Courses

Work incentives pave the way to work and financial independence for recipients of public benefits. All public benefits programs and pensions provide incentives for recipients with disabilities to return to work. During the first set of 7 webinars (Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income and Work), participants will explore the principal benefits provided by the Social Security Administration as well as the work incentives pertaining to each benefit. While SSA provides some of the most significant cash and health care benefits, reality indicates that recipients with disabilities may receive benefits from a myriad of public sources. The second set of 6 webinars (The Effect of Work on Other Federal Programs and Their Relationship the Disability Programs) participants will review the various federal programs providing benefits to individuals with disabilities, including TANF, Workers Compensation, and Veterans Benefits, as well as how each relate to one another and are impacted by earned income. Finally, the third set of 4 webinars (The Ins and Outs of Becoming a Benefits Practitioner) will introduce the practice to participants by providing suggestions as to how this complex variety of work incentives, critically needed benefits and earnings can be described and explained to an individual with a disability to both encourage work and financial independence.

This intensive certification program for Benefits Practitioners requires participation in 17 webinars, completion of a provisional certification on line examination as well as a file review that, upon successful completion, will result in full certification. The webinars are presented twice weekly over a period of eight and a half weeks. The on line examination will be administered two weeks after the conclusion of the webinar series and participants will be allowed a full work week (24/7) to complete the examination. Finally, within 3 months of successfully completing the examination a file review will be completed by Cornell faculty to ensure that the provisionally certified Benefits Practitioner is actually able to effectively use the information obtained through the webinar courses and written materials.

Full certification can be maintained by securing 60 hours of continuing education units (CEU) over the 5 year period immediately following the attainment of full certification. An on line “portal” will be made available for logging CEU activity.

Work incentives pave the way to work and financial independence for recipients of public benefits. All public benefits programs and pensions provide incentives for recipients with disabilities to return to work. During the first set of 7 webinars (Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income and Work), participants will explore the principal benefits provided by the Social Security Administration as well as the work incentives pertaining to each benefit.

While SSA provides some of the most significant cash and health care benefits, people with disabilities may receive benefits from a myriad of public sources. In the second set of 6 webinars (The Effect of Work on Other Federal Programs and Their Relationship the Disability Programs) participants will review the various federal programs providing benefits to individuals with disabilities, including TANF, Workers Compensation, and Veterans Benefits, as well as how each relate to one another and are impacted by earned income.

Finally, the third set of 4 webinars (The Ins and Outs of Becoming a Benefits Practitioner) will introduce the practice to participants by providing suggestions as to how this complex variety of work incentives, critically needed benefits, and earnings can be explained to an individual with a disability to encourage both work and financial independence.

This intensive training program for Benefits Practitioners requires participation in 17 webinars. At the completion of the 17 webinars, participants will receive a Certificate of Attendance. Credentialing can be received if the participant chooses the Work Incentives Planning and Utilization for Benefit Practitioners Certificate Series (with Credentialing as a Benefits and Work Incentives Practitioner) course.

Participants interested in completing a course in SSA Work Incentive Knowledge and Utilization must complete all seven webinar classes in this concentration area. Individuals considering the delivery of benefits and work incentive planning and assistance should consider also completing the Work Incentive Planning course and the Federal Benefit Programs course. Individuals completing all three courses and passing an online examination will be eligible for the Cornell University Certificate in Work Incentives Planning and Utilization for Benefit Practitioners.

Participants interested in completing a course in SSA Work Incentive Knowledge and Utilization must complete all seven webinar classes in this concentration area. Individuals considering the delivery of benefits and work incentive planning and assistance should consider also completing the Work Incentive Planning course and the Federal Benefit Programs course. Individuals completing all three courses and passing an online examination will be eligible for the Cornell University Certificate in Work Incentives Planning and Utilization for Benefit Practitioners.

Participants interested in completing a course in SSA Work Incentive Knowledge and Utilization must complete all seven webinar classes in this concentration area. Individuals considering the delivery of benefits and work incentive planning and assistance should consider also completing the Work Incentive Planning course and the Federal Benefit Programs course. Individuals completing all three courses and passing an online examination will be eligible for the Cornell University Certificate in Work Incentives Planning and Utilization for Benefit Practitioners.

Learn to counsel youth with disabilities to use work incentives as a tool for establishing careers, as you earn Cornell’s Youth-C credential!

You’ll learn about:

• Work incentives that can specifically benefit youths
• Calculating and tracking the use of these work incentives, and planning for periods of time when each may not apply
• Using and understanding the BPQY to ensure a youth receives applicable work incentives
• Counseling youths and parents about the benefits of work—and the benefits of work incentives
• Financial tools to assist the youth and family as the youth begins work
• Assisting with developing good money habits immediately when a job begins

Prerequisite: Either an up-to-date WIP-C™ credential from Cornell University or CWIC certification from Virginia Commonwealth University.

The class will be limited to 40 participants.

Learn to counsel Veterans with disabilities about returning to work, as you earn Cornell’s Vet-C credential.

You’ll learn about

• Disability benefits offered by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
• How VA benefits and SSA benefits impact each other
• What happens to VA benefits when Veterans return to work
• Tools to verify VA benefits
• Counseling Veterans about the benefits of work and how to leverage VA benefits to support work
• Outreach to organizations serving Veterans

Prerequisite: Either an up-to-date WIP-C credential from Cornell University or CWIC certification from Virginia Commonwealth University. The class will be limited to 35 participants.

The actor Bette Davis famously said, “Old age ain’t no place for sissies”.  Yet there’s one silver lining about growing old that even Bette would have appreciated.  When a SSDI beneficiary reaches full retirement age, their SSDI is switched to a Retirement Insurance Benefit (RIB), they no longer have an earnings limit and they don’t have to endure medical reviews.  That much is pretty simple and beneficial.

But the details about transitioning to retirement can get complex.  First of all, full retirement age is different for different people, depending on their birth year.  Second, some people who work may be better off getting their Retirement Insurance Benefit before full retirement age (early RIB).  Third, some of those people may be “simultaneously entitled” to SSDI and early RIB, which gives them some advantages.  And fourth, simultaneously entitled people may switch back and forth between SSDI and early RIB, depending on their circumstances.

This webinar addresses the details, including:

·      How to determine a person’s full retirement age

·      Transitioning from SSDI to RIB at full retirement age

·      When it may be advantageous to file for early RIB, and when it’s better to stick with SSDI

·      How to be simultaneously entitled to SSDI and early RIB, and the benefits of simultaneous entitlement

·      When a simultaneously entitled person may benefit from switching back and forth between SSDI and early RIB

·      The impact on Medicare of transitioning from SSDI to RIB or early RIB

·      The role of a Work Incentive Practitioner in the transition from SSDI to RIB or early RIB

Once you know the SSI calculation, it’s pretty straightforward to estimate HOW income affects SSI.  But figuring out WHEN income affects SSI can be trickier.  Income received in one month generally reduces SSI two months later…except when it doesn’t.  There are several exceptions.  Depending on a person’s earnings fluctuations, it can get pretty complicated to determine how much SSI they should get each month.

Here's your chance to learn the rules about WHEN income affects SSI, with plenty of case examples.  This webinar will cover:

·      Retrospective Monthly Accounting (RMA) – rule that income received in a month generally affects SSI two months later

·      Exceptions to RMA:

o   First month of SSI eligibility

o   Months in which countable income exceeds the federal benefit rate

o   Transitional Computation Cycle (TCC) – when SSI eligibility starts or re-starts after a period of ineligibility

o   SSDI/SSI COLA coordination

o   Certain income based on need (IBON)

When you provide work incentives counseling, some good things are bound to happen, like enabling people to earn more than they thought they could and to keep their medical benefits even if their cash benefits stop.  Unfortunately, some not-so-good things are also inevitable, like some people having overpayments.  Even when people report their earnings and do everything they’re supposed to, it’s almost impossible to completely avoid overpayments.  SSA is simply too overwhelmed to always stop or adjust benefit payments in a timely way.

But there’s good news.  You can help people decrease overpayments by reporting earnings, reduce or eliminate overpayments by using work incentives, negotiate reasonable repayment plans to make overpayments less painful, and even have some overpayments “waived”.  You just need to know the rules…and some loopholes.

This training covers:

·      How to reduce or eliminate overpayments by reporting earnings and requesting work incentive use

·      Asking SSA to stop or reduce benefit payments, when necessary, to keep overpayments from growing

·      Appealing overpayments

·      Requesting that overpayment determinations be “reopened” when appeals are not an option

·      Benefit adjustment to recover overpayments, and how to request that lesser amounts be withheld from benefits to repay overpayments

·      Installment payments to settle overpayments when benefits have stopped

·      Compromise settlements

·      How and when to request a waiver of an overpayment

Resources for helping with overpayments

Most people who get Social Security Title II Disability benefits receive them based on their own earnings records.  But Title II can also be a family affair.  A person can receive a Childhood Disability Benefit (CDB – also known as a Disabled Adult Child benefit) on a parent’s (or sometimes a grandparent’s) work record.  A person can receive a Disabled Widow’s or Widower’s Benefit (DWB) based on earnings of their deceased spouse.  You’re probably familiar with these basics.  You probably also know that people receiving CDB or DWB can use the same work incentives as people who receive SSDI on their own work records.  But that’s just the beginning.

This webinar travels deep into the weeds of CDB and DWB.  It covers details about each benefit, including:

·      Eligibility

·      Waiting period (if any)

·      Retroactivity

·      Dual entitlement (with another Title II benefit)

·      When it may be reduced

·      When it terminates

·      Work incentives

·      How to become re-entitled

·      How to apply

·      Medicare eligibility

·      What happens at full retirement age

As a bonus, the session explains how a child with a disability who receives a Child’s Benefit can transition to CDB at age 18, and when a person can qualify for CDB on a grandparent’s work record.

People who get approved for Title II Disability benefits – often after appeals and long waits – usually breathe deep sighs of relief to have that nerve-racking ordeal behind them.  Little do they know.  Getting awarded a Title II Disability benefit is just the beginning.  SSA periodically conducts two kinds of reviews to determine whether eligibility for benefits can continue.  Work continuing disability reviews (CDRs) evaluate earnings and allowable deductions to determine which Title II Disability work incentive phase a person is in, and whether they remain eligible for benefit payments.  Medical CDRs consider whether a person has medically improved, and therefore, whether benefits should continue.

This webinar details work and medical CDRs – when and how often they are initiated, which forms and documents are used, tips for people whose work CDRs will determine they are performing SGA and the standard of proof used for medical CDRs.  The session also reviews two work incentives that can enable a person to keep Title II Disability or SSI benefits temporarily even if they have medically improved – the Ticket to Work and Section 301 – and how to prepare beneficiaries to use them, if necessary.

If a beneficiary asks you, “What is the most important thing I should do when I go to work?”, your answer should emphatically be:  “Report your earnings and work incentive use to Social Security”.  Reporting earnings limits overpayments (and underpayments) and helps get overpayments waived when they occur.  Reporting work incentive use can help continue Title II Disability benefits, keep SSI payments higher, continue medical benefits if cash benefits stop, and restore cash benefits if earnings drop later.

That sounds simple enough, but the devil is in the details.  This webinar explains the little devils, including:

·      When and how often to report earnings

·      Options for reporting earnings when work starts, and when it continues

·      Methods for reporting earnings for Title II Disability and for SSI

·      When and how often to report work incentive use

·      Forms and documents needed for reporting work incentives

·      Tracking and saving documentation of earnings and work incentive use

·      What to do when a beneficiary is overpaid, despite reporting earnings and work incentives

·      A WIP’s role in reporting

The Student Earned Income Exclusion (SEIE) is smart public policy.  Numerous studies have shown that youths who get work experience during the transition years are much more likely to work as adults, and to depend less on cash benefits like SSI.  The SEIE provides a powerful incentive for students under age 22 who get SSI to try paid work.  This work incentive lets a student earn nearly $9,000 per year (in 2023) from work without reducing their SSI at all.  This generous rule encourages young students to gain work experience that is likely to help them be more financially independent as adults.

This training covers all the key details of the SEIE:

·      Who is eligible

·      The monthly and annual limits of the SEIE deduction from earnings

·      Which kinds of education programs qualify a student to use the SEIE

·      What “regular attendance” in school or a job training course means for the SEIE

·      Using the SEIE during vacations from school

·      How to verify to SSA that a student is eligible for the SEIE

·      How the SEIE is used when SSI deeming applies

·      Using the SEIE along with other work incentives

(PLEASE NOTE THIS IS PART 1 OF A 2-PART SERIES- PART 2 IS OCTOBER 17, 2023)

Lack of affordable housing aggravates the plight of low-income Americans as much as any other single issue.  Rents have risen to new heights during the post-pandemic period.  HUD rental assistance programs – although chronically underfunded – offer an elegant solution for people who receive their assistance.  Tenants pay a limited percentage of their income for rent and utilities, and HUD funds pay the rest.  When tenants’ incomes drop, when certain other expenses rise, or rents go up, HUD usually pays more of the rent and utility costs.  And income limits for HUD programs are based on percentages of the median income in the local area, so people who live in high-income, high-rent communities can qualify for aid if their incomes are higher, but still low compared to the average in their area.  In short, these programs ensure affordable rent and utility costs.

National training and certification for benefit planners – including WIPs – lack the time needed to cover HUD programs adequately.  Here is your chance to gain a deeper knowledge of these essential benefits that many individuals we serve receive.  Given the depth and breadth of the content, this training requires two 2-hour webinars.

The webinars address:

·      The basic calculation of tenant’s share of rent and utility costs

·      The key HUD programs.  A chart is included that details 14 HUD programs and 3 non-HUD programs.

·      Work incentives in some HUD programs

·      Asset eligibility

·      How to estimate the impact of earnings on rent and utility payments

·      How the Housing Opportunity through Modernization Act (HOTMA) will make key changes to HUD rules when final regulations are published

·      Minimum rent and hardship exemptions

·      Impact of welfare assistance reductions on rent

·      How to use two protections for tenants whose incomes increase significantly – “flat rents” in public housing, and a key Housing Choice Voucher rule

The training features a HUD rent calculation spreadsheet which you’ll learn to use to estimate the impact of income changes – including new or increased work earnings – on rent and utility payments.

(PLEASE NOTE THIS IS PART 2 OF A 2-PART SERIES.  PART 1 IS SEPTEMBER 19, 2023)

Lack of affordable housing aggravates the plight of low-income Americans as much as any other single issue.  Rents have risen to new heights during the post-pandemic period.  HUD rental assistance programs – although chronically underfunded – offer an elegant solution for people who receive their assistance.  Tenants pay a limited percentage of their income for rent and utilities, and HUD funds pay the rest.  When tenants’ incomes drop, when certain other expenses rise, or rents go up, HUD usually pays more of the rent and utility costs.  And income limits for HUD programs are based on percentages of the median income in the local area, so people who live in high-income, high-rent communities can qualify for aid if their incomes are higher, but still low compared to the average in their area.  In short, these programs ensure affordable rent and utility costs.

National training and certification for benefit planners – including WIPs – lack the time needed to cover HUD programs adequately.  Here is your chance to gain a deeper knowledge of these essential benefits that many individuals we serve receive.  Given the depth and breadth of the content, this training requires two 2-hour webinars.

The webinars address:

·      The basic calculation of tenant’s share of rent and utility costs

·      The key HUD programs.  A chart is included that details 14 HUD programs and 3 non-HUD programs.

·      Work incentives in some HUD programs

·      Asset eligibility

·      How to estimate the impact of earnings on rent and utility payments

·      How the Housing Opportunity through Modernization Act (HOTMA) will make key changes to HUD rules when final regulations are published

·      Minimum rent and hardship exemptions

·      Impact of welfare assistance reductions on rent

·      How to use two protections for tenants whose incomes increase significantly – “flat rents” in public housing, and a key Housing Choice Voucher rule

The training features a HUD rent calculation spreadsheet which you’ll learn to use to estimate the impact of income changes – including new or increased work earnings – on rent and utility payments.

Medicaid is the most important benefit that many people we serve will ever receive.  It provides comprehensive medical coverage and can supplement other health insurance.  Most importantly, it can cover a variety of disability-related services that other insurance rarely if ever covers (or covers adequately), such as home and community-based services, attendant care and community behavioral health services.  Many people are willing to give up SSI, if they’ll be financially better off without it, but only if they won’t lose Medicaid.

Luckily, SSA rules protect Medicaid for certain groups of former SSI recipients who have switched to receiving certain Title II benefits.  Often referred to as “special Medicaid eligible”, they include people whose SSI has stopped due to receipt of Childhood Disability Benefits (CDB, also known as Disabled Adult Child (DAC) benefits) and those whose SSI has stopped when they receive Disabled Widow’s/Widower’s Benefits (DWB).  A third – and widely misunderstood – group have lost SSI for any reason, receive Title II benefits now, and would still receive SSI if they had not received Title II cost of living increases after their SSI payments stopped.  These folks benefit from the Pickle Amendment and are commonly known (God help them) as “Pickle people”.

This training explains eligibility for each of the three groups, how eligibility is determined, how to ensure a person can get or keep Medicaid if they belong to one of these groups, how some people who lose special Medicaid eligibility may regain it later, and the role of a WIP in helping people qualify for special Medicaid eligibility.

The POMS defines deeming as “the process of considering another person's income and resources to be available for meeting an SSI claimant's (or recipient's) basic needs of food and shelter… Attribute deemed income and resources to the eligible individual whether or not they are actually available to him/her.”

How’s that for logic?

Deeming affects people on SSI who are (1) married to spouses who don’t get SSI, and (2) children under age 18 living with parent(s).  A portion of the spouse’s or parents’ income and resources is counted against the SSI recipient for SSI eligibility and payment purposes.  Deeming can make a married person or child eligible for less SSI…or none at all.  You probably knew that much.

But the specifics of SSI deeming are a mystery for most Work Incentive Practitioners.  This webinar dives deeply into the details, including:

·      When deeming applies, and when it doesn’t

·      Types of income and resources that can – or can’t - be deemed

·      Spouse-to-spouse deeming rules

·      Parent-to-child deeming rules

·      Impact of deeming on 1619(b) eligibility

Best of all, this training provides deeming spreadsheets for both spouse-to-spouse and parent-to-child deeming and walks you through some case examples.

Here’s the simple part:  SSI is intended to help a person pay for food and shelter.  Generally, to receive up to the maximum SSI benefit, an adult beneficiary must pay for their own food and shelter.  If another party provides the person with free or reduced-cost food or shelter, the amount of SSI the person receives will be reduced.

Here’s the complicated part:  Everything else.  The details about how SSA evaluates a person’s living arrangements and whether food or shelter they receive will cause their SSI to be reduced are mind-boggling.  This webinar explains the rules so you can help SSI recipients minimize the impact of food and shelter they receive on their SSI payments.

The training covers:

·      How “in-kind support and maintenance (ISM)” – free or reduced-cost food or shelter received from another party - affects SSI payments

·      When SSA uses the “value of the third reduction (VTR)” and when they use the “presumed maximum value (PMV)” to determine the reduction in SSI from food or shelter a person receives

·      The impact a person’s type of living arrangement has on ISM

·      When food or shelter from another party does NOT count as ISM

·      Which expenses count as “shelter”

·      Rental assistance, energy assistance and ISM

·      Using loans of food and shelter to maximize SSI payments

·      When ISM and deeming may apply at the same time

·      How family members can supplement a SSI beneficiary’s income without reducing their SSI payments, by contributing to ABLE accounts or making “third party payments”

A 15-week online course requiring an investment in an “inside-out” approach to working with people with disabilities. Participants actively commit to sit throughout 15 weeks of discovery and exploration of what it means to be person-centered and inclusive.

A ONE-OF-A-KIND LEARNING EXPERIENCE

A provocative 15-week program that combines interactive webinars with a self-paced online theory- to-practice curriculum. This course is designed to take the guesswork out of what it means to be truly person-centered and to build social inclusion with people with disabilities.

Participants will be immersed in a learning experience that is guided by people with disabilities, recorded interviews with experts, reflective and field-based applied learning, facilitated discussion and more. Be prepared for an “inside-out” experience. Participants are required to work with a minimum of two learning partners,* one of whom must be a person with a disability—throughout the course. These partners, along with the other participants in the course, serve as guides and supporters throughout the learning journey.

*Participants are responsible for finding your own learning partners.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

Value-driven principles like inclusion, belonging, contribution and leadership are universal, and as such, this course is appropriate for anyone wishing to explore or study them. It is important to note that this course was written to provide disability service providers and practitioners a safe place to return to the roots of person-centered planning and practice; to listen to the voices of experience; apply theory to practice; and to share thoughts and ideas with others on a similar quest. This course is especially recommended for:

• Executive directors
• Program managers
• Service and/or program coordinators
• Direct support professionals
• Social workers
• Counselors
• Community inclusion practitioners/specialists
• Person-Centered Planners