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
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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 Incentives Planning 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 supports to 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 Discovery/Person
Centered
Stages
Planning
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
Job
Job
Search/Development Offer/Begin
Job/Initial
Training
When specific
When
parameters of the
specific job is
job goal are
offered:
identified an
1. Revise
analysis will be
analysis, if
provided (in writing needed, to
if appropriate) to
clarify impact
explain:
of specific
1. Impact of the
job on
work goal on all
benefits and
benefits
work
2.Recommendations incentives to
for use of specific
utilize
Ongoing
Employment
Support
Determine
need for long
term work
incentive
management
services (i.e.,
quarterly
meeting) to
address
changes that
impact
benefits.
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work incentives
as it relates to
general job goal.
work incentives
3. Clarification on
how Work Incentive
Specialist will assist
with benefit related
supports needed.
2. Assist in
reporting
earnings to
various
benefit
agencies as
needed
3. Assist in
implementing
work
incentives as
needed
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:
https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/oesp/providers.nsf/bystate
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.
http://www.cms.hhs.gov/TWWIIA/03_MIG.asp#TopOfPage
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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