WISE Ticket to Work Webinar
Ticket to Work and the Path to Employment
August 26, 2020

Speakers: Sarah Hyland (Moderator), Ray Cebula (Presenter)

SARAH>> Good afternoon and welcome to today's Ticket to Work webinar, "Ticket to Work and the Path to Employment."

My name is Sarah Hyland. I am a member of the Ticket to Work Team, and I will be your moderator for today's webinar. We are so glad that you were able to take time to spend with us today to learn about Social Security's Ticket to Work Program and how it can help you as you start on the path to financial independence through work. Each of us has our own path to follow, and we hope you find some information today that will assist you in moving forward on your path to employment and financial independence.

Let's get started by going over some functions of the webinar platform so that you can interact and get the most information out of today. 

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Next, we will share some information about the webinar accessibility. On the Adobe Connect platform, you will notice that on your screen there are four different boxes. These boxes are called "pods." We have the Presentation pod where the slides appear. Below that is the Closed Captioning pod. In the right-hand corner, you will see the Q&A pod; and below the Q&A pod is the Web Links pod. We are going to talk about these pods in a little bit more detail in just a few moments.

If you need assistance navigating Adobe Connect, an Accessibility User Guide with a list of controls is available at http://bit.ly/adobe-accessibility. This link is also available in the Web Links pod at the bottom right-hand corner of your screen and is titled "Adobe Accessibility User Guide."

Real-time captioning is available and is displayed in the Captioning pod, which is the pod that appears below the slide that is on your screen right now. The captioning link can also be found in the Web Links pod under title "Closed Captioning." 

If you are fluent in ASL and would like support for today's webinar, follow the link below that provides instructions to connect with an interpreter through the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Video Relay Service (VRS). The ASL User Guide can also be found in the Web Links pod under the title "ASL User Guide."

We are here today to answer questions that you will have on the Ticket to Work program. Please send in your questions to us at any time throughout the webinar by typing them into the Q&A pod. We will direct your questions to our speaker during the Q&A portions of our webinar. We will be addressing questions at two different points throughout today's presentation. So please go ahead and send in those questions. We will do our absolute best to answer as many of them as we can.

If you're listening by phone and are not logged into the webinar, you may ask questions by sending an e-mail to Ticket to Work. That e-mail address is webinars@choosework.ssa.gov. 

Another resource available that we think you will find extremely helpful in connecting to different resources mentioned today is the Web Links pod. You will find that at the bottom right-hand side of your screen. This pod lists all of the links to the resources presented during today's webinar. To access any of these resources, you will highlight the topic that you are interested in and would like to connect to; and then select the "Browse To" button at the bottom of the pod. You will then be taken to the website requested. 

If you are listening by phone and not logged into the webinar or you don't have access to the Web Links pod, you can always e-mail Ticket to Work. The e-mail address again is webinars@choosework.ssa.gov, or reference the confirmation e-mail that you received for today's webinar for a list of available resources. Also please note that SSA cannot guarantee, and is not responsible for, the accessibility of external websites. 

Today's webinar is being recorded, and a copy of it will be available within two weeks on the Choose Work website, which can be accessed at http://bit.ly/WISE_OnDemand. This link, as well as others, can be found in the Web Links pod we just talked about at the bottom right-hand corner of your screen; and it will be titled, "WISE Webinar Archives."

We hope everyone has a great experience on the webinar today; however, if you run into any technical difficulties, please use the Q&A pod to send us a message, or of course you can send us an e-mail at the Ticket to Work e-mail address, webinars@choosework.ssa.gov. 

As mentioned earlier, my name is Sarah Hyland. I am a member of the Ticket to Work Team, and I'm excited to be here with you today as your moderator. 

We are delighted to have Ray Cebula joining us today. Ray received his law degree from the University of New Hampshire's Franklin Pierce School of Law. He spent 23 years providing legal services to individuals with disabilities in their interactions with Social Security. He became part of Cornell University's Work Incentive Support Center in 2000; and in 2005, he joined the staff of Cornell's Yang-Tan Institute on Employment and Disability, where he now serves as the Program Director of YTIOnline, which is Cornell's Work Incentive Practitioner Credentialing Program.

Thank you again for joining us today. Today we are going to discuss how Social Security's Ticket program can help you and answer your questions relating to Social Security's Ticket program, Ticket program service providers, and benefits counseling and the path to work.

With that, it is my pleasure to introduce Ray to start us off with the Ticket to Work program.

Thanks, Ray.

RAY>> Thank you, Sarah.

Good to see everybody today.

We are going to talk about the Ticket to Work program. We're going to start out with that, but I have a couple of announcements first. We will not be taking any questions about the COVID-19 crisis. If you do need information about that, you can look at the Social Security COVID link at https://www.ssa.gov/coronavirus/. It's also in your Web Links pod under "Social Security COVID-19 Resources."

Secondly, we are scheduled to have our next webinar on September 30th rather than the 23rd because of some conflicts. I'll remind you of that before we leave too.

So the Ticket to Work program – when we start talking about anything to do with a ticket to work and a return to work, the first thing we need to know is that everything is voluntary. This is your choice as the recipient as to whether or not you want to return to work or explore work. Nobody is forcing anything on you. We just are hoping to encourage you to take a look, take a look and see how things would look if you were to work full-time or part-time or whatever your capability is.

Everybody online today and bringing you this webinar believes that work is a good thing, and it mixes much better with Social Security benefits than you think. That brings us to this slide.

Before anybody can help you, we need to know what benefit you're receiving. The Social Security Disability Insurance program is just that; it's an insurance program. It is paid for by the FICA taxes that are withheld from your paycheck. You pay half; the employer pays half. That's what funds Social Security. As you work, you become insured for both disability and retirement purposes. So this an insurance program. It also comes with Medicare, that program that you think of when you think of retirees; but disabled people also get that.

The other program is Supplemental Security Income, SSI; and it's a very, very different program. This is a Federal needs-based program that will consider the same disability definition but wants to know if you're aged, blind, or disabled and is going to consider any other source of income that you have, whether it be earned income or unearned income. There's a Federal benefits rate that pays the same amount of money to everyone.

Both benefits have work incentives. If I were to talk to you without knowing which benefit you were receiving, it's a recipe for disaster. So whoever you talk to about your benefits, you need to know what type of benefits you are receiving; and we can help you find that out. This program does work for both. Some people may receive a little bit of both programs. Those people are going to have to work a little bit harder with the benefits planner to make all of this make sense because the programs do have different rules.

Now as we said, starting this journey to work is a big decision; or for some of you, returning to work is a big decision. You're the one that has to make this decision. Again, we're only here to encourage you to think about it and hopefully make a phone call and talk to somebody; but this is totally voluntary. We just want you to think about it because we believe it's going to make your life more fulfilling.

Why the Ticket to Work?

Earning a living through employment is not something everyone can do, but it might be right for you. You may be in need of rehabilitation services to learn how to do the job you had and do it differently or to be trained for a completely new job. What job is that?

We can start with that question and help you explore what's available or what interests do you have that could potentially lead us to placing you in a job that relates to your hobbies. I think that once people understand the free services and supports – and I said free services and supports that are available to them -- this is well worth pursuing. It's well worth pursuing because it truly is going to outweigh the risks.

We'll talk a little bit later about some of those street myths. We all know the street talks loudly, but the street also has bad information. So we're going to get rid of some of those myths a little later on. I can tell you with the providers that we're going to mention today and with some of the rules we're going to talk about that this can be a very safe journey indeed.

So what we're going to do is take some time to talk about that ticket to work, some of the work incentives; and hopefully, you think about it tonight after dinner and say, "Yes, I'm going to give somebody a call and give this a shot."

First thing, as I said before, this is free and it's voluntary. Nobody is making you do that, but we are offering career development for people between the ages of 18 and 64 who receive a disability benefit from Social Security and want to go to work, simple as that. There are no other requirements, just that you want to go to work.

The ticket is going to connect you with free employment services to help you decide if working is right for you, to help you prepare for the job you want or prepare for the job that you had, to find a job. There are people on your employment team, as I like to call it, who will help you with placement. Not only do we want to place you, but we want to see you succeed. There is continuing on-the-job support that can be provided to you to make sure that this job's the right fit and that everything is going well.

So who are all of these people?

There are lots of people. Hillary once said, "It takes a village to raise a child." I believe it takes a village to make a worker, and we have the village; you get to pick who your villagers are. So through the Ticket program, you're going to have access to a large variety of service providers who do a little bit of the same things and a little bit of different things. We'll discuss each one as we go through:

We have employment networks who are kind of private vocational rehabilitation services. 

We have workforce ENs. We used to call them "one-stop centers." They can provide you with all kinds of stuff to get yourself started if you want to start on your own and then potentially move in to talk with somebody else. 

State rehabilitation agencies, the vocational rehabilitation agencies, also the state agencies for the blind if you're in a state that has two different agencies, can help you go back to school if you need schools or get you the training that you need. 

Now, Work Incentives Planning and Assistance projects provide benefits planning services; and that's one of the big stumbling blocks that we find. People are afraid; they don't want to lose their benefits. Well, I'll give you a preview. That myth is wrong. What the benefits planners will do is sit down with you and talk about not only your Social Security benefits but about any other benefit that you may have and how will they be affected by work. That's really critical information for you to have. 

I like to put it into a power situation. If you know what's going to happen, when it's going to happen, you are taking control of the situation. If you wait for it to happen to you, you are reacting to a situation. So I encourage you all to be proactive and talk to planners so that you know what's going to happen and keep that power for yourself. 

The last organization here is Protection and Advocacy for Beneficiaries of Social Security. Now, Social Security is also funding legal services for you. If you run into a barrier to employment, there is somebody in your state -- it would be generally called Disability Rights California, Disability Rights Washington. In my former state, it was the Disability Law Center of Massachusetts. It's disability-something, and you can find those agencies.

If you are asked an inappropriate question, if you're discriminated because of your disability on the workforce, if you need to request a reasonable accommodation to do a job, they're the folks that can help you. There are both paralegals and attorneys who can provide you with free service – and just if you want to talk. We've had a whole session on how do you talk to your employer about a reasonable accommodation. If you need to talk to somebody about that, they're there for you.

Now, I'm going to tell you that at some point some of you are going to have every one of these people on your employment team, and that's not a bad thing. That's a very good thing. 

So let's talk more specifically about the ENs. They are called employment networks. We call them ENs. I'm sorry if I keep giving you alphabet soup. They are either private or public organizations who have an agreement with Social Security to provide you what you need to go to work. It's as simple as that. They are big organizations. Your state VR agency can function as an employment network. Or a small organization, it could be Ray's Job Shop: "I know the area. I know where the jobs are, and I can place you and get you in there, give you some interview practice. So I'm not going to be as expensive as some of the others, but I might be able to help you."

So we have all kinds of ENs. Some of these ENs may help people who have mental impairments, may help people who have physical impairments, may work with people with deafness or blindness. So you need to basically shop and interview the ENs that serve your area to pick the right one for you. If you have a physical impairment, you don't want to talk to somebody who focuses on mental impairment. That's not going to be a good fit. You can find all of that stuff on the Find Help tool that's in your website.

As we said, the American Job Centers that were the one-stop centers are called Workforce ENs. These places are wonderful. If you need to have a résumé prepared, they'll provide you with access to a computer. Now, how that's done at the moment remains to be seen; but they can hopefully get you in, properly socially distanced, to do some research, to build a résumé, find where the jobs are, what's available in your area. They have great services to get started to see if this is what you want to do.

Again, you can do all of this without formally asking for help. The Workforce EN is a great place for you to just go to, when they're open again, to see what is this all about, what kind of jobs are in my neighborhood or my city, and see if you want to pursue this. No judgment if you decide not to. We just ask you to take your knowledge and think about it again later on.

So how can an EN help you?

I told you that the workforce places are great places to write your résumé and get them up-to-date. That's where I'd go if I needed a job right now. My résumé is very old. An employment network like Ray's Job Shop, a small employment network, would be a good place to do that too. 

What about your work goals?

Many times when I talk to somebody who's considering work, they're not quite sure what they might want to do. I think that you need to think about what you like. So let's talk about what you like if you're not sure about what to do. What did you do in the past? Can you do it again? Do you have hobbies? I know of several people who have had some kind of artistic ability and ended up creating their own Etsy shops – great work-at-home job. So there's no barrier there; is there? If you can work at home, you don't even need transportation.

We can look and talk to you and tell you what's available and with knowing your interests, maybe find a good goal. If you are going to be working for somebody else, you need to prepare for the interviews. So getting some interview practice is a real practical skill. That's a real valuable thing to have. I can't tell you how many interviews I've had where when they asked me if I had any questions, I said, "No, I don't think so." I probably didn't hear from those people again. When you do ask questions, when you know a little bit about this agency, this business, and ask questions when they ask you if you have them, you're going to be more enticing, more desirable to that employer. So having that practice is going to be a great thing for you.

Again, requesting reasonable accommodations – you don't have to request them until after you're offered a job; and it's up to you. Because if you do request an accommodation, you are owning up to the fact that you have a disability and you need extra help. That is your choice to do. If you need an accommodation, it's a great thing to talk to an EN who can help you figure out the best way to go about having that discussion with your employer. 

Again, some ENs also have benefits planners on staff. So they would be closer to a one-stop shop. You'd only have to go to one place if they have in-house benefits planning. You get that done at the same time you're getting your other work done.

State VR agencies – they're great big institutes. Now, we're talking about people who are receiving SSI or SSDI; so you're all priority. The State has no choice but to help you. Of course, that's absent the State budgets right now. Some vocational agencies are in order of selection, but you will rise to a priority because of your status as a beneficiary.

Vocational rehabilitation is available, again, to do a new job – possibly to do your old job differently. If I lost one of my arms – I sit at a computer all day – I would need to learn how to do my job differently because right now, I type with two hands. That type of thing shouldn't stop me from going to get rehabilitation to continue on with my very same job.

What about training and education?

The good thing about training and education is that the more education you have and the more training you have, the more likely you're sitting down at your job. That's a good thing for lots of people – to be able to sit – because, you know, when I was working at Home Depot, I was lifting those 50-pound bags of cement; and I just can't do that anymore. So maybe a little bit of education, maybe I like construction and want to learn how to be a construction foreman. I take my old job, get a little education, create a new job. The State VR agency can help you do that. 

Again, remember that for those of you who have blindness, there is often a separate agency in your state. I was thinking about that earlier today, and I believe there are over 80 vocational rehabilitation state-funded agencies; so lots of states have got to have a disabled agency and a blind agency. 

Partnership Plus -- this, I think, is one of the best things since sliced bread. I really, really think that this is a very powerful thing. Partnership Plus basically allows a state vocational rehab agency and a private EN to work together. You will have your ticket to work, and it will be put in use while you get your VR services. When you are successfully closed from State VR and if you do feel the need for ongoing services, you can take your ticket to an employment network and get those transition services. That State VR will close you successfully after 90 days of starting to work.

I question whether that is enough to turn you into a worker; but I know if you take your ticket to an EN and that EN continues to provide you with on-the-job support and information and somebody to talk to, to help you get all of this reporting stuff that you need straight, you are more likely over the course of nine months to become a worker, to get used to this, to realize that you like getting out of the house, to realize that you really do have more money despite what the street told you.

Now, you can find all of these people and some more information about Partnership Plus at that website. You can see "Choose Work" on the end. That is also in your Web pod under the Choose Work website.

Work Incentives Planning and Assistance, the benefits planners – that got me where I am today, from practicing law to teaching people, to help folks go back to work, because it's just much more fun and more fulfilling.

Free benefits counseling that Social Security is providing, or providing funding for, to allow you to determine how your earnings are going to affect your SSDI, your SSI, your health care, whether it be Medicare or Medicaid, and any other public benefits – your SNAP benefits, your family's TANF benefits, your housing benefits. All of those will be considered so that before you start working or if you've just started working, before things begin to happen, you will know when things will change; and you will be assured that despite the changes that are happening, there will be more money at the end of the month.

Yes, your Food Stamps may drop; but you can't stop there. You need to look at the bottom line. I lost $50 in Food Stamps, but I increased my income by $150. So you really didn't lose anything; you have still gained. That's an important thing to remember.

They're also going to tell you about all of the work incentives. There are many, many work incentives for both SSDI and SSI recipients that are very good, that are going to help you. Just as a quick example, for an SSI person, Social Security cares about less than half of the money that you make. So how can you lose? If you go to work and you're an SSI recipient, there's always more money; and the benefits planners will show you how that works by using the work incentives.

The benefits of employment – what are they?

Yeah, it's a paycheck. There's a lot more than that. There's a lot more than that. I'm here with Sarah, who I know virtually. I wouldn't know Sarah. I'm here working with Jamie, who's been a friend for a long time. I get to talk to people every month, hundreds of people, and encourage them to just try, just think about this. It's worth a shot. 

I also have three dogs. I have three dogs because I work. I have a car because I work. I used to be able to go out to dinner on Fridays because I work, but I choose not to do that during these times. But it's much, much more than a paycheck – much, much more than the paycheck.

What we need to do is help you determine what types of services you need through the Ticket program and what will help you move forward, what's right, and what shoe fits. That's what this is all about.

Who do the WIPA services – the WIPA program – oh, god almighty, excuse me. Who do the WIPA projects serve?

If you are currently working or self-employed and have not had benefits planning assistance, you need to do that right now. So put that on your to-do list right after this webinar is over. Contact them; you are a priority. 

Do you have a job offer that's pending?

You've gone through this, you may have done it with an EN. You don't need to do it with an EN. You saw a job that was available, and you went and interviewed and got it. It's time now to figure out what's going to happen when you start earning money. If you're actively looking for a job, which is defined as "had an interview in the past 30 days or have one scheduled in the next two weeks," you're a priority for benefits planning services; and you should take people up on that. Again, it's free; and you can get a very detailed plan about what's going to happen and when it's going to happen. It's nice to know when things are going to happen.

The age group, 14 to 25 – transition-age youth are a big priority for lots of us just because we think we should make a kid a worker with a disability before we make them a disabled adult. We just want to give the kids a chance. So they're very important and have a priority here as well.

The Protection and Advocacy for Beneficiaries of Social Security – this was my last job before I joined Cornell. Actually, I was doing it while I was with Cornell for that first five years – providing legal services to people who receive Social Security benefits and have employment-related issues. It ranged from everything from an overpayment that was caused by work to employment discrimination -- anything that got in the way – and also, providing information. We were able to also be there to talk about the benefits support, to talk about how the work incentives are used, or deal with any concerns you have about what your employer is doing or not doing. 

What's Social Security doing or not doing? What about the employment networks? Are you looking to change? Are you looking for a different type of services and need some assistance in talking to them, the State VR agencies, or anybody else – or the benefits planners? We could help you deal with any of those people if you are having issues and were uncomfortable taking them on yourself or, in fact, needed legal help to do that.

So PABSS is going to help you protect your rights. Some of those are not disclosing your disability if you don't want to or choosing when to do it because you feel you need a reasonable accommodation with your jobs. That can be a very difficult discussion to have; but again, practicing for that discussion and knowing what you need to provide to your employer goes a long way to make that a much, much easier discussion.

And any other disability-based legal issue – what about housing? If you need an accessible apartment to become a successful worker, PABSS can help you do that. PABSS can remind the Housing Authority that because you are a resident and now need an accessible apartment, you come before any new applicants. It doesn't sound like it's a lot, but they're very critical issues. If you can't get ready for work because things are accessible, the work experience is not going to be so good.

How do you find these service providers?

The one thing I want to tell you right up front is there is no wrong door. So you can pull up the choosework.ssa.gov/findhelp in the Web Links pod with the Find Help tool, and you can do a search. I'm doing searches all the time for people who don't have computers. You can do it by ZIP code; you can do it by service that's offered. That's particularly important with the employment networks because you want to know that they can help somebody who is in your situation. They have experience with the type of disability that you have.

What about language ability?

If you speak Spanish and that's your first language and you're more comfortable speaking with somebody who also speaks Spanish, that's where to go. 

What type of provider are you looking for?

If we're looking immediately to go to a benefits planner, we're going to search just for WIPAs; and every agency that serves your area is going to pop up. You can also call the Ticket to Work Help Line. They're available to help you as well, from Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time. I'm going to give you those phone numbers: 1-866-968-7842 or, for TTY users, 1-866-833-2967. So there are lots of ways to get started. Again, no door is the wrong door. If you do open a door, somebody may say, "You need to contact this person at this agency," but believe me, no wrong door. You'll get to where you need to be.

Okay, Benefits Counseling and the Path to Work – these are some fun slides that have some good stuff in them. Here are the myths.

True or False: "My friend told me he went to work and lost his disability benefits. Is this going to happen to me too?

False – you're not going to lose your benefits right away. I'll be very honest with you and say the goal of your return to work is for you to become independent as much as possible of benefits, but it happens gradually. As your income increases, your SSI will decrease. 

When you have no cash SSI eligibility, am I going to lose my health care? No, there are rules to continue that. 

On the other side, the SSDI folks are going to have trial work periods, extended period of eligibility -- seven-and-a-half years of Medicare coverage. There's a lot of protection here. No one's going to work, getting a paycheck, and losing their benefits. It's just not the way it works.

And there's the answer. How do you like that? I gave it to you ahead of time. Again, talk with a benefits counselor. Call that Ticket to Help line if you don't have a computer that you can search and talk to them. Tell them you want benefits planning. They'll ask you a few questions and get you to the right people.

What is it? What is benefits planning?

Pretty much told you this. We're going to interview you and ask you a lot of nosy questions; but please know we need the answer to those nosy questions about your living situation, about the money coming into the household now, about all of the benefits you have, so that we can then tell you if you take a job at $15 an hour for 20 hours a week what is going to happen to all of those benefits. Will they all go away? Nope. Could some of them? Possibly, but it's the benefits planner's job to make sure that when something like SNAP or Food Stamps falls off, you have enough money to make that up and more. That's what a benefits planner does. Again, it's a free service that's provided through the Ticket to Work program.

Did I go backwards on this, or did I miss some? Something happened to that slide.

Benefits counselors are going to help you understand how work affects your Federal and your State benefits. I like to say that if you've see one Medicaid program, you've seen one. So we're looking at 57 different Medicaid programs. The territories all have it too. So we're going to look at those health care benefits; they're very important, and I can assure that they're going to last for a long, long time – a long, long time. That's all you need to know right now.

What's going not happen to your SSDI? Is that going to go away the moment you start working?

Not at all. I mentioned the trial work period, nine months where you can make as much as you want and receive all of your benefits and all of your health care, and then we switch over to a different work incentive. Every time you get to a period where things change, you meet with your benefits planner to find out how it works. SSI – this is all math; as your income goes up, your cash benefits go down. 

When you have zero cash benefits, what happens? 

You're in a special category so that you can still get SSI-related Medicaid. That can go on for a very, very long time. 

Housing assistance – what happens to your rent when you return to work? Are there plans and work incentives available that might shelter some of that rent increase from happening?

The benefits planners know that. 

The SNAP, the Food Stamp program – we talked about that, a very sensitive program and reacts quickly; but you will know what happens, and your benefits planner will ensure that you'll get all of the deductions that you're entitled to and all of the work incentives that that program provides as well.

Finding a counselor – there are the WIPA programs, as we talked about, Social Security-funded projects that do nothing but benefits planning. State rehab may have benefits planners in-house. They may be working with you while you're working with your rehab worker, and many employment networks have benefits planners. Now, you've got to know that all of these people have all been fully trained; and they know what they're talking about. We're to sending you to people who are guessing. They are knowledgeable; they have resources to use when they have questions.

So when we talked about this plan in your path to work, we have to learn about your benefits; and that's what benefits counseling is. If you're not even sure what benefit you have, the first thing we are going to teach you is what benefit you have and how you should be treating that benefit. Then we're going to start working towards the work goal. When you get income, how many hours a week do you think you can work? What's that pay rate going to be? What will that do to your benefits picture? And we'll make sure that that's consistent with your path to employment. It's not interrupting something that the ENs or the VR agency is doing with you. Again, this is your employment team.

There's a link to find those benefits planners. Again, you can use that Choose Work website, the Help finding tool, and there's a benefits counseling link in your Web Links pod.

All right, Sarah, let's take a break and have some questions.

SARAH>> Great, thanks so much, Ray.

We are going to pause, like Ray said, and take a few minutes to address some of the questions that are coming in from the audience on the Ticket program. 

The first one I have for you is: "Is there an estimated timeline for acceptance into the Ticket to Work program?"

RAY>> There really isn't. You have to have an access ticket that's available to you. The best way to do that is to contact the Ticket to Work Help Line, and they can let you know if you have a ticket. Again, it's free; it's voluntary. So you may decide after we finish today that you want to think about it. If that takes you a couple of weeks, that takes you a couple of weeks. 

Remember, we said age 18 to 64. I'm going to be 64 in less than a month. I better think real quick because I'm almost out of luck. So there really isn't a strict timeline. Do it when you're comfortable. Think about what we're telling you today; do some research; look at the Social Security Ticket to Work information; build your team; and then start talking. Do it when you're ready to.

SARAH>> Okay, that's excellent advice, Ray. I have another question for you: "I am interested in returning to work, but I am unsure of my physical capabilities. If I apply for jobs, do I need to notify Social Security that I'm attempting to work so my benefits aren't interrupted?"

RAY>> You don't need to tell Social Security you're looking for work. That's just called a non-event because there isn't anything that's going to impact your benefits. You do need to tell Social Security when you do land in the job and explain to them who that employer is, give them some basic information, and give them an expectation of how much you may be working and what you might be earning. 

As far as learning what your stamina might be, that's a real common thing. People don't know; and as I said, we're not expecting anybody who's on benefits to go back to work 40 hours a week starting next Monday. That's not the way this works. It could take a long time. So if you're working with an employment network or if you're working with State VR, you may be able to try several different jobs for different lengths of time. What does this look like?

I told you we can tell you what it looks like financially if you were working 10 hours a week; you can tell us what it feels like. I can do more. I can do 15 hours, so let's do the numbers over. I can do less; let's do the numbers again. There is a built-in means for you to try different jobs at different levels to make sure that when you finally land the job that you want, you'll be able to do it and know what your capacity is.

SARAH>> Thank you, Ray. The next question I have for you: "Is the Ticket program recommended for someone interested in seasonal work?"

RAY>> That's a really good question. It could be – I mean, seasonal work is – there are four of those (laughing). The Ticket to Work program could certainly help somebody who does seasonal work. Certainly benefits planners are available to you. When I say these services are all free, the way the employment networks get paid is by your income coming in and increasing over time. So it may be a little harder to find an employment network to work with you because they're betting that you're going to go to work and make money; and if you're not making money, they're not getting paid. So that would be a tough nut to crack with an employment network.

With State VR, I think that's a great thing. If you want to open your own landscape business and spend spring through fall taking care of lawns and gardens, planting trees in my yard, come on down. We've got work for you. So there are lots of jobs like that. You have to find the right team to put together, and I think you might be looking at benefits planners and State rehab rather than an employment network.

SARAH>> Thank you, Ray. The next question I have for you is: “Are there any ENs available in Puerto Rico?"

RAY>> Oh, there are ENs available everywhere. When I say "everywhere," I mean there are some who cover the entire country. It very much depends on what you need. If you're ready to work and give this a shot and you need benefits counseling, you need interview practice, you need your résumé drawn up, there are national ENs that can help you. You have the State VR agency, a territorial VR agency in Puerto Rico, that could serve you as an EN.

What I have to tell you is that I don't know about the status of private ENs in Puerto Rico; but if I were talking to you on the phone, I would be using that Find Help tool and putting in my ZIP code to find out if there was somebody in Puerto Rico. I know all of the states, all of the territories, are covered by somebody.

SARAH>> They certainly are, Ray; and of course for the audience, you can go to the Find Help tool link, which is https://choosework.ssa.gov/findhelp. You can also find that in the Web Links pod under "Find Help Tool."

Ray, you were discussing this age category a bit earlier; but we have a more specific question following that up: "Can someone who is 62 and on early Social Security retirement participate in the Ticket to Work program?"

RAY>> That's a really good question. If you're on early retirement, you're not receiving a disability benefit; so you're really not eligible for a ticket. However, if you took early retirement because of a disability, there is a way to apply for disability benefits and have that early retirement switched to SSDI; and then you would be receiving a disability benefit. So there is a way that you can create ticket eligibility in that situation; but as an early retiree, if you just decided, "I'm going to retire and take retirement at 62," you would not be receiving a disability benefit. So you would not be eligible for a ticket. But if you retired at 62 because you took retirement rather than seeking disability, there is a way to change your status by filing an application.

SARAH>> Thank you, Ray. The next question is: "I need help writing a résumé. Is that something the Ticket to Work service provider can help me with?"

RAY>> Absolutely, and that's a great one because, you know, I'd need help putting a résumé together too. You can do that with an employment network, or you could do that with the workforce EN. There are many, many things as to how long a résumé should be, what it should contain, how much should you describe the job. They look much different than when I got my last job, and I think everybody needs to have input like this now. So, yes, absolutely, an employment network or your State VR agency if you're working with them or the workforce would be the places to look for, for that; but that's absolutely a service that would be provided.

SARAH>> Thank you so much, Ray. The final question for this portion is: "Am I able to work with multiple service providers, for example, my State VR and ENs; and if that is okay, are the VR agency and ENs able to work together?"

RAY>> Yeah, given the parameters of Partnership Plus. Now, we mentioned that. If you are working with State VR and they are helping you become rehabilitated and work-ready, your ticket is with them. It's called "in-use status." So it hasn't been assigned to them, but they've got it. So you can't assign it to an EN at that time unless you choose to stop working with State VR; but you could continue with State VR and, when you're work-ready and VR closes your case, take your ticket and it is available to assign to an employment network. 

So they wouldn't really be working together other than during the transition period. When they're getting ready to close your case and the EN is getting ready to take you on, there would be some discussion, I'm sure, between the two agencies. Any of the other places – the benefits planners, PABSS – they can work with you and an EN or a VR at any time; but there has to be that Partnership Plus network because that ticket can only be at one place at one time.

SARAH>> All right, thank you, Ray. We are going to pause for a moment. Before we move on, I would like to remind everyone that accessibility materials for today's webinar are available either in the Web Links pod or in your confirmation e-mail for today's webinar or by emailing Ticket to Work at webinars@ChooseWork.ssa.gov.

Again, Ray, thank you for the thorough answers that were sent in by our participants. We do have more questions for you, which we will address in a little while. We are going to stop and turn things back over to you to focus on resources. Thanks, Ray.

RAY>> All right, thank you, Sarah.

And thanks for those tough questions, guys.

SARAH>> Like to keep you on your toes, Ray. We have a great audience.

RAY>> We have a great audience today. They are keeping me on my toes.

Okay, so what kind of additional resources are out there?

We've talked about the basics; and they're really, really important. Did I just miss a slide? Yeah, so here we go.

Taking the next steps – again, only you can decide if this is the right path for you. If you want to explore it, explore please. I just want you to make a decision knowing everything that you need. It's a big decision; and knowing how it's going to impact your benefits and not listening to the street is very, very important. We're going to support you in finding that job; we're going to support you in letting you know what's going to happen to your benefits; and we're going to support you in keeping that job. 

It's pretty much going to be up to you to tell us, "Leave me alone. I'm ready; I'm ready to go." But we are going to be here to help you, and that's the one thing that's great about the ticket. It's going to be around as long as you need it.

Finding a job – (inaudible) find a job link in that Web Links pod as well. That's going to give you some information on how to do this, resources and information about employment organizations, including those that specifically help people with disabilities. They can talk to you with knowledge about what jobs would be available to somebody who uses a wheelchair, what jobs are available to somebody who has an anxiety issue and may not be able to work with a lot of people around them. Get started on that job search and connect with a Ticket program provider along the way. 

Again, that ChooseWork.ssa.gov/find-a-job is a great way to start because there's no obligation. We're not asking you to join the website and pay us $25. These are free resources for you, so you can do all of this on your own without any obligation. When it comes time to speak to somebody about it, that's when you're ready to start moving forward. But explore; go into that Social Security website because the Social Security website is actually a very, very good website full of information and full of success stories.

I told you my friend Jamie is here with us today. She knows how much I love these success stories. They are real people who were in your situation and who decided they were going to try to work, and they are real people who succeeded and lost their benefits but were making more money and were happier. And there are some people who hit a pothole. That doesn't mean you're left with nothing because those people who hit a potholes had those potholes filled in by their employment team, and then we started working to prepare them to start again.

These stories are wonderful stories; so I want you to look at those Ticket to Work success stories because if these people can do it, I have every bit of faith that you can do it too. You've just got to make the decision. I love these success stories.

I think that's going to do it for my part. Let me, before we start taking questions, Sarah, remind everybody once again that the next webinar will not be the third Wednesday of September; it will be the fourth Wednesday on September 30th. 

I'm ready for you.

SARAH>> Awesome, thank you so much, Ray, for that; and we will dive right into questions. The first one I have is: "What age group can participate in the Ticket to Work program? Do I have to be a certain age to participate?"

RAY>> Yeah, you have to be between 18 and 64; and that 18-year-old has to be a disabled adult. Every kid who's receiving SSI will go through an age 18 review because Social Security uses a child disability definition. When you're 18, you're an adult; so they're going to be doing a review to see if you are a disabled adult, which is a more work-based definition. So as soon as you're 18 and have that review and Social Security says that you continue to be disabled, until you are 64 you can use that ticket.

SARAH>> Okay, next question I have for you, Ray, is: "If I am already working with a WIPA, can I also reach out to an EN?"

RAY>> Oh, absolutely, because remember those are two different jobs here. Your WIPA is telling you what will happen based on what you told them you might want to do. If you go to work at $10 an hour and are able to work 20 hours a week, this is what will happen to your benefits. The employment network can start getting you job-ready. It can provide you with supports that you might need on the job -- again, résumé building, interview experience. The employment networks are really great at knowing where the jobs are, particularly the local ones. If you search by ZIP code and get someone in your ZIP code, those are the people who know where the jobs are and can make referrals and know when there are openings.

I know there are lots of jobs out there because when I go grocery shopping, I see lots of signs. There are all kinds of jobs. That employment network is going to know about the companies and which companies are going to be better for you to work with. So, yeah, you can work with an EN and a benefits planner, absolutely; and I think those two members of your employment team are actually critical members. When we talk about EN in this context, we should be including State VR because you can be working with State VR and also work with a WIPA program.

SARAH>> All right, thank you, Ray. Next question: "Is there a cost associated with the Ticket program for participation?"

RAY>> Not at all, the only cost is your willingness to participate. The services that are provided to you under the ticket are provided free. The benefits planning is free. To work with an employment network to get you work-ready is free. The State VR agency work to get you rehabilitated is free. The legal services that you may need from PABSS are free, and the workforce EN one-stop access is free. This doesn't cost you anything but the willingness to take a chance.

SARAH>> Thank you, Ray. The next question I have for you: "Can you go into more detail about what work incentives are?"

RAY>> Yeah, I can do that. The work incentives are the ways that Social Security treats income from earnings. I'll use an SSI example because it's easier; it's easier to understand. 

When somebody receives SSI, let's say you are working and you are a 22-year-old. No, I want to be 21 years old; and I am in school and I'm working during the summertime and I'm making $1,000 a month. Social Security has a work incentive called the "Student Earned Income Exclusion" that will allow me to just remove up to $1,900 a month. So if I have earned $1,000 a month as a student under the age of 22, that $1,000 doesn't count. So I get a full SSI check and $1,000 in earnings.

Social Security uses a formula to determine what your benefit is. That basic formula takes away the first $65 of your monthly income and then divides it by 2, so they're starting with less than half of what you've made. 

What about an impairment-related work expense?

Now, this works with both SSI and SSDI. An impairment-related work expense is the cost of a service or an item that relates to your disability, that allows you to work, and that you pay for. So if I go to the drug store to pick up a prescription and they say, "The copay for that is $10," I save that receipt. When I report my income to Social Security, if I earned $1,000, only $990 of it counts. 

If I use an electric wheelchair, the cost of the wheelchair, the cost of plugging it into the wall to charge it every night, the cost of the insurance, are all impairment-related work expenses because it's related to my impairment, necessary to work, and I pay for it out-of-pocket. So those are work incentives.

I'm trying to think of what else is on that list. If you are an SSDI recipient, you might have a subsidy. I like to use a grocery store here to describe what this is. A subsidy is a situation where you may be making more money than the services that you provide. If you have a job description and it has ten items on it and you can only do seven and you're being paid as if you do all ten, some of that money is not going to count.

Let's say that I'm in a wheelchair, and I'm working with three other people who are stocking the canned vegetable aisle at the grocery store. Well, Jamie is on my team; and what she does is put a couple of casings of vegetables in my lap, and I can do the three shelves in the middle. I can't do the bottom one, and I can't do the two top ones because I can't reach them; but between the four of us, we get it all done. And that's all the grocery store cares about.

But when you look at what Social Security is going to consider countable income, Social Security is looking at what you actually did. They're going to say, "Ray, you didn't stock shelves 1, 5, and 6." So if you're making $1,000 and you're only doing 2, 3, and 4, we might only count $500 of that. It's not to say you're not earning your money because you're doing the job. It is just making an allowance for the parts of your job that you are unable to do. So that's a work incentive.

What they basically are, are means to reduce the amount of income that impacts your benefits status. And they're all going to the Federal benefits planners; they are all going to be applied to your situation if it's necessary. You'll see how it betters your situation and, in some cases, helps you get comfortable with your new situation and allows you to progress at your own comfort level. That's what this is all about...having this happen the way you want it to. 

So those work incentives are critically important; and again, the WIPA program is the place to find out about those. Or look at that Social Security website; there's a lot of great information on there.

SARAH>> All right, thank you, Ray. We had a couple of audience members ask a two-part question that I'm going to present to you: "Can a service provider help me with the accommodation request process?" But let's start with: "What is an accommodation, and can you describe that to the audience?"

RAY>> Okay, a reasonable accommodation in an employment situation is some type of assistance – some type of assistance, some other means of doing the job, different hours. It's something that is required because of your disability to allow you to do the job. 

Now, if I have a visual impairment and I'm looking at a 19-inch screen, that may not be the optimal way for me to do my job. So a reasonable accommodation would be to ask for a 36-inch screen so that I can see it and do my job. That's not a lot of money. Most accommodations don't cost a lot.

What about stocking the vegetable aisle again? There's an accommodation there. My boss has allowed me to work with Jamie and two other people to get that canned vegetable aisle stocked, knowing that I can only stock shelves 2, 3, and 4 because I can't reach the others; but I'm paid the same. That's an accommodation.

What if I have to take a medication on a regular basis, and that medication makes it impossible for me to leave home and get to work or to work from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; and I need to change my job from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.? So it's some different way of doing the job that everybody else is doing from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. that you need to talk to your employer about.

Most reasonable accommodations are under $500; and, of course, the employers don't understand that a lot. They think they're a lot more than that. So it's not absolutely something that's no-go, but knowing how to have that discussion and when it's appropriate to have that discussion is the harder part.

A reasonable accommodation could be almost anything.  What about staying home from work? I mean, I've always worked at home. I don't have a disability that allows me to get benefits; but that's an accommodation, letting me work at home. I've been working at home the whole time I've worked with Cornell. So can I work at home? Can I work at home a couple of days a week? Anything like that that's changing up the regular job that is reasonable and allows you to do that job.

SARAH>> Okay, and the follow-up to that is: "Can you tell me a little bit about the process of requesting a reasonable accommodation and can a service provider help with that?"

RAY>> Yes and yes – what you need to do is basically out yourself as a person with a disability. No reasonable accommodation if there's nothing wrong, and many people have disabilities that are unseen. In my wheelchair example, it's very clear that I have a disability; so the employer knew that. If I have a mental impairment and my medication is interfering with my hours of work that are required, maybe I can pull it off and try it for a while; but if it's not working real well or things start happening at work and I'm being reprimanded for being late or, "What's going on, Ray? You're a little fuzzy this morning." Maybe at that point, I have to ask for that accommodation 

That could be a hard discussion to have. I can either do it myself and say, "Listen, boss, this is what's going on. I have a psychiatric disability. It's controlled by medication; but medically speaking, I need to take that medicine at eight o'clock in the morning and eight o'clock at night because that's the optimal time for me to function appropriately. When I take it, it has some weird side effects. So I need to change my hours from nine to five to ten to six, and that will make everything better because I'll have the medication in my system when I start, and I'll be off work so that I can get home and get the medication back into my system."

If you don't feel comfortable having that discussion yourself, certainly the PABSS agency, a benefits planner, the employment networks, could all help you have that discussion. If you want to have that discussion on your own, you could certainly talk to those very same people about how to have that. 

What kind of information do I need? 

Well, if I need a bigger screen, if a need a 36-inch screen rather than a 19-inch screen, I want to do some research and print out something from Best Buy that says the 32-inch screen, here's one that will serve all of my needs and is only $198, and it will allow me to do my job," and explain why. "My impairment is visual. If this is screen is twice as broad, I'll be able to work faster and better and do the job, and it's only going to cost you $195." So to do something like that, you just prepare to have the conversation by yourself or ask somebody to have that conversation with you and your employer is perfectly fine. It's perfectly fine if people are available to help you have that discussion or to have that discussion with your employer.

That was a really good question.

SARAH>> Definitely, a couple people were asking; so I thought it would be a good one. To follow up, as you well know, Ray, we covered that topic in the July webinar called, "The Reasonable Accommodations and the Path to Employment." You can find the recording of that webinar under the Web Links pod list of "WISE Webinar Archives." You can also go to http://bit.ly/WISE_OnDemand for all of our past archives as well as that one if you'd like to know more about reasonable accommodations.

Okay and unfortunately, we are out of time for questions today. 

Ray, I appreciate you being with us and all of your thorough answers of course.

RAY>> You're always welcome.

SARAH>> All right, thank you so much.

Social Security's Ticket to Work program has a number of service providers and other resources ready to help you get started. To get a list of providers in your area or to get answers to questions that you may have about the Ticket program or other work incentives, you can contact the Ticket to Work Help Line at 1-866-968-7842 or, for TTY, 1-866-833-2967, Monday through Friday, from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time. You can also visit the Ticket to Work website at choosework.ssa.gov at any time.

We are also on social media, and you can subscribe to the blog and e-mail updates by visiting choosework.ssa.gov/contact/indepth.html. This link appears in the Web Links pod under "Ticket to Work Contact Information."

There is another resource for you to get advice and encouragement and read stories about people who have achieved financial independence with the help of the Ticket to Work program. To receive text messages from the ticket program, text TICKET (T-I-C-K-E-T) to 474747. Standard messaging rates will apply.

As Ray had mentioned, we would love for you to join us on our next WISE webinar, "Ticket to Work for Human Service Organizations," which will be held on Wednesday, September 30, 2020, from 3:00 p.m.to 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time. Registration is open for that event, and we look forward to having you attend. You of course can register online by going to choosework.ssa.gov/WISE, and you can call 1-866-968-7842 or, for TTY, 1-866-833-2967.

Your feedback is very important to us, and it helps us plan for future webinars. Please provide your feedback and tell us what you think about today's webinar by taking our survey. A few options to take the survey are you can follow the link that will pop up after the webinar, or you can visit the Ticket to Work website to complete the survey. The survey can also be found in the Web Links pod.

I want to thank you again for attending today and learning about the Ticket to Work program. Please take the opportunity to reach out to any of the resources we discussed today and take the next step on your career path. This concludes today’s webinar. Have a wonderful evening. Thank you.