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		   National Disability Institute
		 American Dream Employment Network 
			     March 21, 2024
				 2:30 p.m. EST  

[Captioner standing by] 
>> BETHANY TOBIN: Hello, everybody, as you get connected to audio.  We'll start our recording in just a few minutes.  
[Recording in progress] 
>> BETHANY TOBIN: Hello, everyone.  Welcome to today's webinar on social security work incentives A message for hope for Social Security Disability beneficiaries.  Our main speaker is going to be Kevin Nickerson and we're so happy you are with us today.  
For  ‑ ‑  the audio for today's meeting can be accessed by using computer audio or calling by phone.  You select computer audio, make sure your speakers are turned on or headphones are plugged in.  
If you do not have sound capabilities on your computer, or prefer to listen by phone dial 877‑ 853‑ 5257.  Meeting ID, 87992163330.  Realtime captioning is provided during this meeting.  The captions can be found by clicking CC to show subtitles at the bottom of the screen.  You can click CC button and choose, show full transcript to, have the full transcript appear on the said  ‑ ‑  the side of the screen.  
We suggest deaf, deaf blind and hard of hearing participants use a deck top, laptop or tablet instead of a phone.  If you would like to see the interpreter on full screen, choose the interpreter's box, and click on the three dots in the corner and then choose "pin video."  
Some housekeeping before we get started.  The PowerPoint is not available for distribution.  A recording of this webinar will soon be available for viewing at NationalDisabilityInstitute.org/ADEN/participant‑ resources.  Please use the chat box to send questions to Michelle Bornhoft.  If you are listening by phone only, e‑ mail questions to info@AmericanDreamEN.org.  
If you experience any technical difficulties during this meeting, please use the chat box to send a message to the host, Bethany Tobin.  Or info@AmericanDreamEN.org e‑ mail.  Kevin Nickerson is our presenter today.  Please do not message him through the chat.  He will be unable to answer.  
With that, I'll hand it over to Michelle.  
>> MICHELLE BORNHOFT: Awesome, thank you so much, Bethany.  
For today's agenda, we're going to be discussing who ADEN is, who is the American Dream Employment Network, Kevin  will compare the SSA programs.  He'll do an overview of incentives and benefits.  How to get help in return to work and overview of SSI benefits and work incentives.  
Who we are, ADEN is an Administrative Employment Network we've an approved employment network under the certificate program.  We're a consortium of service providers assisting individuals with disabilities who are receiving Social Security Disability benefits and want to return to employment or begin working for the first time.  ADEN began in 2015 and helping hundreds of Social Security Disability beneficiaries achieve their own version of the American dream.  
ADEN is a division of the National Disability Institute, or NDI, with a mission that individuals with disabilities should be empowered financially through employment that leads to increased self‑ sufficiency.  
You can learn more by visiting NationalDisabilityInstitute.org for more information.  ADEN is here to help.  Currently, there are over 13  million beneficiaries in the U.S. on SSI or SSDI benefits.  And majority are living in poverty.  Over 3500 ticketholders have chosen ADEN to support their employment goals.  
Many beneficiaries are not aware of Ticket to Work, or want to work but have limited options of employment networks.  ADEN is available in all states.  Evidence shows if you have support in obtaining employment and on going support while employed, you're more likely to succeed.  Disability benefits are complex.  ADEN has over 70 certified work practitioners in the network to help you understand benefits and available work incentives.  
We know that many at today's training are service providers.  Professionals like you have found joining ADEN a profitable business opportunity.  Sorry, you're seeing my cat in the background.  
Join our next intro to ADEN webinar to learn more about becoming a member of ADEN and provide employment services to job seekers with disabilities who want to leave their disability benefits behind.  
Our next intro to ADEN webinar is April  3rd 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time and we'll put a link in the chat to register if you're interested.  
I'll hand to over to Kevin Nickerson, our main presenter for today.  
>> KEVIN NICKERSON: Thanks, Michelle.  Thanks, Bethany, and for all of you who have joined us today.  I'm the Director here for the American Dream Employment Network.  An administrative employment network under social security Ticket to Work program.  For those that don't know me, I have been studying social security policy for over 25  years now.  It does not mean I know everything about social security policy.  I consider myself an ongoing student and continue to learn things all the time.  
But what I am going to talk about today is about  ‑ ‑  and I hope it does provide some people hope that are on benefits.  You are the primary audience I want to talk to today.  
I'm going to talk about social security work incentives.  And show you how you can actually try returning to work without the fear of losing your cash benefits immediately or your healthcare, and we'll go through a lot of those details.  
So you won't be an expert for sure when we're done today, but I hope to highlight some things that will make you  ‑ ‑  I hope convince you that there is at least an opportunity to try this.  
Having provided this information a few times over the years, we have figured out that it is probably a good place to start by sharing with you a comparison of the two main social security programs, disability programs, so that's where I'm going to  ‑ ‑  start today.  There are two main programs I'll talk about today.  One is Social Security Disability Insurance or SSDI.  And supplemental social security or SSI.  We'll talk about differences between these two but I'll start with comparisons between the two programs because it's confusing.  
I've talked to thousands of people over the years and often, people don't know which benefit they get.  Can I can assure you when we get done, you will know which benefit you receive.  Let's talk about disability first.  Title II is where that falls under the Social Security Act that includes disability insurance and retirement and survivor's benefits as well.  In comparison, SSI falls under Title XVI of the Social Security Act and that's for people who are disabled, of course.  And also for people who are aged or blind.  What that means is, if you haven't developed enough of a work history before your retirement age, it's possible you wouldn't be eligible for retirement insurance benefits, and therefore, would be eligible for SSI.  
So back to the disability column here.  You have to have insured status based on your work history.  And I don't know if anybody knows what FICA taxes are, but if you've worked, you paid a bunch of them.  And that's where you're getting this insured status from.  From your contributions to the system through taxes.  
And specifically that's called the Federal Contribution Act.  That's where it's collected and eligible to be insured if we ever need it.  It's a distinction of that program which is SSI, which requires no work history.  
So to be fair, and disability insurance benefits came about after  ‑ ‑  sometime after World War  II, I believe.  Don't quote me on that.  And much later, it was around the mid‑ '70s, SSI came about.  I think lawmakers understood that while this disability insurance program was good and helped a lot of people, it didn't account for people who couldn't develop a work history because maybe they had a disability from birth and they were dealing with this all through their life.  So SSI came about as a result.  
You do have to have enough social security called credit of coverage to be insured to get disability insurance benefits if needed.  Most cases, it has to be recent.  There are exceptions to the rule for example, for blindness.  You have to have the credit.  It doesn't have to be recent.  
Another thing to know if terms of disability insurance is that there can be benefits not recipients family.  For example, the spouse can collect even a divorced spouse, whether you like it or not, could collect.  A disabled child could collect.  Or depends that are minors could collect benefits based on your insured status as a former worker.  
For SSI, it's different.  It's a needs‑ based program because it's not insurance, right.  So there are no benefits to the recipient's family.  It's for the individual.  
From is, for disability insurance, a five‑ month waiting period once you are found eligible before you will receive cash benefits.  For SSI, there's no waiting period.  For disability insurance, it's not uncommon for there to be waiting periods for insurance programs.  
And the same is true for disability insurance.  But again, for SSI, there's no waiting period.  Now, don't be confused when I say there's no waiting period.  If you are somebody that gets SSI and you're thinking when I applied, I waited a long time.  Well, that's different.  That's the eligibility process you went through.  But from the point at which social security says you are eligible, there would not be an additional waiting period where they would be for disability insurance.  
Looking at disability insurance or SSDI, there can be retro active payments possible for this benefit.  Up to 12  months prior to the application.  Again, points to the fact this is an insurance program.  Where for SSI, if you are found eligible, you will only be paid as of the first day of the month following the month of application.  
Some additional comparisons here.  For SSDI, this amazes some folks that are not super clear about these policies.  Again, I won't make you an expert today but I hope to enlighten you in terms of things that will help you know basics about these two benefits.  For SSDI, there's no resource limit.  You could have a million dollars in the bank and apply for this benefit if you needed it because you had to stop working.  So there's absolutely no resource limit for SSDI.  
In contrast, for SSI, because it is needs‑ based, we already talked about that, there is a resource test.  And the resource test is quite low.  In fact, currently, for single individuals, the resource test is $2,000.  For married individuals, it's $3,000.  So you can't have a lot of available funds and be eligible for this program.  
For disability insurance, Medicare would be the insurance that you would eventually become eligible for.  There is a 24‑ month waiting period from the point at which you become eligible for your first cash benefit.  So if you've been listening carefully, you know I talk about a five‑ month waiting period to get cash benefits after you're found eligible.  That means after that five months, there's another 24  months you would have to wait to become eligible for Medicare insurance.  
In about two‑ thirds of the state, for SSI.  In contrast, you're eligible for Medicaid and it's automatic if you're eligible for SSI.  There's no additional application.  And the other third of the states, there is another application to determine if you are also eligible for Medicaid.  So that would be the insurance connected to SSI.  
I call it Medicaid generally.  I understand in some states it might be have a variation of that name.  For disability insurance, checks are one month behind.  So, for example, if you get a check next month in April, it's going to be for March, the previous month.  
For SSI, checks are paid in the month in which it's received.  So that check you get in April for SSI is for April.  And one of the last things I'll talk about is when checks are paid, and I think this will help you if you are unsure and out there today wondering, I'm not sure which benefit I do get, this will help you.  
For disability insurance, the timing of when you get paid your benefit check is on the 3rd of the month, or a Wednesday thereafter.  And that Wednesday thereafter is based on your birth date.  I won't get into that.  It's not really important, but it will be on the 3rd of the month or a Wednesday after that.  If it's SSDI.  
For SSI, you're always going to be paid on the first of the month with some exceptions to the rule because of holidays and that sort of thing.  But for the most part, it will be on the first.  So now you know which benefit you're getting if you are questioning that.  
I want to dive into work incentives because that's what you probably wanted to hear today if you are out there again, I hope I'm talking to beneficiaries who have thought about working and you're just not sure if you can.  So this is the hope I want to provide you today.  And it comes in the form of social security work incentives.  
They're different for SSI versus SSDI.  I want to start with SSDI beneficiaries.  I'm speaking specifically to you.  We identified when you get paid and you hopefully know which benefit you receive if you were unsure before.  So for disability insurance beneficiaries, let's talk about work incentives available to you.  
The first, and most powerful work incentive available to disability insurance beneficiaries is the trial work period.  This is a nine‑ month period of time.  It's a rolling period.  It does not have to be consecutive, which is why I'm saying that.  And it will occur within 60  months.  It doesn't have to, and I'll explain that, too.  But for any months, any of needs nine  ‑ ‑  these nine months you can earn any amount of money without impacts your SSDI eligibility or cash benefits.  If that surprises, you that's great.  This nine‑ month trial work period allows you to try working for those nine‑ month, earn any amount of money, and keep your cash benefits and, of course, if you're already eligible, your Medicare.  
Now, social security has a way to gauge whether you've used these months or not.  Of course you have to be working, right.  But it isn't just that you're working.  Social security has established a guideline which is increasing each year.  This year, the guideline is $1,110 in a month.  If you earn that much or more, social security will say you've used one of your trial work period months.  
Again, that's the amount for 2024.  And one of the reasons we provide this training each year.  Because we want to update you with newer numbers.  So you have these nine months.  If you earn more than that $1,110, you've used one of those months.  Again, they don't need to be consecutive.  And the purpose is to evaluate your ability to go back to work.  And if you use this wisely, to evaluate your ability to work as much as possible.  That's how I would use it.  
In other words, I wouldn't like to see somebody go to work and earn just $1,111 because it will still count as one of these month.  But most likely it's only going to test your ability  ‑ ‑  it's going to test your ability to work part time.  If you are going to use your trial work period, use them wisely.  See how much work you can do and use this for the evaluation tool it is, and opportunity.  
So what do we do next?  We've used these Trial Work Period months.  Is that the end of the story?  It is not.  Because after that comes another part of the incentive package social security assembled for you called Extended Period of Eligibility.  This is a three‑ year period that will begin the month after the ninth Trial Work Period has been used.  We just talked about how you use your Trial Work Period months.  Once they're used, the ninth month is used, the month after that becomes the first month of your 36‑ month Extended Period of Eligibility.  
And 36  months later, this period is over whether you are working or not.  That's important to understand.  Another thing I'll point to in terms of how to use your incentives wisely.  Let's talk about what this does for you.  Any month during this 36‑ month Extended Period of Eligibility you have earnings, what social security calls countable earnings, that are above the substantial gainful activity level or SGA level, okay, any months that you're over that amount, you won't be paid any months you're below that amount, you will be paid.  
That's the test.  That's what social security will look at.  They will look at your earnings each month in this 36‑ month period and determine whether to pay you or not.  But even if you're not paid while you're in this 36‑ month period because you are above that SGA level, you are still connected to the program.  You're still a beneficiary.  
In 2024, as I said, the SGA level  ‑ ‑  I didn't share this.  The SGA level is 1550 for this year.  That's what the non‑ blind rate S. Yes, there is a separate SGA rate for people who have a primary disability of blindness.  That would mean when you became eligible for benefits, the primary disability for which you became eligible is blindness.  
If that's your situation, that means your SGA rate is 2590.  I mentioned this before, but when your countable wages exceed that SGA level and social security see as pattern of earnings above that level, they will decide the beginning of that pattern will become your cessation month and that will plan to  ‑ ‑  they'll provide that month and two months after that as what they call a grace period.  But after that is over, then you would go into suspended benefit status, assuming you are continuing to earn over that SGA level.  
So let's just follow‑ up a little bit more about that extended period of eligible.  Remember, after that grace period ends, the disability cash benefit are suspended if countable earnings are more than the SGA level.  If earnings fall below that SGA level any month during this 36‑ month period, your benefit is reinstated.  I've heard some call it an easy on, easy off period.  There's no reapplication to get your benefits back because you've never been terminated in this 36‑ month period.  You may be suspended as we discussed, but you will not be terminated.  
Again, this is a period to evaluate your ability and that's how you should view this.  It's an opportunity.  I look at it as a safety net that social security has put under you allowing you to try work and not necessarily keep your cash benefit if in months you're over that SGA level, but certainly keeping your connection to the program as a beneficiary.  We didn't talk about this, but I can tell you that your Medicare is also protected during this entire period and beyond.  And we'll talk more about that later.  But you don't have to worry about that.  
What I want to focus on is, what happens to the cash benefit once you've initiated this?  And remember how this is initiated; by using the Trial Work Period.  And there's nothing wrong with that.  I want people to try working and seeing how they're going to do.  Once we move into this Extended Period of Eligibility, it really is an opportunity for you to try working and earning maybe enough to be self‑ sufficient and see if that's possible.  
And to learn from this period of time if it's not possible.  If it is not, well, you simply need to stop working above that SGA level and you'll go back into pay for benefits.  If it is possible, it offers you a period of time to continue to work at that level, see if you will remain stable, so that you can decide if it is worth leaving benefits behind.  That's the purpose of the Extended Period of Eligibility.  
I don't know about you, but I'm kind of a visual person.  So even though we went through this, ill like to go through it one more time but using this chart I used for many years.  It honestly helps me to keep this straight for the folks that I've worked with over the years.  
And I also want you to understand that it is possible, I'm talking to people that have used some of their incentive package.  We know that.  There are ways in which we can help you to discover what work incentives you have already used, if that's the case.  
For this example I'm showing you, this visual depict of this, what I call the SSDI time line, let's assume this person has not use the any of this work incentive package.  So, again, what would you get in this work incentive time line?  You'll get a Trial Work Period.  Just reviewing it one more time.  A Trial Work Period, nine months, where you can work and earn as much as you want with no penalties.  You're keeping your cash benefit, you're keeping your insurance, no questions asked.  
Social security looks at a Trial Work Period as being used when you are working and earning more than the trial work level, which for 2024 is 1,001  ‑ ‑  1,110.  As soon as you hit the 1,111 in a month, you used one of your months.  They would say, you used one, you have eight left.  
When you use all nine within a 60‑ month period of time, in that rolling window of time is to protect people who may have a disability, by the way, that's intermittent that may take them out of work for long periods of time.  It's possible for some of those trial work months to fall off that 60‑ month time line if they were very old.  But assuming you use all nine trial work months by earning more than $1,110 a month, in the next part of the period it would begin called the Extended Period of Eligibility.  It will start after the ninth month of the trial period is used and will end 36  months later.  
During that EPE, you have a safety net under you, remember.  And social security will look at your earnings each month to evaluate whether to pay you your cash benefits or not.  If you're over what social security calls the SGA or Substantial Gainful Activity Level, which we already talked about, for this year is $1,550 a month for the non‑ blind rate and 2590 for the blind rate.  If you're over that and during this extended period of eligibility, social security will say, we want pay you your benefit that month.  But you're still connected to the program as a beneficiary.  You haven't been terminated, you might go into suspended status.  
Remember, I did say that you also get a three‑ month grace period that would happen sometime after the trial work period.  So you get the nine months and the additional three‑ month grace period that I can assure you will keep you and pay for your benefits.  
So it really is 12‑ month, right, that you're going to be able to keep your cash benefits.  Now, I did mention you don't have to worry about losing Medicare.  This whole period and then beyond some, we'll talk about that in a subsequent slide.  It will keep you protected in Medicare coverage.  
Now, what I didn't mention is, at the end of this time line, you can see the arrow continues beyond that 36  months, right.  Well, what happens after that 36  months?  Well, if you continue to work and earn more than the SGA level, social security would then decide to terminate your benefit.  If you continue to work, but you're below the SGA level, you would stay in pay for benefits.  
But after the Extended Period of Eligibility is over, that safety net is gone  ‑ ‑  at least this particular safety net.  I'll talk about another one which I think you'll appreciate.  And then social security might look at benefits termination.  
Just a side note for folks, we've helped a lot of people become successfully terminated from benefits, and we're very excited about that.  When I say "successfully terminated from benefits," it means we thought it through, had a plan with the person, they knew it was coming and it's what they wanted because self‑ sufficiency was the goal.  So those are the basic work incentives for SSDI, but there are more work incentives I want to talk about that can help you when you go to work.  
The first of which is called an impairment represented work expense.  What's an IRWE?  It helps disabled beneficiaries working, and may have work experiences related to going to work and their disability than somebody who is not disabled.  To even that up for people who are disabled and working, social security created this additional work incentive.  
With this incentive, you're allowed to have expenses, certain qualifying expenses  ‑ ‑  I'll explain here  ‑ ‑  to be valued by social security and not counted as income.  I alluded to the fact earlier that social security makes decisions about whether you're gainfully employed by looking at your countable income.  
So how do they know what to count?  Is it gross wages?  Well, during the Trial Work Period it would be.  But after the Trial Work Period, it wouldn't be just gross wages.  So when we're in that Extended Period of Eligibility or beyond is what I'm talking about.  In a simple formula I kept in my head over the years is, gross wages minus work incentives equals countable wages.  And that's what we're going to talk about here.  
This is one way to reduce gross wages that social security looks at.  IRWE would exist when the following apply.  Somebody with a disability has an expense that's directly related to enabling that person to work.  Not just any old expense.  This is an expense that's related to the person working.  
It's also related to the person's medical condition.  Social security actually calls it a medically determinable condition because it doesn't necessarily have to be the exact condition for which you became eligible for benefits.  It could be another condition that still needs attention, let's say.  And needs some expenses to allow you to work.  
One of the other criteria is this expense has to be paid for out of your pocket.  It can't be paid for by somebody else or some other entity.  You've paid for it.  How will they know?  Because you will provide receipts.  Generally, the expense must be paid for in a month the beneficiary is working.  I say "generally" because there are extraordinary expenses people will incur that would fall under this provision that maybe they were paying for to get ready for work within the last 12‑ month period.  
An example I think of is, for example, a modification to a vehicle.  Very expensive.  Necessary to allow the person to work, definitely related to their condition, paid for out of pocket, but took many months to get prepared for work because it was very expensive.  So there are exceptions to the rule as always with social security you will find.  
Last, but not least, the expense must be reasonable.  I use a silly example of somebody that uses a cane very much would be something that would qualify as an IRWE.  A gold plated cane, however, would look nice, but not be reasonable, right.  So I think you get the message.  This, by the way, incentive can be used with SSI and SSDI beneficiaries, but has a different impact for both beneficiaries.  
For SSDI beneficiaries, the IRWE can be used to reduce gross wages as I mentioned leaving less countable wages for social security to examine when they are making decisions about whether you are gainfully employed.  A really basic example.  Joe is earning $1,650 gross per month and he has $150 in allowable IRWE expenses.  I'm bypassing all mechanics of what would qualify as an IRWE, how would we get it I  ‑ ‑  I proved because we only have so much time today.  Say it's an expense social security allows.  They would take the $1,650 in gross wages, subtract $150 in IRWE expenses and that would leave $1,500 in countable wages or what counts, right.  
So for 2024, that $1,500 is less than the SGA level of $1,550 for month after deducting that IRWE.  So the result would be that Joe would continue to receive his cash benefit even though he was earning more than the SGA level.  So for disability beneficiaries, what a work incentive like this does is allows you to continue to get paid your cash benefit even if you're over the SGA limit, but not quite enough over to make it worthwhile to leave your benefit behind.  I hope that makes sense.  We would look at this in situations where somebody is slightly over SGA maybe and has some of these expenses that could be written off.  So we can allow that person to continue to be paid their benefit for a little while longer until they're in a better situation with work so that it is very much worth leaving benefits behind when SSA stops cash payments.  
I like to think of work incentives as a bridge to self‑ sufficiency.  Now for SSI recipients, an IRWE is used differently.  It's the same criteria as what counts, but the way social security looks at it, and the impact it has is different for SSI.  We'll be doing some formulas in a moment and you'll see that SSI is very much driven by the math.  But ensure an IRWE can, in some cases, allow SSI recipients to recoup one half of the expenses they incurred who the work related work expense and that would be realized in an increased SSI benefit.  It can help to increase their SSI cash benefit a little.  You won't recoup all, but up to one half of that cost out of pocket.  
I don't want to detract from the DI or SSDI folks, we're still talking about your benefits now.  Let's talk about another incentive.  One more additional incentive which is not used a lot actually.  Over the years I've employed this in situations in made sense.  What is it?  A subsidy exist when an employer willingly pays more in wages than the value of services performed by an employee.  That's called an employer subsidy.  It comes right from the policy.  
That might seem a little harsh.  You might think, aren't I worth what I'm being paid?  And I don't think that's the point here in case folks are wondering.  I like to look at it as honoring a situation that is social security honoring a situation where an employer might be doing something different for somebody with a disability, they're still getting the full wage, but maybe they're doing something a little different that allows them to continue to work.  You could even think of it like some kind of an accommodation, right.  
I think that's how we can best wrap our heads around what a subsidy is for our purposes today.  There is, what I think of, the cousin to subsidy called special conditions.  This is when somebody receives full value  ‑ ‑  of their wages  ‑ ‑  only because some agency provides extra services to the employee.  You might wonder what that's all about.  I can tell you in short, this might apply to something like a job coach who goes on site and helps somebody, and they're paid for that job coach by another agency.  And it's a service that's available.  So that would be under the umbrella of subsidy but slightly different called special conditions.  
I just really wanted you to know that these exist.  Again, not teaching you the mechanics of how it works or how you would submit this to social security.  That's a different matter.  But for purposes of what I want you to know today, this subsidy can actually, again, reduce the amount of wages that social security looks at.  
Again, leaving less countable wages that social security examines when they're making a Substantial Gainful Activity determination.  So let's use our simple example again.  Now it's Jane earning again, $1,650 gross per month.  And Jane has $150 per month in subsidized wages.  We won't get into what that is or why.  Say it's approved by social security.  
What they would do is, the same thing they did IRWE take 1650‑ gross, subtract $150 in subsidized wages that were approved, leaving $1,500 in countable wages.  Which again is less than the SGA level for this month after the application is subsidy.  Which means Jane continues to get paid her cash SSDI benefit even though she's a little bit over that SGA level.  This is a little bit contrary to what I told you before, but we have to build on these incentives, right.  I said, if you're in that EPE or outside of it and over SGA you won't get paid if you're over this amount, this SGA level.  And that's true with the exception of if there are certain incentives like this in play.  Like an IRWE, or like a subsidy.  
So as always, as I said earlier, there are sometimes exceptions to the rule with social security.  As a side note, I want you to understand this incentive can only be used with SSDI beneficiaries.  Does not relate to SSI at all.  
So I hope, at this point, you're thinking wow, maybe there is hope after all, and I can try working.  And this sounds pretty good Kevin, but what happens if I go to work and all is going well, and I actually get even outside of that Extended Period of Eligibility and I'm still gainfully employed and there aren't incentives you talked about to help bring earnings below SGA, I'm making money and doing well, and social security terminates my benefit.  
But then, I have to stop working because of my condition rather rearing its ugly head again.  Now what do I do?  There did not used to be an answer for that when I started this a long time ago.  But and 2008, social security made improvements to the Ticket to Work program and improved other work incentives and this was one addition to the package that helped beneficiaries and it's called Expedited Reinstatement of Benefits.  This allows beneficiaries who are terminated, as I said, to get benefits reinstated.  I think of it as a back door to social security that allows you to get benefits again without a new application.  
Now, don't be confused when I say some of these things.  These are very specific applications of their policy.  When I say "there's not a new application," you're still going to fill out paperwork.  There's going to be some things they have to look at, but it's not considered a new application.  This would be looking at whether you are still disabled based on the application that you had and were terminated from because you went to work and were gainfully employed.  
Who is eligible?  This EXR can help beneficiaries be reinstated without that new application if the following are true: Benefits were stopped because of earnings from work.  Meaning, you were gainfully employed.  And then you were no longer able to be gainfully employed because of your condition.  And that condition is the same, or related to, the impairment that you had originally when you get benefits.  And last, this request has to be made in five years from when your benefits were terminated.  I do not say five years from the end of the Extended Period of Eligibility.  I said five years, we have this five‑ year window from when you are terminated, whenever that is.  
We got the nine‑ month trial work period.  The 36‑ month Extended Period of Eligibility and if you are gainfully employed and get terminated, a new five‑ year clock starts that allows us to use the Expedited Reinstatement of Benefits to get you through the back door of social security and back in pay for benefits, if needed.  That's pretty awesome.  
And it really does make things a little more interesting if you're a beneficiary thinking about trying this.  Here's one more bit of good news I can tell you about an EXR.  Social security can pay you what they call provisional benefits for up to six months.  While they are deciding if you are still disabled under their rules when you file an EXR.  
That's not like a new application, is it?  When you applied originally, they were not paying you benefits provisionally while you were waiting to see if you were eligible.  This is specific to this EXR request.  Medicare/Medicaid will also continue for this period as well.  
Now, I want to tell you quickly about extended Medicare coverage.  You will continue to get your Medicare for at least 93  months after that Trial Work Period was used.  You could be beyond that Extended Period of Eligibility and terminated and still continue to get your Medicare benefits.  The premium will still have to be paid, so that's a total of 102  months of Medicare potential for you.  
So don't worry about Medicare, at least not initially.  I know I've covered a lot of things and this is highlights.  I have to move along quicker.  I know our time is limited today, I want you to know, if this is interesting to you or exciting to you and you haven't heard these things before, there is help available if you join the Ticket to Work program and there's other ways to get assistance in understanding these incentives through Certified Work Incentive Practitioners.  That's what I am.  We studied this policy to give you the guidance to make informed choices about your benefits, and give you a roadmap so it isn't a surprise when these things happen and you return to work.  It will be a planned event.  
When I say we successfully help people terminate benefits, that means we helped people with that roadmap, develop a plan that allows them to get to a level of self‑ sufficiency, that allows them to leave benefits behind and lead lives that are much more financially secure.  So there will be help for you.  
I want to briefly talk about SSI recipients and the incentives available to SSI recipients because I know there are some folks in the audience today that also get, in addition to their disability SSI, you could be concurrent where you might get separately SSI alone.  The SSI program has very different rules.  
There are certain incentives such as there's a $20 General Income Exclusion every month.  There's an Earned Income Exclusion of $65 every month and an impairment related work expense to help deduct cost you pay out of pocket that help you to work.  The one half earnings exclusion rule is a powerful one.  This allows social security to only look at one half of your earnings which calculating when you're eligible for in benefits.  
There's also a Blind Work Expense specific to beneficiaries who are blindness as their primary, which allows a more full recoupment of expenses you might have out of pocket.  There's a plan to achieve self‑ support.  Another incentive specific to SSI.  And a Student Earned Income Exclusion that can allow thousands of dollars to be written off if you're still a full‑ time student regularly attending school.  
Before, they would calculate any deduction in your SSI.  Now, I understand that this is a national audience.  People are from various states here, so I can't talk specifically about your state and I won't try to, but I can tell thought people that get SSI get paid based on something called a Federal Benefit Rate.  This rate for this year for somebody who is single is $943 per month.  For married couples, it's $1,415 per month.  I can't talk about state specifics but beyond that, most states offer something called a state supplement.  
So you might say, I get more than that, Kevin.  I get more than the 943.  You probably do because you're probably thinking about federal rate, plus the state supplement that's added in each month to the benefit you get from social security.  For purposes of today's training, I'll talk about the Federal Benefit Rate rate.  Social security does count income differently for SSI.  
Income in general is anything that somebody receives in cash or in kind, that could be from others, and it does count in the month received for earnings.  Generally speaking, I'll tell you that social security will look at the date of the paycheck as to when to count your earnings.  There are two types of earnings social security will look at.  Both earned and unearned income.  Earned is what you think it is.  It's you working.  It's gross wages, salaries, commissions, bonuses, self‑ employment, sheltered workshop offerings can count as earned income.  Unearned income is not as obvious but it's, believe it or not, income that's not earned.  That's social security's definition.  And it could be things like maybe workers' comp benefits.  It could be disability insurance.  That would count as unearned income.  It could be  ‑ ‑  I said comp.  It could be benefits  ‑ ‑  unemployment benefits.  Could be a number of other things.  That's how income is looked at.  
Resources, again as I said, do count for SSI.  This is a needs‑ based program so social security has to look at resources.  So you do have to be concerned about that when you're  ‑ ‑  someone in my seat or one of our members through American Dream Employment Network advises people on this because we have to think about, how do we deal with resources if you're working, you're going to have more of them?  Because you'll have more income than you're used to.  
There are strategies we would talk with people about that I can't have the time to talk about today.  Again, the resource limit is 2,000  ‑ ‑  $2,000 or $3,000.  And that rate has been there since 1989.  If you are thinking that's too low, I don't disagree with you.  I know they're looking at legislation know to increase this considerably.  I know they've also looked at legislation in past years that hasn't passed.  We'll see what happens.  And I think it does increase because things have gone up so much in cost and we know that.  
There's something called Achieving a Better Life Experience or ABLE Act that does allow people with disabilities, disability prior to age 26, to save money annually and up to $100,000 in an Able account that won't count as a resource.  
Quickly, I'll show you a couple mathematical examples, and I'm going to lay this out and see if I can get my pointer out successfully.  I think I did.  Okay.  In this example, we've got somebody who is single living alone.  Their Federal Benefit Rate is 943 and earning $1,300 a month.  I want to show you what happens to the SSI benefit.  
And just how work incentives with help.  Somebody without work would get the full Federal Benefit Rate of the 943.  This person working, social security behind the scenes would be doing this, okay, you made $1,300, we'll subject that $20 general exclusion and get to also subtract that earned income exclusion, that leaves 1215.  Remember the one half rule?  It comes into play and divide the remainder in half leaving $607.50 in countable income.  The rate goes down to $335.50 and this person has 1300 in earnings.  When we add that to the reduced SSI, the comparison is this person now has between the reduced SSI and earnings $1635.50 a month versus $943.  I think the numbers speak for themselves if you're on SSI and want to work, you can work.  I often got asked this question over the years, how much can I work?  I always answer, how much do you want to work?  The more you working the better off you'll be.  
Let's see if I can get out of this.  There we go.  The next example is somebody also single living alone, and we'll use that 943 Federal Benefit Rate.  This example the person is earning 2,000 a month.  I'm using this example to show you what happens when somebody on SSI makes enough to exceed what social security calls the break even point.  Or the point at which you no longer get any cash benefits.  To let's look at this.  I'll sprain  ‑ ‑  explain what happens.  Subtract and get 1915.  Divide that by two.  That leaves $957.50 in countable income.  Subtracted from the Federal Benefit Rate, that leaves zero this cash benefits.  We don't go into negatives, it zeros out potential for you to get an SSI cash benefit.  Or you have exceeded what security calls the break even point.  
What does that mean?  Are you no longer an SSI recipient?  Are you no longer eligible for Medicaid?  Well, you have $2,000 in your pocket that month because of your earnings instead of not working and having 943, but what good is that if you can't keep your healthcare?  I have good news about that.  
If you exceed the break even point like that example shows, you can keep your Medicaid under provision called 1619(b); a security policy that allows you to maintain your Medicaid.  You can maintain it up to a generous threshold had can varies state by state.  I'm calling you from New  York today and here, it's around $50,000 or more, so it's a lot of money.  And every state is different.  They establish their own thresholds based on a formula.  But the point is, you can keep your connection to Medicaid, you can continue to have your connection to SSI, even though you're not getting a cash benefit, and keep that connection through this provision, 1619(b).  
The last thing I want to talk about is the Medicaid buy in program.  Not specifically tied to SSI but generally an incentive that came about because of the Ticket to Work and work incentives improvement act that goes back to 1999 December when it was signed into law.  This allows states to expand Medicare coverage for working age individuals with disabilities.  
Not every state adopted this, but many did.  This is another way to remain connected to Medicaid with higher thresholds than those 1619(b) thresholds I just spoke of.  So this is another incentive, if needed, for people to stay connected to Medicaid.  A lot of people at this level of income may have an employee sponsored plan they like better and feel it's more than sufficient to take care of their medical needs.  If not, I'm telling you we have this because it can be used in cases with people working and earning, and this is a true state work incentive.  
With that I'm going to turn to Kirsten to wrap up some slides for us today.  
>> KIRSTIN BEARD: Thanks, Kevin.  Good afternoon, everyone.  As you have heard from Kevin, gotten a lot of great information as it relates to the work incentives for SSDI and SSI.  So now I'm sure you want to know, why should we choose ADEN?  I'm going to give you a quick overview of why you should choose ADEN but also the tickets to work program.  
Ticket to Work is here's to support you.  Your participation in this program is solely voluntary.  You're not mandated to go.  SSA doesn't make you go.  It's solely voluntary.  But you must understand the program goals.  
For the Ticket to Work program is self‑ sufficiency.  You need to decide if that goal is right for you before deciding to go back to work.  The purpose of the Ticket to Work program is to offer you support to increase your ability to work, your earnings, and ensure you become and stay self‑ supporting to every step possible.  
If you agree to do the Ticket to Work program, what you do is you'll assign your ticket to an Employment Network and you're agreeing to make a steady effort to achieving these goals.  
Eligibility for the Ticket to Work program for SSI, SSDI beneficiaries, must between ages of 18 through 64.  Must be receiving SSDI and/or SSI cash benefits based on disability.  When your ticket is assigned, it provides you from future continuing disability reviews.  If you are making timely progress.  
Understand that many SSA offices will make requests for information even with this protection in place.  Some requests from SSA field offices look like medical request.  So even if you get these requests, you need to respond to the local SSA and advise them you have your ticket assigned to an Employment Network.  
Services provided by ADEN are free of charge to eligible ticketholders.  I'll explain some of those services we do offer.  One of the services we offer is benefit planning services, as Kevin discussed earlier.  Every ADEN member has at least one Certified Work Incentive Practitioner on their staff.  So with that, you'll have accurate advice provided to assist you with understanding how benefits, and healthcare are impacted by your work activity.  
We offer career counseling and help you develop a viable career path.  We work with you in finding a job, which is a job placement.  We offer financial wellness, which you'll be offered referrals to support your short and long‑ term financial goals and offer long‑ term employment support.  Once you become employed, we'll assure your long‑ term success  ‑ ‑  you have long‑ term success on the job.  
These are some of our 2023 outcomes.  Last year, we had a total of 1,180 tickets assigned.  Of those, 67% were  ‑ ‑  did become employed.  The average hourly wage for those participants was $24.40.  And the average hours worked by those participants was 32  hours.  Top industries we ploy for our apartments were in the healthcare field, customer service and retail, as well as administrative.  
So I'm sure you're wondering, what are my next steps if I do want to participate in that program?  First contact your local ADEN member and schedule a time to meet with them.  If you go to our website, AmericanDreamEN.org, you'll find a list of all the members.  Please note that we do offer services virtual so you don't have to necessarily connect with a local member.  You can look at national providers as well.  
Second, you'll want to meet with that team member, evaluate if the Ticket Program is right for you.  Remember that the end goal is self‑ sufficiency.  Number three, if you choose to work with ADEN, you and your local ADEN member will develop an Individualized Work Plan, known as an IWP, that will outline the support and services we provide to you.  
Number four, if your ticket is already assigned to ADEN and you're currently on this call, just reach out to your ADEN representative if you have any questions of what was presented on today.  
And lastly, work with your ADEN member to advance your employment and reach those financial goals you both set.  So I know you've received a lot of information today about the work incentives, steps to take if you're interested in ADEN.  We invite you to go on our website and read success stories of past for says pants  ‑ ‑  participants who completed the program.  If you go to our website, AmericanDreamEN.org, you'll see success stories.  We offer Podcast, written stories.  Take a look and see how they achieved the goals they set for themselves, and just reach out to us.  Thanks for joining us.  
>> KEVIN NICKERSON: Well, thank you, Kirsten.  I want to thing all of the administrative team that was here today, Kirsten, Michelle and Bethany are all part of the ADEN administrative team behind scenes that make it happen.  I want to put out a shout‑ out to our interpreters who were busy on our call and we appreciate their support as well.  
Most importantly, I want to thank you for giving us a few extra minutes joining the call today.  I hope this message provided you what you want, some hope you can return to work.  If you have questions, give us a call or look at our website and connect with us that way.  We hope to hear from you in the future.  Thanks so much for your attendance today.  
[End of webinar]