WISE Ticket to Work Webinar
Understanding Ticket to Work: How to Help Your Clients and the People You Serve
August 25, 2021

Speakers: Jackie Flick (Moderator), Ray Cebula & Jayme Pendergraft (Presenters)

JACKIE>> Good afternoon and welcome to today’s Ticket to Work webinar: Understanding Ticket to Work: How to Help Your Clients and the People You Serve. My name is Jackie Flick, and I am a member of the Ticket to Work team, and I will be your moderator for today’s webinar.

We are so glad you are able to take the time today to spend with us to learn about how Social Security’s Ticket to Work program functions and the many ways you can be a part of it. We hope you find some information today that will help you to spread the word and connect with the Ticket program.

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

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If you are unable to connect to the audio with your computer or prefer to listen to the webinar by phone, dial 1-800-832-0736 and enter access code 41 89 148 #.

Next, we will share some information about webinar accessibility. On the Adobe Connect platform you will notice four different boxes on your screen. These boxes are called pods. We have the presentation pod where the slides appear. Below that is the closed captioning pod. In the top right-hand corner, you will see the Q&A pod. And below the Q&A pod is the weblinks pod. We will talk about these pods in more detail a little later.

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 weblinks 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 box that appears below the slides that is on your screen right now. The captioning link can be found in the weblinks pod under the title Closed Captioning.

If you’re 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 weblinks pod under the title ASL User Guide.

We are here today to answer questions you may have on the Ticket to Work program. Please send your questions to us at any time throughout the webinar by typing them in the Q&A pod. We will direct the questions to our speakers during the Q&A portions of our webinar. We will be addressing questions at two different points throughout today’s presentation, so go ahead and send those questions in, and we will do our best to answer as many of them as possible today.

If you are listening by phone and are not logged in to the webinar, you may ask your question by sending an email to Ticket to Work. The email 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 weblinks pod, which you will find at the bottom right-hand corner of your screen. This pod lists all the links and resources presented during today’s webinar. To access any of these resources, highlight the topic you are interested in and would like to connect to, and then select the Browse To button at the bottom of the pod and you will be taken to the website requested.

If you are listening by phone and not logged into the webinar, or don’t have access to the weblinks pod, you can email Ticket to Work. The email address is webinars@choosework.ssa.gov. Or reference the confirmation email 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 weblinks pod we just talked about in the bottom right-hand corner of your screen and is 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 you can send us an email at the Ticket to Work email address, which is webinars@choosework.ssa.gov. 

As mentioned earlier, my name is Jackie Flick, and I am a member of the Ticket to Work team. I am excited to be here with you today as your moderator. We are delighted to have Ray Cebula and Jayme Pendergraft joining us today. Ray Cebula received his law degree from the University of New Hampshire’s Franklin Pierce Law School – or 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 Yan Tan Institute on Employment and Disabilities where he now serves as the Program Director of YTI’s online work incentive practitioner credentialing program.

Jayme Pendergraft is the Outreach Manager for Social Security’s Ticket program. she oversees Ticket program communication efforts including WISE webinars, social media, the Choose Work blog, and other outreach channels. She has supported the Ticket program for more than ten years, and she has dedicated her career to improving employment outcomes for people with disabilities.

During today’s webinar, Ray and Jayme will cover Social Security’s Ticket program and other work incentives, Ticket program service providers, how to share information about the Ticket program, and how to become a Ticket program service provider.

During today’s webinar, we will not be addressing questions specific to COVID-19. If you would like more information on Social Security and the Coronavirus, please visit https://www.ssa.gov/coronavirus/. This link can also be found in the weblinks pod.

It is my pleasure to introduce Ray to start us off with an introduction to the Ticket to Work program. Go ahead, Ray.

RAY>> Thank you, Jackie. It’s really good to be with everybody today. I’m really happy to be working with my bud Jayme. 

Today we’re going to start out with the Ticket to Work program and how this program can support you on your journey to work. 

We have to get down to real basics now. And what I want to alert everybody to, if you are a beneficiary, Social Security or SSI, we are really dealing with a presentation today that is directed at providers of services. We don’t necessarily want you to leave, but just know that it’s not going to be beneficiary based. And you’re more than welcome to stay and listen. So, thanks for that.

For those of you who are providers, welcome today. It’s a great opportunity to get everybody on the same page. We have two disabilities programs that Social Security administers. They are the Title II program, or Social Security Disability Insurance (“SSDI”), and the SSI program, Supplemental Security Income, which is Title XVI of the Social Security Act. They’re very different programs. So, the first thing we need to know from our consumers is what benefit they receive. The insurance program, SSDI, is just that. It’s an insurance program. As a person works and pays FICA taxes into the system, they are earning credits for insurance. And once they become insured, they are insured for both disability and retirement. There are a couple of, you know, special rules that come along with that. That insurance status for disability must also be current. And we all know you can find that out if you can access one of your consumer’s My Social Security accounts. 

There are work incentives that may sound like they apply to both programs, but they apply to each program differently. So in order to have a valuable discussion with a client, even if it’s the first phone call, you really need to be pretty sure which benefit they’re receiving.

Then we turn to the SSI program which is a needs-based federal welfare program that provides benefits to people who may have expired insurance status, or may not have worked, or may not have worked enough to become insured. It is very sensitive to unearned and earned income because of its needs-based nature. And the work incentives that sound the same are going to apply very differently and there are other work incentives that apply only to this program.

What is the Ticket to Work program? You know, the Ticket to Work program is – I still believe very much in the Ticket to Work program after the 20, 21 years now it’s been since it started. It’s a good program. It’s a solid program that actually provides a lot of help to people.

Notice that it’s free and voluntary. Social Security does not want any consumer or beneficiary to receive notice and believe they have no choice but to begin preparing for work. That’s not the case. There is no charge to the beneficiary for the services as we have Social Security reimbursing the provider for these services.

The Ticket can offer career development for people aged 18 through 64 who receive a Social Security disability benefit and want to work. That’s all it takes. And we can provide them with assistance.

The Ticket to Work is going to connect that disability beneficiary with free employment services through some of you to help them begin the journey and determine what is best for them. This is very much a consumer-driven process, and we don’t want to build the plan for our consumers, we want to build the plan with our consumers.

The Ticket can help them decide if work’s right for them. It may be something that they are really anxious to begin but maybe now is just not the right time. Maybe we need some training. Maybe we need some education. Then we’re going to be able to get a job.

We also need to know that they are in the right mindset to begin this journey. And I like to use the Stages of Change for that. Meet the client where they are, and you’re going to have a client. A good client.

Preparation for work. That could be learning how to do your former job differently because of that disability. It could be, as I said, basic training, whether that be a vocational program. Whether it be a requirement that somebody get a certificate. Whether it be an associate’s degree or a bachelor’s degree.

Help finding a job. You know, all of you providers are located in your communities, which is a really good thing because you are going to be able to point. You know the resources locally. And that’s a benefit to our consumers to help them locate an employer who is hiring.

And the most important thing about the Ticket is getting somebody employed is not the end. It’s actually just the beginning. We’ve provided a lot of services to get somebody employed, but we want to see them succeed, so the provider is able to offer on-the-job supports that will ensure that the consumer is ready to work. And will basically allow the consumer to say, okay, guys, I’ve had enough. I can do this by myself. And succeed. That’s the important thing.

We want to take each person, each beneficiary with a disability, and help them transition into a worker with a disability.

So, what is this Ticket program? You know, you can – we’re encouraging you to share the new Facts Sheets with people who might be interested in the Ticket program. And that is, what is Social Security’s Ticket to Work Program? The website for that is https://bit.ly/ttw-program. And you can use that during community presentations or as people come in to you to get basic information about what your program offers.

The Help Line is a great way to also get people involved. And this is certainly a good way to get referrals as well as to send those clients. If you do talk with a consumer who isn’t sure yet but thanks you for the information, give them the Help Line. They can call that Help Line back and get a referral back to you.

The Help Line can provide very basic information about what this Ticket program is and answer some basic questions. You know, it’s always going to be good to connect with a human, and you are the human in this case. So, you can call the Ticket to Work Help Line, and share this with your consumers, Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time. And the number is 1-866-968-7842. And for TTY users is 1-866-833-2967.

So, let’s talk about the work incentives. Social Security also provides really good work incentives. And they are just that, incentives to work that will allow you to basically proceed with health care, you know, possibly with cash benefits, while you are working and gradually making that transition to financial independence. And the magic is we can help a consumer make that transition at their own comfort level.

More than 20 work incentives out there. Social Security makes it really easy for disabled beneficiaries to work and still be eligible to receive benefits. And most importantly, I think you’ll find many consumers are more interested about the healthcare benefits as they explore and transition to work. To learn more about these work incentives, you can look at Choose Work’s website. It’s a really good website. I’m on it almost daily. https://bit.ly/work-incentives. Social Security’s Redbook is a good resource for all of you as well. And that’s available in English or Spanish at http://www.ssa.gov/redbook. And the Choose Work blog has a bunch of good information in it. http://bit.ly/choosework-blog. 

Let’s talk about some particular work incentives that are going to be very calming for your client and really make this transition a welcome event. And the expedited reinstatement is – is really fantastic. You know, when it was first proposed and the regulations came out, it’s pretty amazing what Social Security did. Social Security will terminate somebody because of work activity and earned income. That’s the way the rules work. After they have proceeded through many of the 20 earlier work incentives. They’re successful, they are about to become independent of benefits, and that termination occurs. Could be based on SGA. Could be based on the amount of money that it costs to cash out your SSI benefits. 

But Social Security can say, we’re terminating you and leaving you alone. And that’s the marvel of EXR. For 60 months, or five years, beginning with the month of termination, Social Security still has a safety net for our consumers. And if it happens that the work effort is stopped or their earnings drop below substantial gainful activity, they can be reinstated. And this is a pretty quick process. You know, and the statistics for who is allowed once they apply for reinstatement are pretty phenomenal. They’re very, very, very high. Social Security will review a reinstatement request. And what they’re looking at now is whether or not the person can perform substantial gainful activity. And this stoppage or reduction in income can really happen for any reason. We just went through a horrible pandemic, and we all vividly remember, you know, March of 2020 when everything stopped. People were laid off in droves. Our consumers were laid off. That’s a stoppage or reduction in earnings. As much as is an exacerbation of a medical condition.

If that happens five years from termination, Social Security is opening their door and offering an easy-on provision. And they will accept an application. And if you will date that request today, it is very possible that you could have a check for October 1. Which is a good thing. The first six months are temporary, provisional checks. And they’re paid while the Disability Determination Service is determining whether or not the consumer can perform substantial gainful activity.

Notice the second bullet here. They’re also eligible for Medicare, Medicaid, or both if they’re a recipient of both benefits. So there is a very quick easy on.

Provisional benefits, you may get two months because that’s all Social Security needed. You will only get up to six. But Social Security has been real good at getting payments reinstated before that six months is over. And honest to god, when I think of all the public benefits programs that I’ve dealt with in my career, none of them allow a post-termination connection to the agency. This is unique to Social Security and unique to work incentives.

Whoops, I was talking about all of this, wasn’t I, and I didn’t change this out. 

Notice, they have to be determined, again, unable to do work. Their medical condition is going to be important, and their ability to perform substantial gainful activity. Again, all of this is presuming a work stoppage or a work slowdown. 

Another one of my favorite things, and I really do like impairment-related work expense, and we have three basic questions. If a beneficiary, a consumer has to pay out of pocket and is not reimbursed, certain items or services needed to work, Social Security reduces their countable income by the cost of that item. When their determining substantial gainful activity in the Title II world, or SSDI, and it reduces countable income that would otherwise reduce an SSI check. 

Three basic questions. Is it related to an impairment? Is the cost, the item, the service, related to an impairment?

Does the item or service allow you to work?

And is it paid for by the consumer without any reimbursement from anywhere?

You say yes to those three, you could have an IRWE on your hands, and we need to run that by Social Security. When we need to use that deduction, Social Security will take a look at it. And these things are really limited by your own imagination.

Examples. Medicine. Okay. What type of medicine is it? Is it related to impairment? Could it be over the counter that’s related to an impairment?

Is it necessary for work? It’s always necessary for work, it’s necessary for life. And work is still a subset of life, despite the way some of us work.

Yeah, and disposable items. Medical devices. Devices as simple as a cane could help you – to help you walk. A walker. A wheelchair, you know, to more expensive things.

What about assistive technology? Hearing aids? You know, tablets. iPhones. If you’re need – if you need them at work and they help you communicate more effectively or could be your only means of communication with coworkers or supervisors, that’s going to count, too. And service animals. I like to say when we’re talking service animals, they are all properly trained and licensed, and they’re working animals. And working animals need comfortable beds. And they need toys. And they need food. And they need veterinary services. And they need to be licensed. Lots of good things that we might take for granted. So, you have a bottle of Advil in the drawer next to you, that’s an impairment-related work expense, we just have nothing to deduct from that. 

And I like to talk to my consumers in terms of daily activities, what do you do? What medicines might you take as you go through a day to see if we can find those IRWEs. 

And you can learn more about IRWEs at https://bit.ly/ticket-irwe.

All right. Ticket program service providers. This is all you guys out there. Got lots of service providers. And the wonderful thing about the service providers that are set up, including the Help Line (inaudible), include those folks, is there’s no wrong way to start. There is no wrong door into this program. Every one of these agencies and providers, even the Help Line, can be your consumer’s entry into this program.

And we’ve got employment networks, workforce employment networks located at the job centers out there. I’m forgetting right now what they’re currently called. They used to be One Stop Centers, that kind of place. State vocational rehabilitation agencies also provide lots of services to our consumers.

The Work Incentive Planning and Assistance, or WIPA, projects. This is where the benefits planners are located. You know, lots of benefits planners are located in ENs, in workforce ENs, and at VR agencies. But the WIPA projects are also independent benefits planners funded by Social Security. And in my opinion, all of these services may weave together, and particularly benefits planning. It’s going to be necessary for every consumer who’s making this transition from benefits to work.

The last one is the Protection and Advocacy for Beneficiaries of Social Security, or PABSS. These are all legal service type agencies. They’re called Protection and Advocacy agencies, who provide services, a variety of services, to people with disabilities. From benefits assistance or benefits planning, to discrimination in employment situations, to discrimination in housing. Anything that’s going to present a barrier to work for our consumers and presents a legal issue or the need for legal advice can be served by PABSS. Everybody could be sitting at a table, three or four of them could be sitting at a table, two of them could be sitting at a table. It’s all right and it’s all what your client needs (inaudible).

ENs. Private or public agencies or organizations that have an agreement with Social Security to provide free employment services to people who are eligible for that Ticket. Again, the workforce system, the American Jobs centers, there they are, and workforce ENs are all going to be part of these providers along with, you know, one-stop shops. I like to call them the one – the one-person EN providers, to the large ENs. All sizes, all shapes.

What services are we looking for? Just about everything a consumer needs. Career planning or counseling. Does somebody not necessarily want to flip burgers at McDonald’s but would like to have a franchise at some point in their life? Well, flipping burgers might be the beginning of that. But we can plan for that job to become a career for our clients. 

You know, I like to tell people that, you know, we’ve all done really nasty jobs that we didn’t want to do before we got where we are today. And that’s the best way to start.

Job search assistance. State VR agencies are located in the states. Larger states have several offices that are in the community and know who is hiring right now. 

ENs also work in the communities. There are national ENs that may not have that direct connection, but the question is, does the consumer need that type of a connection or are they looking to apply to a national employer.

Workforce. That’s in the community, too. It’s good to know, and it’s good for our consumers to know, that they are not sending resumés out blind. That they are sending resumés out to employers who want to see them right now. 

Special programs for veterans and youth in transition. These two groups are very important groups, and they’re very special groups and they always are priorities for all of us. Simply because there’s a VA – there’s a Veterans Administration out there doesn’t mean that folks aren’t receiving Social Security benefits. Because that group is so important and so unique, they could be receiving both military and civilian benefits. Got to make all of that make sense. They need our services.

And youth. You know, that age group from 16 to 24, is a critical group for us. You know, they’re going through that age 18 determination when they lose child status and become an adult and their benefits are no longer determined on their development but determined on the ability to work. And I just want every disabled youth to take a chance to become a worker with a disability before we revert to adult disability benefits. Just give a chance and the work incentives to this group are amazing – are amazing. It does result in a family counseling situation.

Ongoing employment supports. That’s how we make sure people succeed. Those on-the-job supports, whether it be a job coach, whether it be somebody to talk to on the job or after work to give people support. How did your day go today, Jayme? What’s working, what isn’t? Can we change something? Can we talk to the employer about an accommodation you might need? Or can I – moving to this next bullet – coach you to have that discussion with your employer? If you need me, I’ll be there, but you might want to give it a shot yourself.

And work incentives counseling. You know, this is, again, critical because we are taking our clients who are used to reacting to notices, from all kinds of agencies, and putting them in a position where they can be proactive. Because if a benefits plan happens the way it’s supposed to and our clients are maintaining contact, they will know when their check is going to disappear, or when it’s going to reduce. And they will be aware that healthcare is continuing. They will also be aware that they have more money. And they don’t need to react because they are in a proactive situation. And I think we all like to be proactive rather than reactive.

State vocational rehabilitation agencies. May be a must for everybody. If we have somebody that’s going to be very expensive to rehabilitate, then we’re going to want the state involved. If there’s education and training, somebody needs a four-year degree to do what they want to do, we’re going to be looking to the state to fund a lot of these things. Every state has a VR agency. Some have two. Some, you know, as my home state of Massachusetts, has a VR agency and an agency that serves the blind and visually impaired. So, just make sure we’re getting our folks to the right agency.

And the benefits planning services. I think I’ve talked a lot about that. In order to get these services, we’re in a situation where we have priorities. You have to know how your benefits are going to be affected. That includes SSDI, SSI, Medicare, Medicaid, and all those other public benefits. We don’t tell somebody that they’re likely to lose their SNAP benefits when they reach X dollars in earned income. We’ve missed the boat because we haven’t told them what to be prepared for. We haven’t already showed them how many hours a week it’s going to be necessary for you to work in order for you to replace all those benefits and allow movies and pizza for Friday night.

In order to get services from the WIPA agencies, we have to be currently working, self-employed, or have a job offer pending. You could be actively interviewing for jobs. That’s defined as have an interview in the past 30 days or I have a job interview scheduled within the next two weeks. And those youth, the transition age youth. Age 14 to 25. Even at the very early stages of considering work. You know, and I mentioned this could turn into family counseling. If that kid’s SSI helps pay the rent, helps buy food for that family unit, mom and dad are really, really afraid to lose that money. We can always just show them the money by doing the math and doing some planning. We pretty much show a family that the kid’s earnings aren’t going to impact anything. Just going to make it all better. 

Protection and Advocacy. You know, the PABSS agencies, again, provide legal assistance or legal advice. They could provide just support. If somebody has a food stamp reduction hearing coming up, maybe it’s just a matter of coaching somebody. Could be a matter of representing somebody, in which case they’d be providing advocacy services. This ranges from everything from those other benefits – or housing. A rental increase from the housing agency. Is it proper? Is it correct? Are there work incentives that we could use with the housing authorities? So, there’s a lot of stuff that goes into planning. And PABSS can help run interference with those agencies. I was a PABSS attorney in my last job before I came to Cornell, and we did everything from overpayments, to evictions, you know, to those food stamp and TANFF hearings, you know, where work incentives were not applied appropriately.

And even if they had concerns with their employers. Some of the concerns were minor and trivial, but they provided serious barriers to somebody’s ability to get their job done. You know, so they became incredibly important. And wouldn’t cost the employer a cent, but they needed to hear it from somebody other than their employee.

So, how do you find these folks? If you are an employment network, you should know how to find them all. But this choosework.ssa.gov/findhelp website, again, this another one, almost every day, if I get a caller, you know, who wants to participate in the Ticket program, I can get on that website. It doesn’t matter where they are in the country, all I need is their zip code, and I can find help and give them a couple of phone numbers that they can contact. All of the state agencies are there. The VR services, as well as those for blind and visually impaired folks. The employment networks are there. The Work Incentives Planning and Assistance, the WIPA projects, are there. And the PABSS agencies are all there. And, again, none of them are the wrong door. None of them. Once you open one you pretty much open doors to all of them for any services that might be relevant to that provider.

And how do you choose a provider? Choosing a provider who is willing to work with you as a consumer is a very important notion here. You know, because the employment networks are doing the same things. All of these providers are doing the same things. Are you ready for the service that we offer? You know, can we make a success out of this consumer? 

And the consumers are looking for somebody that they’re comfortable to work with. That they trust. That they feel offers the supports that they need. 

Finding an EN, one of the most important things, you can take a look at what we tell consumers at http://bit.ly/finding-an-EN . 

Choosing the right EN, at https://bit.ly/choosing-EN. Very good things that you may want to provide to your prospective consumers as well.

And Jackie, that gets us to some questions.

JACKIE>> Thank you, Ray.

So, we’re going to pause here and take a few moments to address some of the questions that we’ve received from our audience on the Ticket program. 

So, Ray, the first question is, if a client wants to participate in the Expedited Reinstatement, EXR, program, would they begin with the SSA office?

RAY>> That’s where you would go. You know, it’s a small application process, but it is informally known as an EXR Request. You make that phone call. You know, you could begin with the Help Line on that one, the Social Security Help Line, you know, so you can begin with that to make the connections that you need. But the local office has to get that information from you, put it on the appropriate form, and ship it over to the state agency. So, that’s a good place to call.

Yeah, and again, no wrong doors here. Call the Help Line, you’re going to get that done. You call your employment network back, they’re going to get you connected with the Help Line or the Social Security office. But you want to start with Social Security.

JACKIE>> Thanks, Ray. We have another question on the EXR program. So, is there a deadline for EXR?

RAY>> The deadline is that the work stoppage or dropping below substantial gainful activity occurs within the 60 months, or five years, beginning the month of termination. If you haven’t been terminated from Social Security, you don’t need EXR. If you go beyond month 60 and your income becomes lower than SGA or your work stops, at that point you have to resort to a new application. So, you’ve got that five years. And you want to do this as soon as possible because you don’t want to be in a position where you’re not working and you have no benefits coming in.

JACKIE>> Thanks, Ray. The next question is, where can I access support incentives for youth in transition while they are still connected to a school district?

RAY>> You know, more and more school districts have benefits planners. And if that’s the case, because you’re involved educationally with a school, you could be involved with rehab services, you can begin with the school system. If they don’t have a benefits planner, reach out and get one. You know, it’s wonderful when those benefits planners are at the table to help transition-age kids in school because all of the benefits, you know, all of the family concerns, are nullified right when things are happening. You know, if somebody is graduating, and they’re moving into school, there’s some transition work to do there, too. No more high school, we’re going to college. There are some transition services that need to happen. And, again, those tend to be a little more (inaudible). We need to get in touch with the college disability office to make those contacts. Make requests for accommodations. But any of the people – you could have an employment network involved at that point. You could have a benefits planner. Hopefully you don’t need a PABSS person. But, again, no wrong door. And make sure you understand that all of these kids are priorities. They’re very important to all of us who do this work incentive work.

JACKIE>> Thanks, Ray. Those are some great resources. 

The next question also is around education. Could a beneficiary go to graduate school and still earn benefits?

RAY>> You know, yeah, you can go to graduate school. You know what I mean. Graduate school is going to be a big nut to crack because it’s expensive, as well as under grad is very expensive. So, we’re going to be looking probably at talking to a state agency. And people are looking, you know, when we’re talking about getting you the job you want, it may not be possible for you to walk into a state agency and say, I want to go to law school because I want to be a lawyer. You know, we need to look, is there something else you could do? Could we place you as a paralegal and let’s give you some work experience that’s related to law, you know, and see if you can make ends meet with that before we’re going to see if we’re going to put you through three years of law school. We want to make sure that that’s a good fit for you before a lot of money is spent.

So, yes, it’s possible. There may just be a couple of extra hoops to go through. Somebody with a severe disability who wants to work may need more than a BA, may need more than that bachelor’s degree program. Because, you know, the more education we have, the easier it is to have a sedentary job. And if somebody is severely physically or mentally disabled but knows they can do a job, you know, we need to get more education to get one of those jobs.

JACKIE>> We have a follow up to that, Ray. Are there other work incentives available for students?

RAY>> Oh, my god, yes. You know, we have to know who – what Social Security considers a student. You know, in order to be a student, you have to be attending regularly. And any level of education or any technical school. It’s about half time. So, we’re considering people’s disabilities when we are considering their educational goals.

They also have to be under age 22. But the student, you know, what are they called? The student earned income exclusion, SEIE. I don’t know why that didn’t come out of my mouth. Is a phenomenal work incentive. This year we’re talking about excluding up to $7,770. And Jayme, correct me if I’m wrong, but I think it’s $1,910.00 a month. Or $1,930.00. I’m not sure what the exact total is. But it’s a lot – 

JACKIE>> That sounds familiar, but, Ray, we’ll get the right number for you in just a sec.

RAY>> All right. Okay. Thank you.

It’s a lot of money. And notice that it’s not ten times the 1930, you know. And that’s because people have to go to school. So, if you’re in school, you’re not working full time. But in June, July, and August, you can go for broke. You know, you can make a lot of money. If I earn $2,000.00 a month during the summer, and I can exclude $1,930.00, I have $70.00 in countable income. This is an SSI benefit. It’s an SSI only work incentive. So, I’m not going – I’m worried about $70.00 in earned income? Well, if you subtract the first $65.00 of that, we have $5.00 left. And then divide by two. My SSI check is going to go down $2.50 (audio break). It also, in order to keep within that $2,000.00 resource limit that an SSI recipient has, allows you to consider things like an Able account so that you can actually save money. It’s much better than just paying your tuition ahead of time. You can put it into an account, earn a little interest, and then take the money out as you need to pay your tuition. It opens a lot of doors, not only for education, but even for financial literacy and just money handling. So, that was a great question.

JACKIE>> Thanks, Ray. Jayme was able to find that information for us, so for 2021, the student earned income exclusion amount increased by 1.3% to $1,930.00 per month but no more than $7,770.00 in 2021. 

RAY>> Thank you for finding that, Jayme.

JACKIE>> Okay. The next question we received, does the SCA change with the cost-of-living adjustment?

RAY>> It does. It changes every year as do trial work periods and some of the other – student earned income exclusions. A lot of the work incentives do increase every year. And there are rumors that this year’s increase could be six percent, so this is going to be a big jump in that area. But every year we get the news from Social Security as early as October for what will happen January 1 of 2022. It’s always a calendar year increase.

JACKIE>> Thanks, Ray. The next question, which I think is going to be our last question for this session. I work in family housing in Massachusetts. Can I partner with one of the mentioned agencies to work to help residents possibly choose work?

RAY>> Oh, absolutely. You know, and hi to my Massachusetts buds. Family housing is a marvelous place. It’s almost a captive audience, you know. So, little outreach sessions, you know, and bring in a benefits planner, bring in a representative from the state agency, or even some private ENs who are out there. We used to do that. The last one I remember doing was in Rhode Island, and we did that with the PABSS agency, with the benefits planners, with the state agency. And get everybody in there just to make your consumers aware of these work incentives and aware of the protections. You know, again, I’m going to repeat this. Oftentimes an SSI recipient is not concerned about $794.00. But they are concerned about their healthcare. And when you make it clear in a very informal and noncommittal manner that your healthcare is going to be protected for a very long time. And Massachusetts is a great example of where it’s very hard to lose your healthcare. You know, people are more comfortable making that first connection. And you’ll probably end up with four or five people who stop you before you go out of that presentation. So, I need phone numbers. I need to make contact. Can you talk to me now?

Yeah, you can partner with all – and the more partners, the better, I think. So, joining forces to make contact is a wonderful thing.

JAYME>> And this is Jayme Pendergraft. I will just second what Ray said and reiterate how important all those partnerships are. And we’re actually about to give you a bunch of tools that will help you provide information about the Ticket program and providers in your area to – to your clients. So, I’m going to go ahead and take over the presentation now. I know there are still a few more questions, and we will do our best to get to them before the end of the presentation. But today I’m going to be talking about how you can help spread the word about the Ticket program to the people that you serve.

I’d like to thank everybody for joining this afternoon. And I do want to reiterate, if you’re someone who receives Social Security benefits, a Ticket holder or beneficiary, and you’re attending today, welcome, we’re very happy you’re here. You may have noticed this may not be the best webinar for you as we’re talking to people who serve people with disabilities, but I hope you’re learning a lot. And I do just want to say that our WISE webinars are archived on the Choose Work website in WISE On Demand. And we’ll be back to what we’ll call our regular programming next month.

So, to get started, I’m going to talk a little bit about our website. This is where lots and lots of information lives, and if you’re looking for a new event or a new resource, it’s – it’s right there. A lot of it is on the home page, and any time we publish new content, we’ll likely have it featured either in that Events Spotlight that’s pictured in this image or this new blog post we have a little scroll with all of the new blog posts on the right-hand side. And, of course, we also have a big featured article right on that home page every month. This is where you will – you come to find information on what we’re doing, and what’s going on, and also what has happened. Like I mentioned, that WISE Webinar Archive. We also have a lot of very useful fact sheets and resources in our library to include success stories and fact sheets and tutorials. And I’m going to get a little more in detail on some of those tools for you.

Before I do that, though, we are going to ask that if you have a website and you think that this might be a good fit for you, we invite you to share the Choose Work website on your website. A lot of organizations feature us on their – under their employment category on their website and provide a link to either just the home page or also include some additional information about the Help Line. And we appreciate that very much and invite you to continue to do that.

So, Work Incentive Seminar Events, or WISE webinars. You’re in one right now. And these happen every single month. They are free, as you know, and they’re educational online sessions for beneficiaries, service providers, community partners, beneficiaries’ families and friends. Basically anyone who wants to learn about the Ticket to Work program.

As I mentioned, this – today’s webinar is kind of a special webinar as our audience is not our typical beneficiary audience but we’re talking with you as service providers. So, most months we do simply talk about the Ticket to Work program. We have a variety of different themes to recognize national observances such as National Mental Health Month, or we’ll focus in on a specific topic like Ticket to Work for young adults where we would talk about all of those great work incentives that Ray mentioned earlier.

You’re always invited to attend the webinars. We often share resources and information and anything new that we published will be mentioned in the webinar. So, if we have a new success story this month, we would talk about it during the webinar. And we do encourage you to subscribe to get webinar updates, and that’s at http://bit.ly/WISEsubscribe. 

As I mentioned a little while ago, we do have a webinar archive. All of our webinars are archived within two weeks. And you can see all of those in our WISE on Demand page. We do provide a full recording and a transcript of every webinar on that page. So, go check it out if you want to get more information on what we’ve covered in the last year or so.

The Choose Work blog. So, we have a very active blog. And we publish posts at least weekly, sometimes twice a week. And we share a variety of information for people looking for work. We share info about Social Security work incentives, the transition to work, financial independence. Again, anything that mentions or aligns with a national observance. So, we do try to share timely content and content that is of interest to our audience, which includes all of you. And what we encourage you to do for the blog is to share them with people, get them out. If you have an email newsletter, put a link in there if it’s applicable and you think that your recipients would be eager to read that information.

We also encourage you to volunteer to be a guest blogger if you think that you have a topic that may be new for our audience or that our audience would like to hear about and learn more about. And you can send an email to socialmedia@choosework.ssa.gov. 

And there are quite a few links in my presentation. They are all available in the weblinks pod. If you’re not able to access that, you can send an email to webinars@choosework.ssa.gov to get a list of all of these links because there are a lot coming up.

I mentioned success stories a little while ago. So, these are stories about real people who have actually used the Ticket to Work program and have achieved financial independence through work. We always encourage people to share these stories on their social media or in your newsletter. We find that first-hand experiences really go a long way to encourage others to try the program out or try to go back to work.

If you have worked with a Social Security beneficiary who has achieved financial independence through work and they want to share their story, we’d love to hear about it. Basically, all you’d need to do is send an email to stories@choosework.ssa.gov and let us know kind of what the story looks like. A little bit of background about the person. I would ask you not to send any of their private information like their address or anything like that, so don’t include any what we call PII in there. And we would need to make sure that the person gave you their permission to share their story as well. But we do encourage you to reach out if you have a story that you would like to share with us.

And all of our success stories are viewed and approved by Social Security. And if they’re selected, we would work with you to – to develop the story for publication. We would encourage you to try and get some photos of the person, potentially the person at work. So, we will work with you on the additional details for the success stories.

I do just want to add to the success stories, I’ll go back a second. So, while I have mentioned that the stories are about people who have achieved financial independence through work, I do want to add that we also have success stories that we call stepping stones. And these are people who have taken some sort of action to further their career. So, maybe they’ve gone back to school, like Ray talked about earlier. Or maybe they’re doing really well at a part-time job and they’re just about to make the jump to full time. Those are our stepping stones success stories. They’re also available on our success stories page on the website. And if you have a story like that, feel free to send it along as well.

Our Frequently Asked Questions and Fact Sheets, Ray mentioned one earlier. We just published What is the Ticket to Work Program? We also have several fact sheets about a variety of different work incentives. We also have information out there about benefits counseling, how to present your best self to employers, and a variety of other topics. I do encourage you to check those out, and the way that you all could use them is printing them or emailing them to the people you serve if they have questions about a particular topic. So, if somebody comes in and says, I’m not real sure about the interview process, what should I do, maybe you give them Presenting Your Best Self to Employers. Or if you have somebody who wants to know about the work incentive called the Pass Plan, we actually have two fact sheets about that. So, right there you could have that ready for them if you got that type of question to help steer them in the right direction.

Social media. We are very active on all of our social media accounts. And our next slide here talks about how to connect with us on social media. We’re on Facebook at choosework. We’re on Twitter at chooseworkssa. YouTube at choosework. And LinkedIn, our company page, is ticket-to-work. 

And this brings me to the end of my section of the slides, but I do want to encourage you all. The purpose of this presentation today was to get the answers out to a lot of – or get information out to a lot of people about the Ticket program and give you the tools and resources you need to share information with the people you serve. 

We encourage you to check out all of our resources and also, as Ray mentioned, to start building those partnerships with the organizations in your community. So, I hope that you have become more familiar with who they may be. If you’re still not sure where to find them, you can go to our Find Help tool on the website, put in your zip code, and that’s where you can see who all of those partners in the audience – where all those partners are.

So, it looks like Ray’s audio has dropped. Can I just do a quick test? Ray, are you out there?

Okay, so I guess I will cover these slides. 

But, again, let me just reiterate, we do encourage you, like I said, to start sharing this information. If you would like to sign up for our email updates, you can go to the home page, and on the top right-hand corner there’s a Contacts section. And you can sign up for gov delivery updates from us. And that’s basically our email server, so you’ll get information as you choose, but you would get notifications about new blog posts, new resources, or these WISE webinars.

So, now I’m going to check again. Ray, are you back?

RAY>> I think I am.

JAYME>> I can hear you. And we are up to slide 48 for you to talk about Join the Team.

RAY>> All right. I am – I think I’m connected twice, unfortunately. Let’s see if I can turn my computer – all right. I think that will do it. Can you hear me now, Jayme?

JAYME>> I sure can. Go ahead, Ray.

RAY>> Okay.

(Inaudible) better.

I’m just trying to learn how to use my computer. 

Okay. So, let’s talk about Join the Team: Become an Employment Network. And I gotta tell you again, employment networks are very important to this whole system. And we have some really good ones out there who can help you join the team.

An EN is an organization or group of organizations that provides, coordinates, and delivers employment, VR information, and other support services to assist our beneficiaries to enter, maintain, and advance in employment. That one bullet encompasses a lot of what we talk about here. Encompasses everything from getting a job, to on-the-job supports to make sure you can maintain the job, as well as advancing, which could relate back to, okay, now I’m at the point where I do need that advanced degree in order to improve my situation and advance in this company.

ENs can be for profit or not for profit. You know, the state VR agency is a good one. It’s a not-for-profit agency. You know, a lot of ENs are for profit. They are working with clients who they believe will progress and make progress so that they can be reimbursed by Social Security for their services. All kinds of state and local agencies serve as providers.

You know when I was, again, at the law center in Boston, I was encouraging my own director to become an EN. We were providing all of these services already, let’s just participate with the Ticket to Work.

Or a group of all of these people. You know, you’ll see lots of ENs, the bigger ones, that serve several states, you know, the Mid-Atlantic area. You know, people who have smaller ENs that are now reaching out nationwide and serve many states. They may be the same agency; they may be subsidiaries of an agency. You know, what you can create, even if you are a one-person shop today, is pretty much only limited by, again, your imagination and the regulations Social Security has in place.

The benefits of becoming an employment network. You know, the Ticket program is an outcome-based program. So, it can very easily be integrated into your existing business model, which is what I was trying to convince my director of. You know, we already provide these services. We already achieve outcomes for our clients. We help them achieve their own outcomes. And we help. Let’s get reimbursed for some of this. If you’re a nonprofit, it’s nice to have some money coming in on a regular basis. 

The payments are based on a beneficiary achieving milestones and outcomes. That could be when a beneficiary has completed a rehabilitation or educational program. That could be that my consumer has begun earning at one-half of the trial work level this year. $420.00, something like that. $430.00, where you could be getting outcome payments to support working with that client.

Associated with work, of course, and earnings a beneficiary achieves after working with the EN. Yeah. It’s not – it’s not a lot of thinking to see how your individual business right now could adopt this as a model and fit it in and provide a stream of income to provide one consumer, which turns into providing services to another, and then you have an ongoing process of helping many.

The program is going to help beneficiaries reduce reliance on Social Security benefits. And eventually to become financially independent through work. 

And notice that might be two different groups of people. Reducing your reliance on Social Security benefits is a good thing. We have to understand that what we have going on is these people are all severely disabled. And they may not have capacity to become completely independent of benefits. But they’re still a success if they work to their best and highest capacity. 

But financial independence is the one thing that benefits everybody. It benefits us as taxpayers. It benefits the consumers because they are going to have more money and a job. And jobs come with more benefits than just the money. 

An EN can use Ticket payment revenue at its discretion, too. The EN can choose to accept a Ticket and assign it, you know, which is going to be a marvelous thing because a Ticket brings a lot of other things to it. And, you know, it’s at your discretion. If I’m interviewing with you and saying I want a job, am I sincere? Am I likely to make the progress that’s going to allow you to be reimbursed? You know, you’re making a business decision. And that’s important to remember. You’re not required to help everybody that knocks on the door. And that’s going – and that’s a benefit to everybody as well, frankly.

Let’s learn more about this stuff. 

Frequently Asked Questions are found at http://bit.ly/become-an-en. And as Jayme said, they’re all in the weblinks pod under their non-technical names.

Qualifications for becoming an EN. Are you all set up? Do you have the licenses that you need? You know, by the state that you live in.

Download an application. Downloading an application isn’t a scary thing. We have lots of people said, my god, it’s a hundred pages long. Well, it’s not. There’s lots of instructions, suggestions, things like that to fill out a standard application.

And questions about becoming an EN. You know, Social Security wants you to become an EN. They’re going to encourage and help. So, if you contact ENOperations@yourtickettowork.ssa.gov, those people are going to be there to provide you with some assistance.

Kind of like no wrong door for employment networks that want to join the team.

Okay, Jackie and Jayme, you’re up.

JACKIE>> All right. Thank you, Ray and Jayme.

So, we are going to go ahead and break for some more questions. The first question, Jayme, is for you. How do we request that our agency be recommended as an employment network?

JAYME>> That one’s actually sort of for Ray, but as Ray just discussed, I’d encourage you to talk with – if you’re talking about speaking with your boss or something like that, I’d encourage you to reach out to provide some of the information we gave today about becoming an employment network or some of those websites that Ray mentioned will provide information about that. And you just have to apply, so there’s really no request process but all you have to do is apply.

Ray, did I miss anything?

RAY>> No, I think you got it. I think you got it, you know. I mean, you know, when I did it with my director, I just explained, we’re doing this already. The only thing we’re missing is the reimbursement. And in our nonprofit world, that reimbursement could be used to help the next client.

JACKIE>> Okay. Ray, the next question is for you. What is the referral process for VR and the age range?

RAY>> Well, you know, VR, state VR, is going to provide assistance to, you know, everybody on benefits from Social Security is a priority. So, they’re going to provide assistance to a lot of folks. You can begin working with VR early as a transition-age youth because we have great programs for those folks. And if you’re an adult over 18, you’re going to go 18, again, up to 64. You know, you’re not going to be a priority when you’re 64. I’m 64 now. I am going to be 65 in a couple of weeks. At 65, I’m considered retired by these systems. So, they’re not going to spend a lot of money on rehabbing me for three weeks. So, we got to be reasonable about that, but, you know, I’m going to say up to 64, you know, because – or I should say through 64 because that’s what the law says. I’m going to say we’ve got to be practical and reasonable about this. If I’m in my fifties, that group between 35 and 55 are ripe for rehab services because there’s still a long time to work. But after that, we’ve just got to understand that after we’re 65 we are considered retired. So, with a, you know, with a little bit of hesitation I’m going to say all the way up to age 65.

JACKIE>> Thanks, Ray. The next question is for Ray. Can an individual who has applied for SSI but has not been approved yet receive assistance from the Ticket to Work program?

RAY>> No, you can’t. Once you are approved for SSI, and you have that disability decision, the favorable disability decision and know your amount of benefits, you could before payment starts. But you have to be eligible for a cash payment before you can participate in the Ticket to Work. 

You know, that’s not to say that there aren’t providers out there that we’re not involved with who won’t help you before. You know, it’s usually – you’re going to pay for those services though. But anybody who receives SSI benefits, who receives SSDI benefits, will be eligible for these programs.

JACKIE>> Thank you, Ray, for clearing that up.

Jayme, this question is for you. If we know someone who might be eligible for a Ticket to Work success story, how do we submit their information for consideration?

JAYME>> Just send us an email at stories@choosework.ssa.gov. Just give us a little bit of information about what the story looks like, and we will contact you. As I said earlier, please don’t include any of that person’s personal information and also make sure you have their permission to share their story with us.

JACKIE>> Thanks, Jayme. Ray, I’ve got another question for you. If the six provisional payments are paid and there is still no decision of SSA on EXR, does SSA pay benefits retro to months after sixth provisional payment?

RAY>> No, they don’t. The way the law reads is Social Security can provide up to six months of provisional benefits. And that gives the Disability Determination Services in your state six months to determine whether you’re eligible for reinstatement. And, you know, because benefits will stop in month six, this doesn’t happen very often, but, you know, if you get to month seven, there’s not going to be a payment. And there won’t be a payment until that eligibility decision is made. So, you gotta watch that. If you have a benefits planner, if you have an EN, and you’re going through this process, that provider can help you reach out to Social Security in month four if you don’t have a favorable decision. You know, if you – if you’re doing this on your own, because beneficiaries do find work, just reach out to the Social Security office and see what’s going on and give a little nudge so that everybody gets that decision before six months is over.

JACKIE>> Thanks, Ray. The next question is for you. When trying to help 18+ young adults, they required someone to prompt them through work tasks. Is there a resource for finding this kind of help for on-the-job success?

RAY>> Absolutely. I would start with making contact with your other partner, the state VR agencies. They’re going to know who these providers are because they’re in the pro – you know, they’re in the process of doing that for a lot of people. And it’s not necessarily services that are provided by the VR counselor. You know, so there are lots of people out there who provide vendor services to state VR agencies. You know, other employment networks are going to be able to help you locate jobs – job coaches, people like that, who can prompt. Shadow workers, you know, you could have a job coach that’s shadowing a worker to make sure things are done appropriately until that worker gets up to speed. But, yeah, I would start with the VR agency because they are the big – the big kid on the block. You know, there aren’t many providers that are that big and have that many resources. And it’s not a problem for an EN to say, hey, we can get you these services, but we need to reach out to the state agency. You know, smaller ENs are not going to have funding to provide on-the-job supports that are going to be very comprehensive. We can work and partner with other people at the table, and VR – and state VR is the way to do that.

JACKIE>> Ray, a follow up to that is can you talk a little bit about the work incentives specifically for that age group?

RAY>> Yeah. You know, all of the work incentives that we talk about are actually available for that group. You know, the Ticket program, to get a Ticket to Work, requires that somebody be a disabled adult, so there is this event called the Age 18 Redetermination which moves somebody from a disabled child into disabled adult status. So, they need to go through that review before they get their ticket. But they are eligible for a ticket after that. We have the student earned income exclusion that we spent time on. IRWEs are available. 

So, let’s say – let’s just say I’m a precocious kid, and I earn $2,500.00 in June, my first month out of school. I get $1,930.00. That leaves me with $570.00 that count. What about impairment-related work expenses? Do I have anything, any copays for medications, any over the counter things – items or medications that I need for my disability and need to work and I’m paying for without reimbursement. You know, that could be used when we tally those up. How about assistance, getting ready for work, getting cleaned up, to eating, and assistance getting ready from work? We can reduce that $570.00 by more money.

You know, and then if, in fact, we have somebody – I’m going to use that young adult who needs prompts – is that adult performing for the employer to the same capacity that every other employee is? If they’re not, on the disabled adult child benefit now called childhood disability benefit, you might have an employer subsidy. And if they’re performing at 75%, 25% of the income doesn’t count. So, there are lots of just regular adult work incentives for adults who are not students that also are going to apply. It’s just that that student earned income exclusion is the first deduction when you take earned income into consideration.

So, if I’m a kid that earned $1,200.00 in the month of June, none of it counts. You can deduct up to $1,930.00, so I don’t need any of the other work incentives. But if I’m precocious and earn a lot of money, I will then have the rest of the work incentives to fall back on. Remember, we said that there were 20 – at least 20 – of them out there that you can use.

That Redbook – 

(Inaudible.)

Yeah, I’m going to give another plug for the Redbook. If you go online when we’re done and download that Redbook, all of those work incentives are going to be there.

JACKIE>> Thank you, Ray, that was a great plug.

So, unfortunately, we are out of time. We hope you – we hope you have received some answers to your questions on the Ticket program. And thank you so much to Ray and Jayme for being with us today and sharing your knowledge of the Ticket to Work program.

RAY>> Any time. And always great to work with Jayme.

JAYME>> Thanks, Ray, I’m happy to be here, too, and I encourage you all to take some of the next steps we’ve identified in this webinar. Thank you for attending.

Go ahead, Jackie.

JACKIE>> Thanks. Before we wrap up today, here are a few ways to connect with Ticket to Work. You can contact the Ticket to Work Help Line at 1-866-968-7842. Or for TTY, 1-866-833-2967. They are available Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

Or you can visit the Ticket to Work website at choosework.ssa.gov any time.

You can also find us on social media or subscribe to the blog and email updates by visiting choosework.ssa.gov/contact/index.html. This link appears in the weblinks pod under the Ticket to Work Contact Information.

Get advice and encouragement and read success stories from people who have had success with help from the Ticket to Work program. To receive messages from the Ticket to Work program, text “ticket” to 474747. Standard messaging rates may apply. You may opt out at any time. 

Please join us for our next WISE webinar: Ticket to Work: Support on Your Journey to Employment which will be held on Wednesday, September 22, 2021, from 3:00 to 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time. Registration is open, and we look forward to having you attend. To register online, go to choosework.ssa.gov/WISE. Or you can call 1-866-968-7842. Or for TTY, 1-866-833-2967. 

Your feedback is very important to us and helps us plan for future webinars. Please provide your feedback and tell us what you think about today’s webinar by taking our survey. To take the survey, you can follow the link that will pop up after the webinar or visit the Ticket to Work website to complete the survey. This survey can also be found in the weblinks pod.

Thank you again for attending today to learn about the Ticket program. Please take the opportunity to reach out to any of the great resources we discussed today. 

This concludes today’s webinar. Have a wonderful evening.