Reframing the Disability Lens to Increase the Economic Stability
Of Youth and Families
Webinar 2:
Creating Opportunities through Work Incentives and Benefits Counseling
Tools and Resources
Tools You Can Use
These are for you and your team to use and adapt for your planning needs to align and coordinate with other systems to improve outcomes for youth and their families who are most at-risk of a lifetime of dependency on public benefits.
WIPA List:
Click Here
Discussion Questions
• How can we get this information to a broader audience, particularly those working with individuals experiencing poverty?
• Who needs to know about this model and what do they need to know?
• How might the disability world get this knowledge to those audiences?
• What next steps might we pursue, and what else is needed in terms of technical assistance or other support to move forward on these in your states?
• Are barriers policy, practice, procedures? State or local?
Resources You Can Use
All Youth Can Work Fact Sheet is developed for staff and others to share with families to educate and inform them about the benefits of work while connecting them to benefits counseling. You can add the contact information for Vocational Rehabilitation and Work Incentives Planning and Assistance (WIPAs in your state.) Go to the following links to locate the resources in your state.
State Vocational Rehabilitation Search
For more information on the various work incentives, you can visit the following links:
ABLE Accounts
For more information about ABLE Accounts, Click Here
Social Security Redbook
General reference source about the employment-related provisions of Social Security Disability Insurance and the Supplemental Security Income Programs for educators, advocates, rehabilitation professionals, and counselors who serve people with disabilities.
https://www.ssa.gov/redbook/
Overview on Work Incentives
Special rules make it possible for people with disabilities receiving Social Security or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) to work and still receive monthly payments and Medicare or Medicaid. Social Security calls these rules “work incentives.” For more information visit:
https://www.ssa.gov/disabilityresearch/workincentives.htm
Series of Fact Sheets Describing Social Security Work Incentives
https://mdtransitions.org/benefits/
Student Earned Income Exclusion