I stated before, is after you've used up the nine-month trial work period you start the 36-month extended period of eligibility. The great thing about the extended period of eligibility is that in the event that after that nine-month trial work period your earnings, even with all the countable adjustments that we can make if they still exceed that SGA rate you will be in a position where your benefits are suspended not terminated. What's the difference? Well, suspended means that if during that 36-month period you have a month where you do not work or your earnings drop below that $1,170. By contacting your Social Security office and verifying what your wages were for that month, we can reinstate your check immediately. No new medical decision, no new application we will just reinstate it based on the fact that your earnings dropped below the $1,170. Sometimes this is because you have an illness, an exacerbation of your illness and so you were off for two or three months recovering. Sometimes you have a job, maybe a job with a school or with an amusement park where you only work certain months during the year. Any month where you were working and not making over the $1,170 we would be able to reinstate your benefit. Okay, we go to the next slide, I think that pretty much just extends what we were saying. During the benefit period as it said before, if your earnings are over we would suspend your benefits, but if it is below that SGA rate your benefit would continue. If in month 37 your earnings are still below the $1,170 your benefits would go ahead and continue even though you're working as long as your earnings are below the $1,170. We terminate after that 36-month period of eligibility when you finally have earnings that go over the $1,170. Okay on the next slide we're going to talk about another part of that extended period of eligibility, when your earnings are above the extended period of eligibility and they go over the $1,170. Your benefits will be determined to be ceased that's what the letter says, it's rather a scary word. But really what it means it's just a Social Security term. But in reality, what is going to happen is that just marks the month where you were first determined to be back above, earning above that $1,170. We will still pay for you that month plus then two additional months before we put them into suspense. These are called your grace period months. Just as the nine-month trial work period is a one-time per entitlement work incentive those three grace period months are a one-time shot as well. And again, as I stated before, if your countable earnings fall below the SGA level your benefits will restart. Even after the 36-month period if your benefits, cash benefits ended because of your substantial gainful activity continuing, if you stop working within five years of that period and you have a disability that you had before your cash benefits terminated, we can reinstate your benefits using that reinstatement. So, there's always something there to help backfill with the Social Security benefit in any month that you were not able to work and earn over the $1,170. Now this is only talking about your cash benefit. John's going to start talking about the continuation of your Medicare coverage.

>> Yes, let's talk about the continuation of your Medicare coverage as you're going through the road of trying to work. If your benefit payments stop because your earnings are over the substantial gainful activity you may continue to receive at least 93 months, that is seven years and nine months, of free Medicare part A hospital insurance after your trial work period. And that's at least 93 months, you may be able to continue to receive it for a longer period of time depending on when you started working. If you want other parts of your Medicare to continue, such as supplemental medical insurance, which is part B or prescription drug coverage or part D, you may purchase them or may continue to pay for them. After the 93 plus months period of premium free Medicare and after that ends, you can also buy Medicare coverage as long as you are still disabled by Social Security standards. So really when you combine it with your trial work period you really have eight years and nine months where you can try your hand out at working without having to lose your Medicare. You have at least eight years and nine months to really try your hand out at working without having to lose your Medicare. Next slide. Okay, now let's talk about work incentives for people who receive both supplemental security income and Social Security disability insurance. Next slide. These are the common work incentives for people who receive supplemental security income and Social Security disability insurance. Now you can get protection for your medical reviews if you are using the ticket for example, so you have that. And you also have something that we call impairment related work expenses and I'll talk a little bit about that in a minute. And you also have this thing that's called subsidies and special conditions. Next slide. If you get protection for medical reviews under the law, Social Security reviews your medical condition from time to time to see whether you still have a disability. You will not be reviewed if you assign your ticket to an approved service provider before the Social Security begins their review and if you are making timely progress in achieving your work goal. For more information on timely progress, please visit the choose work website at choosework.ssa.gov/ about/how-it-works/index.html. Again, that's choosework.ssa.gov/ about/how-it-works/index.html. Next slide.

>> Okay let's go ahead and start working on these work incentives specifically that we've been talking about. As I mentioned on one of the earlier slides, we're looking at $1,170 or $1,950 for those statutorily blind as the countable income, that is before taxes are taken from your wages. However, there are some things that we can subtract off of your gross wages to try to level the playing field between a person with a disability and a person without a disability before deciding whether or not your countable earnings are of that substantial level. One of the things that we can subtract off are impairment related work expenses. These would be expenses for an item or a service directory related to your disability and are required to maintain your health so that you can try to work. It must be paid out of your pocket. Now, it has to enable you to go to work, so for example if you have diabetes and you have to take your insulin shots and you have other medications that you need to take in order to maintain your diabetes and try to control it so that you're capable of trying to work that would be considered those expenses related to the diabetic supplies would be something that we could subtract off from your gross wages when determining that SGA rate. They have to be used to help you to maintain your health so that you can work. You need the item or service because of your impairment. You paid for the item yourself and are not reimbursement by another source, such as Medicare, Medicaid or private insurance. And the cost is reasonable. I always kind of smile when I see that in the Red Book where they talk about it being reasonable. Most of the time it's pretty clear that it's a reasonable charge if you're having copayments for medication or copayments for doctors. The best example I can give you is if you needed special transportation because of your impairment so that you could get to and from work and a cab or Uber or a lift would be available and you decided you wanted da limousine service a cab or life or Uber might be considered reasonable and probably wouldn't approve that limousine as an impairment or needed work expense. Okay on the next slide. What the impairment related work expense does may allow you by subtracting that impairment related work expense from your gross wages to keep your SSDI cash benefit while you were working and getting credits for that pay. Now some of the examples may include medical treatment costs you're your nonroutine care, prescription medications, job coaching, certain transportation expenses. Service animals are another one, the vet bills, the dog food, the care of the service animal that you used because of your disability are just a few items that would be considered impairment related work expenses. We'll talk resources later about the Red Book, there's several pages listing them. When in doubt talk to your Social Security office staff and they will be able to help you to identify whether or not an item you think may be considered an impairment work related expense will actually qualify. Okay on the next slide we're going to talk about another work incentive that can reduce those gross wages sometimes below that SGA rate. Subsidy is the value of the extra help or support that you receive on-the-job from an employer so that you can perform that job. Sometimes that's extra assistance, fewer job responsibilities, more frequent breaks than a person without a disability, sometimes you have a coworker or supervisor that helps you with that. So, if for example if you were in a factory and everybody made 100 widgets an hour but because of your disability maybe, you know, you have arthritis in your arms or because of your back or something else you're only able to get through 80 an hour, but your boss is okay with that and you're both paid the same amount we would say you were working at a level 20% less than the individual without the disability. Therefore, we would take off 20% of that work earnings that you have. So, if you're earning 80% as much as the other individuals because of your work performance we would only count 80% of your gross salary. So, sometimes that extra support or that extra subsidy from the employer because of your disability may allow you to earn more than $1,170 and still maintain that Social Security disability benefit amount. This is obviously something that we are going to have to verify with your employer, so I mean there would be an expectation that we would be able to have permission to contact your employer to verify what that extra support looks like, what that extra help looks like. And then have them help us to determine the value of that extra help so we know how much value to subtract off of your gross wages. It's used in reducing your countable earnings that may have been above that $1,170 to bring you below so that your cash benefit would continue. This is usually only an SSDI work incentive, the Social Security disability insurance benefit. However, when we're making that initial decision on whether or not you qualify for disability benefits it can be used during the SSI application to determine whether the value of the work that you have is of a substantial level. But otherwise, in the world after you're receiving benefits it will only be used to adjust your gross wages for the SSDI benefit to determine whether or not you are eligible to maintain that disability benefit after the nine-month trial work period. On the next page we talk about special conditions, this is the value or support that is provided by someone else. It might be your employer, it may be a third-party employer, but is provided to the person with a disability so they can perform their job. Sometimes that's a job coach, a support staff, vocational rehabilitation service, sometimes it is a PCA, a personal care attendant. Maybe you want to have an individual because of limited mobility of the arms and needed somebody to pick up the phone and dial it for them and file their files for them. It was provided through a third-party independent living service, it wasn't provided by the employer itself. And so that's why we considered it a special condition instead of a subsidy. But again, it's a way of equaling the playing field between that person with a disability and the person without. Just like the subsidy, it can reduce those earnings that is only SSDI unless we're making that initial SSI application in which case we can look at that as well in the initial application role to determine whether or not the work is substantial at the very beginning. Next slide. The next one is probably I think one of the most important as far as knowing how to evaluate and use these work incentives. How do we know that you're using the work incentives? Because you're going to tell us. When you return to work, when you're receiving Social Security disability benefits there is a work activity report form that we are going to send to you or review with you over the telephone depending upon the situation. And it asks quite a few questions, in fact eight pages long. And I know sometimes people get very intimidated by the length of the form, but I encourage you to just take one question at a time, very slowly and carefully consider each question because that is what helps trigger the Social Security employee to know whether or not you are using any of those work incentives. There is one whole page that asks things like do you have a job coach, do you get extra help, extra supervision, lower production, extra breaks. Those types of questions are being asked because we want to know whether subsidy or special condition applies. There is a question that says, do you pay out of your own pocket for any medical expenses related to your condition so you can work. This is where you would put those prescription copays or your doctor bills or anything that you had to pay out of your own pocket because of your medical condition. This is what triggers us to be looking for those impairment related work expenses. This is how Social Security is able to make sure that those work incentives are then developed and applied so that we make sure that we are paying you appropriately based on the countable value of your earnings not just the gross amount of your earnings. John would you like to start tying this all together?

>> Yes, let's try to tie all of this together and try to get us to truly understand what your options really are. Let's go to the next slide.

>> Oh, I think Nancy had a question there first maybe.

>> Hi, thank you guys, this is Nancy. Actually yeah, we've had several questions come in so I think before John starts tying it together let's answer a few of those questions, which we typically have a bunch that come in, especially about [inaudible] so I think that would be helpful.

>> Sure.

>> So and several questions have come in Debbie regarding the trial work period and the $840. Would that be gross or would that be net?

>> It' s always the gross wages, always before tax earnings and the earnings that were used in that month. And one thing I probably should've mentioned at the time is whether if you earn $841 or $8,841 it still only counts as one trial work period month if you earned all of those earnings in one month. But it will be the gross wages not the take-home pay.

>> Okay great, thank you. And another question that someone has is, is there a limit to how much money I can have in the bank when I'm receiving SSDI?

>> I'll take that one next. No, there is not, not when you're receiving Social Security disability insurance because it's not a needs-based program it's an insurance program. So, there's no limit in terms of your bank account that you have to have.

>> Great, thank you John. And another question is, when do I tell Social Security that I want to use an IRWE?

>> When you report that you have started working and you complete that work activity report form you're going to mention it on there. Social Security doesn't need that IRWE information during the nine-month trial work period. However, Social Security and you as we're monitoring the nine months and we go into that extended period of eligibility if we determine that those wages are over $1,170 we are going to be looking and contacting you or you could be contacting us if you're proactive and you're wanting to make sure you have it. And what I encourage people to do is then start sending in not just your paycheck stubs every month, but then the federal copies of what you have had to pay out of your pocket that month and that way it will prompt us to know to use it. If your gross wages are always below the $1,170 in that extended period, there really is no need because the importance of the IRWE or the subsidy or special condition is to take earnings that are above that SGA rate and try to bring them below the SGA rate in order to keep that cash benefit going. But that's what's important about that continued dialogue between Social Security and yourself so that once you enter into that extended period of eligibility we should be having a dialogue about IRWE subsidy or special condition if your earnings are grossing over $1,170 a month.

>> Wonderful, thank you very much. And one more question Debbie as it relates to work incentives and that is with a subsidy. And when the Social Security Administration has to verify a subsidy with an employer does that mean that the employer discloses that the worker has a disability?

>> We do not specifically tell the employer what the disability is, but if we're trying to verify that there is a subsidy there that the employer is providing additional accommodations based on statements we have had from the employee there is a form that we use. If there's somebody who wants to pull it up on the Social Security DACA website the number is 3033, it's a 3033. It's a work activity questionnaire, it is for the employer to complete, although I will tell you there will be times when because the employer refuses to complete it we may go to the state VR or a local job coach or job developer and get that development processed by them instead because they're working hands-on with the employer. In those kinds of instances, it's probably likely that the employer is already aware that the individual has a disability and that there are special accommodations. But you can see from there it's going to ask do they have fewer job responsibilities, do they need extra help, are they a little bit slower, do you allow them extra breaks or extra allowance to take off without being penalized for it. And then there's is a page where it asks what do you think the value of their work is compared to a non-impaired person? Are they doing 90% of the work, 80% of the work, 70% and so forth and it goes down and they can check the box and sign it. So, you know, there are instances where an individual has not disclosed, has chosen not to disclose to their employer so they can say, you know, I'm probably a little slower, but we're not going to be able to define that because they don't want you contacting the employer. And we will always respect the choice of the individual with a disability in contacting the employer, but we do need verification of that subsidy or special conditions so we would have to contact the employer in some manner to get that information.

>> Great, thank you Debbie and then just one last question because it ties into what you were saying just now about subsidy. Can you describe what you mean by extra help a person has a question of, you know, what do you mean when you say somebody requires extra help?

>> Extra help could be I have a bad back and my job is to stock shelves, but because I can't really lift heavy objects above my head when it gets to stocking that top shelf my coworker comes and does this top shelf for me. It could be that I have a real bad memory with numbers and while I'm really great at getting the carts and I'm really great at stocking the groceries not so good at the cashier work and my boss understands that. So, usually part of my job would include, the core functions of my job would include spending 15% of my day backing up as cashier my boss doesn't make me do that because they know I get really upset or nervous or I'm not really good handling the money. It can mean different things to different employers in different employment situations. I had a nurse who was very, very sick with cancer who was trying to work, but she really couldn't do a lot of the physical labor of the work. And so, her coworkers worked the floor shift for her and they ran around and picked up the patient work and they're the ones who did most of the work and she just signed off on it and sat in the back. Because she physically was so desperately sick that she wasn't able to do all of the responsibilities that normally a floor nurse would be doing and her coworkers were so concerned about her not having that money. In her case she was more worried about the health insurance while she was waiting for the Medicare to start. But in that case, her coworkers rallied around her and all took parts of her job duties, so that she could keep working and keep that paycheck coming and keep that health insurance so she could receive treatment, but she wasn't doing all the work herself. So, we had to develop that with the coworkers who were helping her out.

>> That was A great example, thank you so much Debbie. All right, we are now going to now move on and turn it back over to you John.

>> Okay, again we're going to try to tie all of this together to try to let all this make sense to you and try to get this clear so you can get an understanding of how exactly all these things can help you to try to work if that's what you want to do. Let's go to slide 42. Now only you can decide if the work is the right choice for you and we know it's a big, big decision and requires you understanding how working may affect your Social Security disability benefits. Of course, it does. And it also, you know, it also requires you to have some sort of support in securing and then keeping the job. Now the ticket to work helpline and that is at 1-866-968-7842. Again, the ticket to work helpline is 1-866-968-7842 or 1-866-833-2967 for the deaf and hard of hearing. You can contact these folks and they can kind of help you figure out what types of things you might need in order to try to get that support you might need in securing and keeping the job. Next slide. Now you should ask yourself, why should I choose work? Well, you know, work can have many benefits, including you get increased income and I never met a person that did not like to have increased income. And you have a routine on a daily basis if you're working. And it's also a place sometimes where you can meet new people. You definitely would learn new skills. But you also have more financial independence working. Next slide. Now let's look at a few of the folks that might be able to help you achieve your goal. And so, the ticket to work program offers you a choice of service providers. There are employment networks and Debbie talked about them earlier. Those are the people that you would submit your ticket to and assign your ticket to and they would try to help you find a job. And there are also workforce employment networks that, you know, that operate -- some of them are operating as one-stops and they have several one-stops across the nation. But sometimes they're specifically organizations that deal with trying to deal with all your workforce needs and all the needs that you might have and they can also do employment networks as well. There's the state vocational rehabilitation agency and every state has a state vocational rehabilitation agency where if you're disabled they will try to set up an individual workplan with you, they'll try to work with you to try to get you the training and the things you need to do in order to try to work. And they also serve as potential employment networks as well. There are work incentive planning and assistance projects throughout the country and there's one in every area in the nation and they do benefit planning and analysis. And you go to them if you're working, if you're looking for a job, if you have an interview for a job or if you are a student transitioning to work. We have these work incentive planning and assistance projects that would be able to help you and help you get a benefit analysis to try to figure out exactly what's going to happen to all of your benefits when you're working, whether it is your Social Security benefit, whether it's supplementary security income, whether it's your Medicare or your Medicaid, whether it's your food stamps, where it's section 8. These are the types of things they could try to help you do and that is if you're working, you know, if you're working or looking for a job or you have an interview or if you're a student that's transitioning to work. Now there's a protection and advocacy project in every state as well and they are for beneficiaries of Social Security and those receiving Social Security benefits. And mainly they are legal assistance that you can use just in case that you might feel that you have been discriminated against because of your disability. So, it's these folks that can help you try to achieve your goal. Let's go to the next slide. Okay, let's talk about what an employment network is. An employment network is a private or a public organization that contracts with the Social Security Administration to provide free employment support services to people eligible for the ticket to work program. Employment networks may include career planning, job leads and job placement, some ongoing employment support and some benefits counseling. The bottom line is that the employment network is there to try to work for you in order to try to help you get a job. And if we help you get a job then we can pay them when they help you get a job. Next slide, slide 46. Now let's talk a little bit about what a state vocational rehabilitation agency is. State vocational rehabilitation services are designed to provide the client with training and other services that are needed to return to work, to enter a new line of work or to enter the workforce for the first time. And you may get services that include intensive training, education, rehabilitation, career counseling, job placement assistance, benefits counseling. Some states also have separate vocational rehabilitation agencies that serve individuals who are blind and visually impaired as well. Let's go to the next slide. So, what do you do? What is the next step? Well remember gathering information and resources is key to planning your journey towards employment. And the ticket to work and work incentives can help you make your journey a smooth one. One way that will take you a long way in taking the next step is again to call that number that I mentioned before, that's 1-866-968-7842 that's the ticket to work helpline. Again, the phone number is 1-866-968-7842. If you are deaf or hard of hearing the number would be 1-866-833-2967. That is the ticket to work helpline and that's, you know, if you want to go and try to go work that's one of the best things you can do is to call that number and talk to them and see if they can help get you started. Next slide.

>> Okay now we're looking at additional resources and how we will go ahead and tying all this together. As John just mentioned, the ticket to work hotline and website are very important resources as you are trying to make this decision on returning to work and what skills or training you will need in order to succeed. But there are some additional resources as well. You have your employment networks and state VR's as indicated and the other supports that are listed on the ticket to work website that can help you with that. You may have questions about Medicare open season or the new Medicare cards that will be coming out without the Social Security number on them and www.Medicare.gov can help you with that. And if we go to the next slide we're going to put in a plug for the slide 50 for the 2017 Red Book. This is available on Social Security's website at www.ssa.gov/redbook/. As I was mentioning earlier when we talked about those IRWE's or impairment related work expenses, every work incentive that we have discussed today is listed in detail in that 2017 Red Book. It is available online. It is a comprehensive collection of all of the work incentives that are available out there while you're exploring your work options. Next slide. I know we've already talked about this, however, we're going to say it again because it is really, really important. I'm sure some of you have heard horror stories about individuals returning to work and we're very committed to wanting to make sure that this is a positive experience for you. And so, we really want to remind you that it's very important that you report when you start working, when you stop working. Even if it's a two-week temporary job where you only work three days we still need to know about it because as I mentioned before, a year or two down the road we'll get that earnings information from IRS, but that only shows us the total gross that you earned not when you earned it and that'll be important for us to determine if you've used any or all of your trial work period months. What you need to report is when you work, when you stopped working, how to report your wages. Right now, if you're SSI only you can report through the monthly SSI mobile app. If you have my SSA account, you know, keep looking for it because some time next year it's going to be expanded through the my SSA account that you can also report your Social Security wages or your wages if you're receive Social Security disability benefits as well. Another good reason to get that my SSA account. There is an archived webinar at http://bit.ly/overpaymentwise that will give you more information about what you need to report, how to report it, and tips for preventing and managing overpayments. So that again, this can be a positive experience for you. And that your return to work can be successful and be a smooth transition. Nancy.

>> Wonderful Debbie, thank you so much. So, one of the questions I was going to ask you there was somebody online who was wondering if the wage reporting form is now available on SSA.gov. So, you read my mind and I think that that is good information for people to know to look out for that.

>> We just laid the foundation for the systems work this past weekend, there's some updates and we've just started doing the training. So, I'm anticipating some time in maybe the spring of next year we will see that the Social Security wage reporting will be online in the my SSA account. So, just keep your eyes peeled I'm sure it'll be coming soon.

>> Well great, this is wonderful. We are getting to share breaking news to all of the folks on the call today, so greatly appreciated, thank you. We did have a question, another question about wages which is just when should I report, how quickly do I need to report my wages to SSA?

>> You know obviously you don't have to call us the first day you return from work, but the sooner that you can report that if it's just within the first, you know, week or two, some people prefer to wait until they have that first paycheck in hand so that when they report and they complete that paperwork, that work activity report form they can send back the paycheck stub along with that report. It would be a good thing. The toll-free number for Social Security is available 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday. So, even if you work a different shift it would be easy to report it.

>> Wonderful, thank you. And one more question that came in is, if somebody is on SSDI is it true that they can follow their progress on their my Social Security account?

>> I'm not quite clear on the nature of the question. You're saying if they're on SSDI, Social Security disability insurance, then they can track it? I'm not sure.

>> Yeah, through opening a my SSA account where they can track things online.

>> Yeah, they can actually track statements. Go ahead Debbie.

>> Oh no, I was going to say they can track what has been verified and posted to Social Security website. But understand the information there is only as good as what they've reported to Social Security. So, if they haven't reported those wages and haven't been sending in those paycheck stubs every month they may not be able to see yet where they are in that trial work period. They may have to contact their local office to see okay, I can't remember how many I've used and I can't find the letter. I mean the letter would tell you how many they had used up until that last time. The my SSA account would show how many had been counted from the last point that they got a notice from us. But if they haven't notified us about all of their jobs, then it isn't going to be accurate information because we haven't had the information to process so that it would post to that my SSA account.

>> That's right, I mean ultimately you can get your benefit statement on my SSA account and you can get yearly statement. Remember we used to mail out those statements, those benefit statements every year. You can actually pull up a statement like that on my SSA account. And what they mean by keeping track of the Social Security disability insurance, they can keep track of what's going on with their benefits that would be a yes.

>> Wonderful, great. Thank you both very much. All right, I am going to go through our last few slides, we still have some questions, but I want to make sure that we get through our slides first and hopefully when we do that we will be able to address a few more questions. So, I do want to remind everybody to please subscribe to the choose work blog. We have several blogs that come out on a monthly basis and it will be able to help you learn more about ticket to work, about work incentives, also job search tips and a lot more. And to sign up for blogs and blog updates you can go to http://bit.ly/subscribecw for choose work. And before we get too close to the end I do want to give a plug for our next WISE webinar and that will be on Wednesday, October 25th from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Eastern time and we are going to be talking about ABLE accounts and getting a little more specific and giving folks a little more information about ABLE accounts than we did earlier in the year when we just did a basic overview. So, to register for that you can register online at choosework.ssa.gov/wise or you can call 1-866-968-7842 or for TTY users you can call 1-866-833-2967. All right, I do have a few more resources to give and then hopefully we will be able to get to a few more questions. But I do want to let everybody know that you can call the ticket to work helpline for more information at 1-866-968-7842 or for TTY users 1-866-833-2967 or you can also visit www.ssa.gov/work. And please we encourage you to connect with us, you can like us on Facebook by going to www.Facebook.com/choosework. You can also follow us on Twitter www.twitter.com/chooseworkssa. We also have a YouTube channel and you can learn more by going to http://www.youtube.com/choosework. And lastly, you can follow us on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/ company/ticket-to-work. And remember before we end today which we will be doing in a few minutes, but we do have the opportunity to take a couple more questions. We do want you to take our webinar, it's very important. We want to know what you think, so there will be a link that will pop up after the webinar and you can click on that link or you can also visit choosework.ssa.gov/surveys/wise. And I know we only have a couple minutes, but I do think that there were a couple questions that came in regarding work incentives that I think would be good if we are able to answer. And the first one was, I hope I did not misunderstand something did you say that even if my cash benefits stop after 36 months my Medicare will continue?

>> Yes, we did. Even if your benefits stop after those 36 months your benefits can continue. Again, once you start working you have at least eight and a half years of continued Medicare coverage once you start working. That was part of the legislation of the ticket to work incentive improvement act and that's at least eight and a half years, you could have even more.

>> Well, I don't even think I'm going to ask another question, I think we are on target with time here and I think that was a great way to end up John, you know, what a wonderful work incentive that I'm sure many people don't know about. So that's fantastic that people can keep their benefits that long and I think we've given them wonderful resources today. Debbie and John, thank you so much, your expertise and your time is greatly appreciated. Thank you for all participants who participated today, we hope that you learned lots of new things and we hope to see you back here next month. Thank you all very much, have a great rest of your day. Bye, bye.