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Community Connections Home > Financial > About Benefits Planning for Youth with Disabilities
Adapted with permission from the NWCD/Youth
http://www.ncwd-youth.info
BENEFITS PLANNING
Youth with disabilities may qualify for some forms of government
assistance programs based on disability, income status, or both.
Youth and their families need information on resources they can use and
useful tools to become self-sufficient, productive participants in their
communities. Like anyone else, youth with disabilities need jobs with
living wages and access to health coverage. They need work that leads to
meaningful careers and increased self-sufficiency.
In large part because of national public policies contained in
legislation such as the Americans with Disabilities Act and the
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, youth with disabilities are
exiting schools better prepared for further education, work, and
community life. Nonetheless, youth and adults with disabilities have
some of the highest levels of unemployment and poverty in America. The
unemployment rate of adults with disabilities has hovered near 70% for
decades now. Young adults with disabilities are three times more likely
to live in poverty as adults than their peers without disabilities.
More than a million youth between the ages of 13 and 29 receive some
form of Social Security cash benefit support each month. Additionally
the Social Security Administration reports that many young people with
disabilities who enter their rolls are likely to remain on the programs
for the rest of their lives.
There are a wide range of state and federal government programs and
benefits for people with disabilities in the United States, some with
complex, and sometimes conflicting, eligibility rules. Youth with
disabilities may qualify for some forms of government assistance
programs based on disability, income status, or both. They may already
be in some of these programs and unaware that their eligibility will be
determined under different criteria as they enter into adulthood. At the
other end of the spectrum, they may want to enter employment and be
unaware that some of these programs contain work incentives that can
actually help with their educational and employment goals.
Some examples of benefits and work incentives available to youth with
disabilities include the following:
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Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) provides cash benefits to people with disabilities or blind individuals who are “insured” by workers, employers, and self-employed people. To be eligible for a Social Security benefit, the worker must earn sufficient credits based on taxable work to be “insured” for Social Security purposes. In certain cases, SSDI benefits can be available to the worker’s family members. The amount of the monthly disability benefit is based on the Social Security earnings record of the insured worker.
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Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is a means-tested program intended for people with disabilities who have little or no income and few resources. Because of this, other income and resources determine whether an individual is eligible as well as the amount of monthly SSI benefit payments. Income is what people receive in a month and resources are cash and items a person owns that can be converted to cash.
-
Earned Income and Other Exclusions reduce the amount of money that the Social Security Administration counts toward an individual’s income when determining the amount of SSI benefits someone can receive. For example, scholarships or grants that students use to pay tuition, book costs, or related education expenses can be excluded from an individual’s total income. The amount left over after allowable deductions is known as the countable income. SSI beneficiaries who work can continue to receive SSI payments until their countable income exceeds the SSI limit.
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The Student-Earned Income Exclusion as well as Section 301 protections support the ability of transition-aged youth to work and have earnings through work-based learning programs that are integrated into educational programs.
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Plan for Achieving Self Support (PASS) allows a person with a disability to set aside income and resources for a specified period of time to achieve a work goal.
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Section 1619(b) of the Social Security Act offers continued Medicaid to those eligible working individuals whose earned income is too high to qualify for SSI cash payments, but not high enough to offset the loss of Medicaid. Similarly, a number of states have adopted.
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Medicaid “buy in” programs that allow people with disabilities to maintain their Medicaid coverage by paying a small premium until they reach a specific income above the poverty level.
Benefits planning, financial
management, and asset accumulation are among the essential elements that
youth with disabilities need when moving from school to work, from
dependence to economic self-sufficiency. Many workforce development
programs and youth service organizations offer financial literacy skills
training. To be meaningful for youth with disabilities, these programs
need to include benefits planning information to increase informed
choice about viable options.
The term “benefits planning” refers to the person-centered analysis of
the effect that work and other life situation changes have on public and
private programs, including income support programs. Benefits planning
helps people with disabilities steer through the complicated maze of
public and private benefits programs while minimizing disincentives and
barriers that exist for them to prepare for, obtain, advance in, retain,
leave, and regain employment.
Benefits planners interpret complex policy, rules, procedures,
administrative code, and legislative language into practical and
understandable information. Under the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives
Improvement Act, Congress created a formal program, known as the
Benefits Planning Assistance and Outreach (BPAO) program, as a core
employment support for people with disabilities who receive Supplemental
Security Income and Social Security Disability Insurance. All 50 states
participate in the BPAO program.
No one person or source can be an expert in all aspects of benefits
planning for youth. A growing number of One-Stop Centers and
community-based organizations, such as independent living centers, have
knowledgeable staff, such as Benefits Planners and Disability Program
Navigators, available to assist youth in navigating the road to work.
Selected websites are presented here as desktop tools and resource.
Resources
Social Security
For information helpful to youth with disabilities and their parents,
families, teachers, and counselors concerning Social Security income
support benefits and work incentives, consult the SSA websites at
http://www.ssa.gov/work and
http://www.ssa.gov/work/Youth/youth.html
To locate a local field office for the Social Security Administration,
consult the directory on SSA’s website,
http://www.ssa.gov/ .
Many Social Security field offices have a position known as an
Employment Support Representative; this person serves as a technical
resource for other SSA employees about disability work programs and
services. For more information, go to
http://www.ssa.gov/work
/index.html
Benefits Planning Assistance and Outreach services are free to Social
Security beneficiaries with disabilities, and local BPAO projects can be
located by consulting the directory or projects on SSA’s website:
http://www.ssa.gov/work/ServiceProviders/BPAO Directory.html .
SSA currently has three universities responsible for providing core
training and technical support to the Benefits Planning Assistance and
Outreach program. These include the Benefits Assistance Resource Center
at Virginia Commonwealth University (http://www.vcu-barc.org), the
Northeast Work Incentives Support Center at Cornell University (http://www.workincentives.org
), and the SSA Training and Technical Assistance Center at the
University of Missouri at Columbia (http://www.rcep7.org/~ssabpao).
The Ticket-to-Work Program (http://www.yourtickettowork.com)
offers people with disabilities a “Ticket” to obtain the employment
support services, vocational rehabilitation services, and other services
they may need to get and keep a job.
The Protection and Advocacy for Beneficiaries of Social Security (PABSS)
program offers beneficiaries information, consultation, and legal
representation around work incentives, vocational rehabilitation, other
employment services, and the Ticket-to-Work program. PABSS projects
operate in every state and a local project can be located by consulting
the directory or projects on SSA’s website at
http://www.ssa.gov/work/ServiceProviders/PADirectory.html .
Benefits Planning Tools
Several tools have been developed or are in the process of being
developed, typically with state-specific information, to assist people
with disabilities and workforce development professionals in benefits
planning. The following list presents some of the best tools to date:
Disability Benefits 101 (http://www.disabilitybenefits101.org
) provides updated information on federal and state employment,
health coverage, and other benefits for Californians with disabilities.
WorkWORLD© Knowledge Based Decision Support System (http://www.bus.vcu.edu/esi)
helps people with disabilities and their advocates make informed choices
about work incentives, benefits, employment supports, and wages.
Asset Development
The Corporation for Enterprise Development (http://www.cfed.org)
fosters sustainable economic well being through asset-building and
economic opportunity strategies that bring together community practice,
public policy, and private markets in new and effective ways.
The World Institute on Disability’s “Access to Assets” program (http://www.wid.org)
provides training and technical assistance to asset-building and
disability organizations seeking to improve the inclusion of people with
disabilities in poverty reduction programs.
The National Disability Institute (NDI) at the National Cooperative Bank
Development Corporation (http://www.ncbdc.org/ncbdc/contents.nsf/index.htm)
builds public and private sector partnerships to support asset
development and savings strategies for low-income individuals with
disabilities. NDI works with states and the federal government to pilot
waivers of means-tested eligibility for Social Security and Medicaid to
provide new opportunity for persons with disabilities to work, save, and
reduce dependence on government benefits.
Miscellaneous Resources
Program Navigators exist in a growing number of One-Stop Centers to
build One-Stop Center capacity and work with people with disabilities
and service providers to access, facilitate, and navigate the complex
statutory and regulatory provisions and application processes for public
and private programs. For more information, consult the website at
http://disability.law.uiowa.edu/lhpdc/projects/dol_wigs/index.html#state
.
The National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities (http://www.nichcy.org)
serves as a central source of information on disability policy,
research-based information, and effective educational practices for
youth with disabilities and their families.
Independent Living Centers (http://www.ncil.org)
offer assistance in arranging for disability-related benefits and
services for people with disabilities to live independently in their
communities, including personal assistance services, transportation,
housing, and benefits planning.
The Vocational Rehabilitation program provides a wide range of services
and job training to people with disabilities who want to work; for more
information, go online to
http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/osers/rsa/index.html .
Healthy and Ready to Work (http://www.hrtw.org)
provides information for youth with disabilities and their families to
maximize their health potential while transitioning from childhood to
adulthood.
The National Consortium for Health Systems Development (http://www.nchsd.org)
is a state-driven technical assistance center supporting Medicaid
Infrastructure Grants and innovation that improves employment policy by
facilitating collaboration among local, state, and federal experts.
The Center for Workers with Disabilities is a technical assistance
center of the American Public Health Administrators Association for
states developing or enhancing employment and health-related support
programs for working persons with disabilities. For more information,
see the website at
http://www.nasmd.org/disabilities.
DisabilityInfo.gov (http://www.disabilityinfo.gov)
is the gateway to the federal government’s disability-related
information and resources.
GovBenefits.gov (http://www.govbenefits.gov/govbenefits/index.jhtml)
is a web-based resource for everyone and includes information on a
variety of benefit and assistance programs for veterans, seniors,
students, teachers, children, people with disabilities, dependents,
disaster victims, farmers, caregivers, job seekers, prospective
homeowners, and much more.
Funded under a grant supported by the Office of Disability Employment
Policy of the US Department of Labor, grant # E-9-4-1-0070.The opinions
contained in this publication are those of the grantee/contractor and do
not necessarily reflect those of the US Department of Labor. Individuals
may produce any part of this document. Please credit the source and
support of federal funds. To obtain this publication in an alternate
format contact the Collaborative.
The National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability for Youth (NCWD/Youth)
is composed of partners with expertise in disability, education,
employment, and workforce development issues. NCWD/Youth is housed at
the Institute for Educational Leadership in Washington, DC. The
Collaborative is charged with assisting state and local workforce
development systems to integrate youth with disabilities into their
service strategies.
At the time of printing, every possible effort was made to compile
accurate and up-to-date website information. Internet information
changes frequently.
NCWD/Youth
phone: 877-871-0744 (toll free) • 877-871-0665 (TTY toll free)
website: http://www.ncwd-youth.info
email: contact@ncwd-youth.info
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This page last updated: Sunday, November 25, 2007