As an SSI recipient, what do I get out of the Ticket to Work Program and ERS?

By Robert, Ticket Counselor

Picking up from last week’s article, we will now look at SSI (Supplemental Security Income).

What happens to my SSI payment when I start working?

As with SSDI, you need to report your income to the Social Security Administration (SSA) each month.

SSI is affected by your income as soon as you start earning a paycheck.  Your SSI payment will be reduced based on your gross income – for instance, every $2 you earn above the automatic deduction amount (minimum deduction is $65 dollars but in some cases is slightly more) your SSI payment will be reduced by $1.

Example:

$1000 Gross Earnings from employment

$65 Automatic Deduction Amount

-------------------

$935 Countable Income

-------------------

$935 Countable Income

Divided by 2

-------------------

$467.50 Amount SSI can be reduced by.

So based on the example above, your SSI income would be reduced by $467.50 if your gross earnings for the month are equal to $1000.00.

So if your single and currently receiving $674 monthly. By working and earning $1000 monthly, you have increased your income by $532.50 to $1206.50 gross monthly.

If you get to the point where you SSI payments have stopped because of your Income, you have a 5 year period, of expedited reinstatement – whereby if your income falls back below the point where you would be receiving SSI you can call into the Social Security Administration and have your benefits reinstated on a temporary basis for 6 months while they review your case and determine if you are eligible to continue receiving benefits. 

Enrolling in TTW through ERS gives you access to our dedicated team of career counselors and all of the services we provide.

Employment Assistance:  Are you out of Work or looking for something better? Let us know what you are looking for and we can help locate opportunities for you.

Education Planning Assistance:  Thinking about going back to school?  We can help research the schools in your area to find the classes you are looking for.

Transportation Assistance:  Having trouble getting to and from places, we will look for information for you for Public transportation systems in your area that can get you where you need to go.

Housing Assistance:  Need to move?  Having trouble paying for your home, we can research alternatives for you finding information on local housing authorities, HUD, low income or affordable housing near you.

Resume Assistance:  Worried that your resume is making a bad impression?  Let us review it for you. Our counselors can look over your resume and make suggestion on how to improve it to help you make a good impression as you apply to jobs.

Online resources:  Our website is host to a wide variety of resources, presentations on, Resume Writing, Cover letters, Building self-confidence, Interviewing and much more.  

Still have questions, get in touch let us know and we can explain it in detail over the phone.

Our contact information is available here.

If we don’t have a service or resource that you are currently interested in, let us know and we will work with you to develop those services to meet your needs!

As an SSDI recipient, what do I get out of the Ticket to Work Program and ERS?

By Robert, Ticket Counselor 

As we try to educate people about the Ticket to Work Program (TTW) one question keeps coming up and understandably so; “What’s in it for me?”

This week, we will focus on SSDI (Social Security Disability Insurance) benefits, and next week on SSI (Supplemental Security Income), as the two benefits are treated differently in the program.

What happens if you don’t enroll in TTW?

1. Income needs to be reported to the Social Security Administration (SSA) monthly.
2. Trial Work Period (TWP) - is a 9 month period where no matter your earnings, you will continue to receive your disability check.  To use one of these months your earnings need to exceed $720 gross.  If not, then you will not use up one of the TWP months.
3. After the TWP has been completed, if your reported earnings exceed $1000 a month your benefits may be reduced or stopped.
4. Reinstatement of benefits may require a new application for disability.
5. Continuing Disability Reviews will be scheduled as normal.

If you chose to enroll in TTW with an employment network or vocational rehabilitation agency:

1. Income still needs to be reported to the SSA monthly.
2. Participation in the Trial Work Period (see above)
3. 36 month Extended Period Eligibility (EPE) - after your 9 month TWP has been exhausted, instead of your benefits being stopped completely if you earn over $1000 gross a month, you will receive your SSDI check for the months where your income drops back below the $1000 threshold.
4. 60 month Expedited Reinstatement - for 5 years after you stop receiving you benefits because of your income you are able to have your benefits reinstated without a new application, temporary benefits are awarded for 6 months while determination of eligibility is assessed.  This 5 year period runs concurrently with the EPE.
5. Continuation of Medical Coverage - Medicare/Medicaid benefits are protected and stay in place for at least 7 years 9 months after you stop receiving your SSDI check because of your income.  In many cases it can continue longer depending on your income.
6. Suspension of Continuing Disability Reviews – reviews are suspended while enrolled in the program and making timely progress towards your goals. 
7. To maintain your enrollment in TTW you need to be making “Timely progress” please see our earlier article for an explanation of this:  Timely Progress Guidelines.

Why should I choose ERS as my employment network?

Choosing to assign your ticket to ERS gives you access to our team of dedicated career counselors who are available to assist you, Monday through Friday 8-6 (EST).

We are available to assist you with a variety of services including:

Employment Assistance:  Are you out of Work or looking for something better? Let us know what you are looking for and we can help locate opportunities for you.

Education Planning Assistance:  Would you like to go back to school and improve your skills?  We can help research the schools in your area to find the classes you are looking for.

Transportation Assistance:  Having trouble getting to and from places, we will look for information for you for Public transportation systems in your area that can get you where you need to go.

Housing Assistance:  Need to move?  Having trouble paying your mortgage or rent? We can research alternatives for you finding information on local housing authorities, HUD, low income or affordable housing near you.

Resume Assistance:  Worried that your resume is making a bad impression?  Let us review it for you. Our counselors can look over your resume and make suggestion on how to improve it to help you make a good impression as you apply to jobs.

Online resources:  Our website  is host to a wide variety of resources, presentations on, Resume Writing, Cover letters, Building self-confidence, Interviewing and much more.  

Still have questions, get in touch let us know and we can explain it in detail over the phone.

Our contact information is available here.

If we don’t have a service or resource that you are currently interested in, let us know and we will work with you to develop those services to meet your needs!

What Am I Qualified For?

By Robert, Ticket Counselor 

As we assist our ticket holders in completing their applications for the Ticket to Work Program, we are often faced with people who aren’t sure what they are qualified for.

One of the best resources we have found to help with this is a government website, Career One Stop.

There is lots of valuable information on this site including:

• Career exploration
• Education and training
• Resumes and interviews salaries and benefits and so much more

Possibly the best resources on the site is the Skills Profiler.

The profiler is a series of forms that helps you identify skills and activities you have used on the job or elsewhere.  This will create a Custom Skills profile for you including:

• A summary of identified skills and work activities.
• A list of occupations matched either to skills or work activities.
• A link to Occupation Profiles for more detailed occupation information, as well as links from there to the Employer Locator for names of employers in their area.
• A "Compare to Another Occupation" feature that identifies similarities and differences between the selected occupation and another occupation of interest.

Your Skills profile will help you:

• Prepare for interviews;
• Write resumes and cover letters; and
• Explore career paths and training options.

Having used the profiler myself, as part of my research for this article – I was impressed by its level of detail.

You can either start by selecting a job type, or if you are not sure what kind of job is right for you, start by rating your own skills to find a job type match.

Choosing a job type gave me a detailed list of work activities – that are common in my field to help me start creating my profile.

This helped me to think about what I had done before.  Having the list really helped me to focus on the things I had done throughout my career

This then takes you into a General Skills Section where you can select skills from a wide range of different areas.  It highlights the skills that it knows are important for the job type you selected earlier.

Once you have selected your skills, you will be given the opportunity to rate your level with a particular skill from 1 (Low) to 7 (High).

Having completed your profile you are given the opportunity to save it in a variety of different formats (Word, Html, XML, or you can bookmark your profile so you can return to it later).

The site then suggests different job types that might be good for you based on your custom skill profile.

You can then research these jobs. – This takes you into employment data for the various jobs, showing you the skills recommended for those jobs even watch sample videos of people doing these jobs. It also provides employment data around salary and job growth both at a national and state level.

Good luck with your searching I hope this helps you find the path that is right for you.  If you are a ticket holder and need help please give us a call.