Creating Opportunities Through Work Incentives & Benefits Counseling Training
Webinar 2: Creating Opportunities through Work Incentives and Benefits Counseling Tools and Resources
This webinar shares tools and ideas to help youth with disabilities and their families see how work can lead to more independence and financial stability. You'll learn about Social Security work incentives, benefits counseling, and resources you can use right away to guide planning and connect families to support in your state.
We will also talk about how to share this information with more people -especially those working with families experiencing poverty- and how to work together across systems to improve opportunities.
Discussion Questions
Here are some questions to consider:
- How can we get this information to a broader audience, particular 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?
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.
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
- WIPA (Work Incentives Planning and Assistance) Program Providers List
For more information on the various work incentives, you can visit the following links:
- More information on ABLE Accounts
- The Social Security Redbook is a general reference about the employment-related provision of Social Security Disability Insurance and the Supplemental Security Income Programs for educators, advocates, rehabilitation professionals, and counselors who serve people with disabilities.
- 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".
- Fact Sheets Describing Social Security Work Incentives:
