Griffin-Hammis Associates, LLC

Work Incentives (Benefits) Planning: A Critical Service

By Molly Sullivan, Senior Consultant

Griffin-Hammis Associates, LLC

Introduction

Dale began working at ABC Employment Agency 4 months ago as an Employment Specialist. The first person he began assisting was Joan, a young woman with a disability who was interested in working with children. Dale utilized the Discovery process to capture critical information about Joan’s interests, strengths and conditions for employment. With that information, Dale began job developing. He located a school that didn’t have a specific job open, but in talking to the director, Sue, it became clear they had a need for a floater, someone who could move from room to room to help cover the breaks. It was a perfect match! Dale shared the opportunity with Joan, who was excited by the possibility, and scheduled a time for Joan and Sue to meet.

During the introductory meeting Sue provided Joan a tour of the school and introduced her to the teachers. All the teachers were impressed with Joan’s skills, and the potential job fit was looking even better. Sue was so thrilled by how well the meeting was going that she asked Joan if she’d like to work for the school. Joan said she would love to, but wanted to know some details, including how much would she get paid. Sue explained they paid $10/hour to start, which Joan said was great. Then Sue began thinking out loud, saying that she’d need someone 6 hours a day, which would be about $1290/month. Joan initially smiled at the offer, then suddenly her face went blank. She turned to Dale and asked, “Will that make my benefits stop? I can’t lose my benefits. My mom told me that I will I need to make sure I don’t earn too much, that I’ll get in trouble if I do that.”

Sue turned to Dale and immediately responded, “We don’t want to cause any problems. Maybe this isn’t a good idea.”

Dale, feeling like a deer caught in the headlights, was unable to speak as thoughts raced through his mind, “What just went wrong here? Why wasn’t this issue identified earlier? How should I respond, I don’t know a thing about benefits. I don’t want to cause Joan to lose her benefits either. I know the health insurance and Waiver services are critical for her to stay living in her own place. I don’t want to cause her benefits to stop either! What do I do now?!?

What is Work Incentives (Benefits) Planning?

Joan’s scenario is all too common. For decades the expectation was that, as a part of their jobs, employment specialist or vocational rehabilitation counselors would need to be experts with all the various public benefit work rules and work incentives. The reality is that the ever-changing rules and regulations surrounding benefits programs and limited time and training budgets often preclude them becoming trained in work incentives planning and support. As a result, when faced with answering those questions, as in Dale’s situation, professionals tend to default to suggesting that people keep earnings under a particular limit. Although these limits may have their roots in policy, in actuality they rarely have relevance to the individual’s particular benefit package, and fail to take into consideration the myriad of work incentives that could assure financial success. Without accurate information about work incentives, people end up making uninformed decisions and choose to unnecessarily limit their earnings.

Work IncentivesPlanning is an individualized counseling service that supports people with disabilities in achieving employment through the delivery of accurate information about state and federal benefit program work rules and work incentives. It is an essential service: countering misinformation that prevents people from working and providing necessary supportsto use work incentives.

How do you incorporate Work Incentives Planning into the Employment process?

Work Incentives Planning service is not a one-time service. It is a support that is generally needed at all stages of the employment process to assure individuals have adequate information to make an informed decision when career planning, deciding on job offers, and choosing to accept pay and hour increases on the job.

Given the complexity of the various public benefit work rules and work incentives, the more details of the job goal and supports that are provided, the more detailed the work incentive planning information can be. As a result, the information provided in the early stages of the employment process is usually general in nature, whereas the information provided later in the employment process generally involves specific step by step recommendations and support.

The following timeline provides a visual overview of the type of work incentives information that can be provided at various stages of the employment process:

Employment Stages / Discovery/Person Centered Planning / Job Search/Development / Job Offer/Begin Job/Initial Training / Ongoing Employment Support
Work Incentive Planning services / 1. Clarify questions and concerns about benefits and working
2. Clarify information about general work goal
3. Verify current benefits
4. Provide general information about work incentives as it relates to general job goal. / When specific parameters of the job goal are identified an analysis will be provided (in writing if appropriate) to explain:
1. Impact of the work goal on all benefits
2.Recommendations for use of specific work incentives
3. Clarification on how Work Incentive Specialist will assist with benefit related supports needed. / When specific job is offered:
1. Revise analysis, if needed, to clarify impact of specific job on benefits and work incentives to utilize
2. Assist in reporting earnings to various benefit agencies as needed
3. Assist in implementing work incentives as needed / Determine need for long term work incentive management services (i.e., quarterly meeting) to address changes that impact benefits.

Where can you access Work Incentive Planning Services?

There is at least one Work Incentive Planning service available in every state. Most are funded through a grant from the Social Security Administration, called Work Incentive Planning and Assistance (WIPA) projects. The organizations/agencies that have these grants provide the full continuum of Work Incentive Planning services for free.

You can locate the project in your state at the following url:

Because the demand for the service is greater than the capacity of the WIPA projects in most states, some state/county agencies, as well as individual vocational providers, are finding funding to expand capacity. The increased capacity varies substantially from state to state. Since several states are utilizing Medicaid Infrastructure Grants (MIG) to try to address this issue, determining if your state has a MIG and contacting them to clarify their involvement in this issue is a good place to start.

Simple Steps to Incorporate Work Incentives Planning into Employment Services:

1. Learn the basic facts about work incentives to help dispel the myths

2. Locate your local Work Incentive Planning service provider

3. Develop a relationship with them; let them know who you are and what you do and learn about their service delivery process

4. Work with them to identify simple strategies you can implement to use their time efficiently and create a plan for how best to work together.

Assuring Success:

So what happened to Joan? Fortunately, Dale remembered meeting his local benefits planner and was able to quickly schedule a meeting for Joan and her team. At that meeting Joan learned that she would be able to keep her Medicaid services, and she’d also have $1290 of wages and still receive $34 of SSI. She and her team were relieved to know she would end up with so much more money and still maintain her Medicaid, so she accepted the job!

Originally published in The Job Placement and Training Report

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