| Ellie Emanuel:
Welcome to the NTA audio teleconference on SSI Work
Incentives: Accessing employment supports for youth with
disabilities transitioning from school to work. Since
the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work
Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, which you all
know as the Welfare Reform Act that redefined childhood
eligibility for SSI benefits, the Social Security
Administration has increased its efforts to outreach to
families, children, and students to explain and promote
SSI benefits and work incentives. These efforts have
occurred both at the federal and local levels.
We have also seen growth of advocacy efforts, proposed
legislation, and demonstration projects at the national
and local levels modify the Social Security Work
Incentives Program in, for example, the Jeffers-Kennedy
Bill, known as the Medicaid Buy-in Bill, and the most
recent SSA model demonstration projects. All of these
efforts in the area of SSI work incentives can result in
increased support for students who are transitioning from
school to work.
The purpose of this audio teleconference is to present
basic information about the SSI Work Incentives grant
that we are engaged in, and about the Disability
Determination Service process, which is an important part
of accessing SSI benefits and the work incentives.
Our first guest speaker, Bill Halloran, Project
Officer for the SSI Work Incentives in Transitioning
Youth with Disabilities, is with the Office of Special
Education Programs, US Department of Education. Bill who
has had a long history of commitment to improving the
quality of lives of children and young adults with severe
disabilities, continues to maintain a strong working
relationship with Federal Social Security Administration,
focused on the goal of establishing continued systems
improvement, which will benefit transitioning youth with
disabilities.
Bill will begin the conference today by discussing the
current SSI Work Incentives Project, describe what he
views as some challenges in accessing the SSI work
incentives, and suggest some possible directions for
addressing these challenges.
Bill Halloran: There is such a variety of
people on this call in terms of their knowledge of the
SSI program, that I want to give a brief overview of the
program, the things that we are interested in, and how it
relates to transitioning youth.
One of the interesting things is that we still have
many people who don't realize that public education is
the only program that has a zero reject mandate. In other
words, an individual's entitlement to services ends when
students leave school. However, there are some programs
that certain individuals are entitled to. But differing
from the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the
SSI program is only for individuals with certain
disabilities. The SSI is a federal program for people who
have severe physical or mental disabilities which would
impede their ability to work.
The SSI program oftentimes is also the key or the
ticket in most states for eligibility into the Medicaid
program. So, in addition to being the cash benefits
program, the SSI program is also very much linked with an
individual's application to Medicaid. I mention the
Medicaid because this may be in some senses one of the
most important aspects of the program.
First of all, let me go back, and I am going to be
speaking primarily now to individuals at the
transitioning age. There is childhood eligibility for SSI
and there is adult eligibility for SSI. At age eighteen,
the adult eligibility kicks in for individuals who have
disabilities. This is an important juncture because prior
to age eighteen, an individual, in addition to having to
have a disability that would meet the medical listings to
be eligible for the SSI program, would also have to meet
certain income eligibility requirements tied to their
family's income. At age eighteen, the income is just tied
to the individual. So, the individual at age eighteen is
a family of one themselves, regardless of the income of
family. Their eligibility is based on their own income
and resources.
Particularly in the areas of individuals with
cognitive impairments, probably the broadest support for
community-based services for adults with cognitive
disabilities throughout the country is the Medicaid
program. Very often families are shocked to learn that
when a student ages out or turns twenty-one, there is no
automatic program that they would be going into.
Students I'm talking about are individuals with more
severe disabilities whose prognosis for living or working
independently at the time they leave school would be very
low. What kinds of programs and services might be
available to these individuals at the time they leave
school? Primarily for those with cognitive disabilities,
they would be programs and services supported through the
state's Medicaid waiver program. The Medicaid waiver is a
waiver received for providing community-based services.
As we have looked at the influence of the Medicaid
program, we have seen its tremendous growth as it relates
to being the primary source of support for programs and
services for youth or individuals with more severe
disabilities who are at the post-school level.
So, that clearly is one of the areas we are trying to
encourage people to learn about, so that they can provide
guidance to families of individuals with more severe
disabilities who will be exiting the school system and
seeking out community-based programs and services for
their disabled children, or for adult disabled
individuals.
Now, getting back to some of the issues related to the
SSI program, probably one of the biggest concerns of ours
is that research has shown that nearly half of the people
who would be considered to be probably eligible for the
SSI program – this is both national research and
research that's done at various states – has
indicated that at least half as many people who are on
the SSI program – and we're talking school-aged
individuals eighteen and over – nearly half of the
people who we feel confident would be eligible for the
program have not been – are not a part of the SSI
program. The primary reason is that many families know
nothing about the SSI program. Other reasons might be
that families had been initially turned down when they
looked into the program because of their income. But, of
course, at age eighteen the family income is not a factor
for the individual.
Our biggest concern is that this is a program that's a
very, very important aspect of adult living for
individuals who would qualify. However, very little is
shared in terms of what the SSI program is, how schools
might assist in identifying individuals who might meet
the eligibility requirements, and what could be done to
assist families and help them get connected with this
program. So, clearly, one of our big concerns is that
from an education perspective little is being done on a
formal basis to assist individuals and families connect
with the SSI program.
A second thing that we are concerned about is that
most times when a school-aged individual is applying to
the SSI program, certain information is being requested
of the public schools to assist State Disability
Determination units in making their decision relating to
eligibility. We have been reviewing the process and the
questionnaires and information being sought from schools.
Not only are schools doing very little to direct
people to and explain the program, but there is little
training on the part of school personnel in terms of
their role in assisting the determination agency in
gathering information so that the eligibility could be
established. I think that a later part of this
conversation will be with Disability Determination
Services personnel from the State of Minnesota. So, what
I'd like to do is to take some time to answer questions
related to this.
But once again, I just want to reinforce the fact that
the SSI program is an important program for certain
individuals with more severe disabilities. Our concern,
number one, is that the schools do not play an active
role in assisting people and guiding people towards that
program. Number two, that schools are probably not
prepared to the extent we would like them to be for their
roles in participating in the determination process.
And probably the most important thing, the third thing
I haven't mentioned yet, is that we believe that the work
incentives, which are part of the SSI program, can be a
significant benefit for students who are just adjusting
to entering into work, who are transitioning from school
to work. We feel that the SSI work incentives can provide
a significant assistance and support to individuals
transitioning from school to employment.
Again, I'm concerned that I'm probably far over the
heads of some people who may not know anything about this
program. And I'm talking so basic in terms of people who
are familiar with the SSI program.
I do want to let you know that the University of
Minnesota, Institute on Community Integration has put
together a marvelous handbook on Supplemental Security
Income Work Incentives and Transition Students. This is a
must have – in terms of a background reference
– to people who could be or should be assisting
individuals become more familiar with the program.
Editor's Note: The SSI Handbook can be downloaded
off the National Transition Network Web site at
http://www.ici.umn.edu/ntn or you may order a hard
copy through Peter Aleshire at (612) 627-4008.
We have four grantees who together comprise our
“Work Incentives Transition Network.” These
grantees are:
- The Rehabilitation and Research and Training
Center at Virginia Commonwealth University
- The Institute on Community Integration at the
University of Minnesota
- The Institute for Community Inclusion at Boston
Children's Hospital in Massachusetts
- The Institute on Rural Disabilities in Montana.
All four of these projects are working collectively as
part of that network to provide technical assistance to
the schools as to how the SSI program could be assisting
in the transition of youth with disabilities.
Ellie, I would just as soon stop here and entertain
any questions people might have.
Participant: I have a question. I'm Angela
Rojas-Edenbach (phonetic). I work with Michigan Rehab
Services. And I wonder if, Mr. Halloran, you are aware of
the Social Security Initiatives going on right now at the
federal level. They have a work group that is developing
plans on how the Social Security Administration is going
to work with communities to promote and develop work
incentives and make them more acceptable to disabled
individuals. We happen to have one of our two area
directors from Social Security here in Michigan as part
of a work group. And he has asked for our input on some
of the things that we feel would be important. I wonder
if you may have that connection. If not, I could provide
it for you.
Bill Halloran: I think we've had the connection
to some extent here at the national level. I first want
to clarify what work incentives are, for people who have
no knowledge of what I'm talking about. Work incentives
are incentives built into the program that are intended
to enable people to secure employment, or in addition to
securing employment to improve their employability and
their earnings levels. An example of a couple of the work
incentives we are most concerned about are the PASS -
Plan for Achieving Self Support - and the IRWE -
Impairment Related Work Expenses. There are also student
earned income exclusions and other types of work
incentives.
To answer your question, just last week we completed
the review of a document we did for the Social Security
Administration, which gives examples of the utilization
of work incentives for transitioning youth. These case
studies have all been cleared by the Social Security
Administration. And I think we're in the process now of
publishing these in an effort that people could look at
the work incentives as applied to the transitioning youth
to get ideas on how others might use them.
But the work going on in Michigan and elsewhere is
where we would really be encouraging. For example, if you
as a rehab agency person are involved in a task force
working on this, if you do not have school personnel as
part of that group, I would very much encourage you to
include them or seek their inclusion into your efforts.
But we know of the work going on in a number of different
areas. But our hope is that as part of that the education
personnel are considered part of the process. Would that
be true in your state?
Participant (Angela Rojas-Edenbach): In
fact, this whole year we have been holding training
sessions for counselors and partners that are working
with them in transition also, a PASS writing workshop. I
can't tell you how many of them have actually been school
personnel, but I can tell you that at least we have
completed work incentive training. Tomorrow we have our
last session on PASS writing workshop, and then we are
going to go on to IRWE. We have a cadre of two presenters
doing this across the state for Michigan Rehab Services
in particular.
Bill Halloran: Well, I'll tell you, I really
would hope that that would be expanded to the education
personnel. One of the saddest things is that when we work
with special education personnel we find that the
knowledge level as it relates to the SSI program, as well
as, of course, the work incentives, is so low that it's
like a foreign thing to them.
So, all of those things happening, one of the things
that we do know is that there have been few PASSs that
have been approved for transitioning youth. And we're
monitoring with the Social Security office, the central
office in Baltimore, working with them to try to identify
specific examples of PASSs that have been approved as
population –
Participant (Angela Rojas-Edenbach):
Could you possibly provide those to us? At least for
training purposes?
Bill Halloran: The case studies that I'm
talking about will be available fairly soon.
Participant: This is Dan Williams. There's a
big problem in California because most people do not want
the students to work because they are afraid they are
going to be disqualified for Social Security benefits.
What have you done to help alleviate that?
Bill Halloran: It's something that we're seeing
everywhere. The schools – more and more across the
country – community-based vocational training,
supported employment activities are starting for youth
with disabilities prior to leaving school. So, we're
seeing everywhere now, which I'm so thankful of, that the
emergence of programs which include community-based
employment as part of the transition plans for students.
So, we often hear that when the school broaches with the
family the notion that they would like to involve their
youth – and it's usually youth over eighteen, but
regardless – the youth is on the SSI program and
receiving cash benefits from the SSI program.
When the schools oftentimes bring up the notion of
becoming involved in community-based employment for pay
prior to leaving school or just being involved in
employment, oftentimes families become very concerned
that if a program in the school was where the student was
involved in paid employment, if that program were to be
implemented for their children their concern would be any
income earned would disqualify them from continued
participation in the SSI program. This is not necessarily
so whatsoever, particularly – in fact, it's pretty
impossible for me to think of any individual involved in
a, you know, community-based employment or work study
kind of program while they are in school to be earning at
a level that would anywhere near come to the point of
disqualifying the individual for continued eligibility.
That may sound nice, but I can assure you that we've
worked directly with a number of parents who are so
concerned that any kind of earnings on the part of their
children would disqualify them from continued
eligibility. It's not the case whatsoever and, in fact,
the Social Security Administration has tried in the past
to deliver this message through its red book. It's tried
to deliver this message through a program called
“Graduating to Independence.” And we're
currently working on things to assist school personnel so
that they could show a parent the money being earned and
how it would or would not affect anything dealing with
their benefits.
So, I guess in the broadest sense, those of you who
know nothing about this or little about this program,
there are many families who would believe that any income
earned would disqualify their child or their family
member from this program. Not true at all.
And this is one of the things, Dan, that we're trying
to work on. People at Virginia Commonwealth University
are assisting us and we're currently piloting some things
so that we believe that we could get an immediate
response back to a family if we had the numbers. In other
words, if we had the numbers – how much the person
was going to earn while they were in work-study or
whatever – we could quickly turn around and say,
this is what will happen. But please don't run away from
that, but pursue it with people who would be
knowledgeable of that.
Participant: That assistance would be very
beneficial to us in the schools. My name is Sandra Wise
(phonetic). I'm in a high school in Southern Illinois and
I'm a Work Program Coordinator. I do run into that from
time to time where the families are afraid to allow their
children to participate in the program because they are
afraid their benefits will be cut. So, if we had a way of
sitting down with them and showing them that that is not
a concern, that would be very beneficial to us.
Bill Halloran: I really feel that this type of
support is extremely important. I wouldn't want to see
any education personnel having to rely on secondary
information to guide families. We're working now and it's
in the piloting stage right now, but there will be
software that will be user-friendly that can clearly
spell out how income will affect benefits.
Ellie Emanuel: I want to add one comment here
before we move on to Jessica. The work incentives program
is a way of working, adding in various equipment and
support which balances out against the gross income that
students might be earning so that the student can
continue to get SSI. That's one of the points of the SSI
work incentives. So, it's important for people both to
look into the SSI benefits and to talk about and learn
about the work incentives as a way of encouraging parents
and students to think about going to work.
Bill Halloran: In just turning this over, I
want to mention one other thing that's important to us.
And that is that I think you'll see that the materials
that we're putting out and so forth are really intended
to assist people to develop a basic understanding of the
SSI program and the work incentives. My fear is –
and I think that we've had sufficient feedback to
validate this – that school personnel feel that this
is a fairly complicated thing and they just don't want to
get involved with it. But I can't underscore how
important it is for individuals who would meet the
eligibility to be involved in this program. We're talking
about this as the safety net for individuals with more
severe disabilities. And the program contains incentives
for assisting in getting employment.
The program now develops a presumptive eligibility
thing for vocation and rehabilitation services. What I
mean by that is, generally speaking, anybody who is on
the SSI program is presumed to be eligible for vocational
rehabilitation services. And in fact, to a great extent,
this is a very important key to increased independence.
I just want to underscore for those educational people
on this call that even though it might seem like
something complicated that might be added to an already
overburdened role that you have, this is far too
important for people to be in the dark related to this
program. And keep in mind, the students that we are
talking about probably do not represent any greater than
five to eight percent of all of the special education
students in our schools. And we can't think of any other
place where we can provide the information regarding the
program better than the schools, when we have those
individuals in our schools.
So, I urge you to please help us in this effort to
identify those people who should be benefiting from the
program.
Participant: This is Karen Larsen. I just
wanted to jump in real quick. I'm one of the cadre of
people that Angela just talked about in Michigan that's
doing the work incentives training. And I want to
underscore what you're saying about people understanding
the programs. I would encourage each of you to contact
your local Social Security office. We have across the
nation liaisons that are trained in work incentives. I'll
also offer my phone number – (616) 381-5374,
extension 226 – if you want me to get you a name.
Bill Halloran: There are two very important
services that are offered by the Social Security
Administration. One is the training that was just
mentioned, that we have cadres of people from each region
in the country who have been trained and whose role it is
to provide that type of in-service training to people on
the utilization of the employment incentives.
Second, which we're going into right now, are
Disability Determination Services people who are in each
of the states. And they also have a training role that
they'll be describing as it relates to what the school
role should be helping with the determination process.
Ellie Emanuel: Thanks, Bill. That leads us now
to our second presenter, Jessica Austin of Disability
Determination Services in Ramsey County, Minnesota.
Jessica –
Jessica Austin: I feel like I'm doing the
prequel to Bill's presentation. This is the “Part
One” about process and forms at Disability
Determination Services and how we actually make the
decision about disability – what steps go into this.
I wanted to briefly address the increase in the volume
of requests and the volume of information requested from
the schools. The SSI program was created in 1972. At that
time, there were 2 million persons receiving SSI
benefits. As of 1998 there are 5.2 million persons
receiving SSI, including 1 million children. So, this has
definitely impacted the volume of requests we send out
for all records.
Also, the legal definition of disability has changed,
most recently in 1996. Legislation in 1996 provides a
stricter definition of disability than the previous
definition for children. This resulted in the need to
re-determine cases, and resulted in more requests going
to schools for record information.
As far as the specific forms and process that we use
at Disability Determination Services: Although this is a
national program there are going to be some differences
from state to state in the look of the forms, wording, et
cetera. If you do have a question and are in a different
state other than Minnesota, I encourage you to call the
Disability Determination Services in that state. And I
can provide that information for anyone who is
interested.
When we get the disability application – and Bill
has talked about this somewhat – the field office,
prior to the application coming to our agency, does an
assessment of current work activity. And there is a legal
definition of substantial, gainful work, which is five
hundred dollars gross. Our clients have to be earning
under that amount. At our agency we do not do this
investigation. It's done before the claim actually gets
to our agency. I encourage anyone who does have questions
about the earnings amount and that assessment to call
Social Security and discuss it with the staff to see if
indeed the individual or their child may be eligible to
apply, and that earnings level is not an issue.
When we get the application from the field office, we
have professional staff who begin a process that we call
“initial development.” The application is
carefully reviewed for all of the information about
sources of medical treatment and other supplementary
types of information that is very important to the claim.
With most child applicants or older student applicants,
information from the schools would be high on our list of
information that would be very important in making our
determination.
One thing – and Bill had mentioned this also
– for the age range that we're discussing today,
ages 14 through 21, we are actually working with two
slightly different legal definitions of disability. The
adult definition applies when the student or young adult
reaches the age of eighteen. I won't be going into all
the differences today as far as how that impacts our
development, but it is a different standard and we are
using different medical criteria. There are separate
criteria for adults and children.
Because we are looking for medical evidence – and
anyone who has received a request from us to a school or
a medical facility will notice – we are interested
in clinical findings and test data in addition to
observational information from the schools.
When we are at the point of initial development and we
have a child – someone under 18 years of age –
or if it appears that the person is still dependent on
others for supervision and guidance, we have forms that
we will send parents, guardians, or other third parties
that also ask for information about the applicant's
functional level and activities. The areas of function
that the childhood disability listing specifies include
the following (and this information is really the basis
for a lot of the questions that we are asking the
schools):
- Cognition communication
- Motor skills, fine and gross
- Social, the ability to form social relationships
- Personal, personal safety issues, and
- Concentration, persistence, and pace in
performing tasks.
The disability specialist that is assigned to the
claim will usually generate two letters at our agency,
and I think this would be similar in other states. This
includes a cover letter, which is a computer-generated
letter that lists specific records that we would like
from the school system. In Minnesota, we have tried to
tailor this, customize it, to reflect the names of the
records. And I can't comment on consistency of the names
throughout the nation. But I know IEPs would be standard
information. We are also very interested in the results
of psychological testing and hearing and speech
evaluations, special ed information, and transitional
plans. And we know that the list of items that we are
asking for can be a long list. Because of the complexity
of the childhood regulations and the level of detail we
need, we hope that by listing this information and using
the correct name for the record, that we will be able to
get the specific records needed for review.
The other form that we send out, and other state
agencies send out routinely, is a School Activities
Questionnaire. It may have a different name in other
states. This is a form that we hope will be completed by
the educator professional who knows the student the best.
And the form has a number of specific questions on it
about the five areas of function that I had mentioned
earlier: Cognition; motor skills; social relationships;
personal safety; concentration, persistence, and pace.
Many of our claims end up being determined on the basis
of assessment of these functional areas. And that's why
we have such detailed questions about these areas. We
also need, in most situations, to get an update within
three months. And sometimes the information that we have
from the school records will be older than that.
In terms of guidance for professional educators, we
are interested in objective observations from the
teacher. The person completing the form should be aware
this form becomes a document, and part of the disability
folder. We want specific information, and quantified.
It's more helpful to tell us the percentage of time or
times a week that a certain behavior takes place than to
make a general statement about that behavior.
I know there have been concerns from the schools about
the time required to complete this form and we are well
aware of how busy teachers are. We estimate that this
takes about ten minutes to complete. And obviously, there
are some teachers who would not have time to complete
such a form. But for those that do, we do appreciate it.
And I know from our agency staff, I hear that many of the
educators are doing a very good job in completing these
forms and sending them back, along with the records.
Some more information about our process: Once we start
getting records back from the school or other sources of
medical treatment where we have requested information,
the records are reviewed to see if we could possibly
allow a claim. In many cases, again because of the
complexity and detail of the medical criteria and the
information we need to document a case, we end up setting
up consultative examinations. For the population in
question, not all but probably the majority of the exams
that we set up are psychological assessments with
psychological testing, because we do need valid IQ
testing in order to document mental deficiency, along
with a good clinical interview and mental status findings
if the child is of an age where that can be done. At any
point in time that we could allow the case, we would
proceed with an allowance decision.
If we are not able to allow the case and we have all
the record information in – and usually we are
looking at going back twelve months from the date of
application and collecting this information – when
we are at the point in time where we can make a decision,
a written notice will be sent to the applicant if they
are over age eighteen and don't have a guardian, a parent
or a guardian in other situations. If the claim is turned
down, the notice will include information about appeal
rights.
One of the questions that Ellie gave me was on staff
development – what has happened or is occurring
within our agency to assist school personnel, parents,
and students with understanding our process and forms.
And from Bill's comments and others, obviously people are
confused in terms of the type of information that we want
and how much detail. Fortunately, or unfortunately,
because of the volume of claims that we review, we do
have to use form letters to request this information.
However, if a parent or a teacher has a question about a
specific case, they should contact the disability
examiner whose phone number is typically right on the
letter that goes out to the schools or the parent. And we
are hoping on a one-to-one basis that the questions that
the parent or teacher has can be resolved.
Again, we know that teachers are very busy. One of the
suggestions I heard from our staff is for the teachers to
leave a recorded message stating what times of the day
they are available. Our staff are typically able to call
and answer questions even with the limited amount of time
that teachers have.
Additionally, the local field offices have work
incentive liaisons. In order to connect with these
liaisons to ask technical questions about work
incentives, call (800) 772-1213.
Also, if an educator or another person involved in a
counseling situation has a concern about fraud, Social
Security has a fraud hotline that can also be contacted
and information can be given anonymously. That number is
(800) 269-0271.
A pamphlet on childhood disability has been revised. I
highly recommend this pamphlet. It's called Childhood
Disability: The Supplemental Security Income Program, A
Guide for School Professionals. It provides some
background on the functional areas and the types of
information that we are looking for when we send out
forms and requests. To receive this pamphlet, fax your
request for publication number 64-049 to this fax number:
(410) 965-0696.
The last question Ellie had provided for me was about
specific procedures or information required by DDS for
students who are turning 18 years of age, who will now be
applying for the first time, or whose status will be
re-determined by our agency. Bill had talked about this
also.
If an individual is turning eighteen and hasn't
applied for disability, they should be aware that they
will be evaluated under the adult listing. But in terms
of the actual procedure itself, there are very few
differences from other types of applications.
One thing the parent or student may want to do is to
alert the school that there is an application being made
so that school personnel will know that a record request
will be coming to that school with some specific
questions. It would be very helpful if we can get a
response to those. Also, as part of the legislation in
1996, continuing disability reviews will be conducted
every three years for SSI recipients under the age of
eighteen whose conditions are likely to improve. Again,
there are forms for this type of reassessment. If the
person receiving benefits or someone who is assisting
them helps complete the form, we should be getting the
information that we need. A payee for a person who is
receiving benefits who receives the checks is responsible
for presenting evidence that any medically necessary
treatment has been received while that person has been in
the payee position.
Many of the population in transition that we're
discussing today are obviously still in school. And once
an individual turns eighteen, we start to look more
carefully at work capabilities. Because there are so many
claims that involve a mental impairment, I thought I
would present the specific mental capabilities that we
look at. This would be in a situation where a person
doesn't automatically meet the medical criteria, and we
need to get additional information. In most cases, we
would be looking to see if that person could do routine
unskilled work. So, specific mental capacities we look at
are:
- Capacity to understand, remember, and follow
instructions;
- Capacity to sustain attention and concentration;
- Capacity to carry out work-like tasks with
reasonable persistence and pace;
- Capacity to respond appropriately to co-workers
and supervisors; and
- Capacity to tolerate stress in the workplace.
In looking at these criteria, it's very clear that
there may be information from a work program at school
that would document significant problems in one or more
of these areas that may be extremely helpful for our
program and our assessment. Again, we are hoping that we
can get this type of information from the schools to help
with these cases where our clients are over the age of
eighteen.
I hope that you've found some of this information
helpful or enlightening. And now I'd like to answer any
questions you have.
Ellie Emanuel: Thank you, Jessica. So, let's
open it up for questions.
Participant: My name is Dean Shabbold
(phonetic). I'm with St. Paul's Public Schools Transition
Independence Program. I have a student who recently
received a letter from SSI saying that his benefits were
eliminated. I'm wondering how can I help that student who
is over eighteen get back into the system? He was making
approximately $670 a month.
Jessica Austin: In that case, it appears to be
a technical issue and I don't have an answer to that. I
would talk to the parents and see if they've contacted
the social security field office to discuss earnings and
what can be done about that. I apologize for not having
more specific information on this topic.
Participant: This is Angela in Michigan and I'm
going to tap on Karen Larsen's knowledge also. Without
knowing the facts of the case, wouldn't this person be
eligible potentially for PASS?
Participant (Karen Larsen): I'll just
real quick jump in here, Jessica. It sounds like this
child who was receiving SSI and was working and making
$670 a month very likely may be eligible for a PASS. FJ
does not apply to SSI beneficiaries once they are
entitled. But earnings of that amount could certainly
reduce their SSI benefit to zero. To answer the question
fully would take probably forty-five minutes and we'd
have to look at the case together. If you want to give me
a call, I'd be happy to talk to you. My number is (616)
381-5374, extension 226.
Ellie Emanuel: Thank you, Karen. Let's take one
last question, please.
Participant: I have a question. I'm a work
program coordinator from a school. And I was wondering if
anybody is aware of any schools out there that are
including representatives from the Social Security office
in high school students IEP or annual review meetings in
the spring or in exit conferences for seniors?
Participant (Mr. Webber): I'm from
Illinois, but I would guess the number of IEP conferences
that are scheduled in the spring, you'd be lucky to get
that Social Security liaison to a fourth of those
meetings. That's one of the big problems that we face
even in rehab, you know, the number of IEPs from
fourteen-and-a-half on up to twenty-one are just unreal.
And it's difficult to have representation at the table
sometimes.
Participant (Thomas Golden): In New York
State, our independent living centers are contracted to
provide that type of advocacy in monitoring of benefits.
And they really participate in the IEP meetings on behalf
of SSA and maintain a lot of contact with their offices.
Participant (Dean Shabbold): I'm with
the St. Paul schools and I've been to hundreds of IEP
conferences and don't know of ever seeing anybody from
SSA being involved or maybe even being invited.
Ellie Emanuel: Well, we're going to have to end
this call. But I would like to thank Bill Halloran and
Jessica Austin and all of you for being on this call.
|
![NTN [logo]](../../images/ntnThL.gif)
![NTA [logo link]](../../images/nta.gif){kind=small}
