Working and SSI

In certain cases, SSA does not count some of your income or resources. Certain incentive programs allow you to continue to collect SSI cash benefits, or let you continue to receive Medicaid coverage even though you are not receiving SSI cash benefits.

THE PLAN TO ACHIEVE SELF SUPPORT (PASS) is an SSI work incentive program that allows a recipient to set aside income and resources to pay for education or training for the purpose of obtaining employment. The SSA will not count the income that you set aside under your PASS when they figure out your SSI benefit payment amount. In order to be eligible for PASS, the SSI recipient must prepare the plan in writing. A form is available at the Social Security office.

THE IMPAIRMENT-RELATED WORK EXPENSES (IRWE) program allows people with disabilities who are out of school and seeking employment to exclude certain costs from their gross income. Expenses such as the cost of job coaching may also be applied to reduce income in order to maximize the SSI benefit payment amount.

THE STUDENT EARNED INCOME EXCLUSION is a work incentive that allows qualified young people who are still in school to keep some or all of their earnings without losing money from their SSI checks.

BENEPLAN and PROJECT IMPACT can provide additional information about how working and earning or increasing wages impacts SSDI and/or SSI benefits. Which program you can access depends on where you live.

BenePLAN assists consumers and staff of state agencies, employment provider organizations, and school systems in these Massachusetts counties: Essex, Norfolk, Middlesex, Worcester, Hampden, Hampshire, Franklin, and Berkshire. BenePLAN can be reached at 1-877-YES WORK (1-877-937-9675) or online at www.BenePLAN.org.

Project IMPACT provides individualized benefits counseling to Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission consumers, and to their family members, employment provider organizations, school systems, and state agencies in Suffolk, Plymouth, Bristol, Barnstable, Nantucket, and Dukes counties. Project IMPACT can be reached at 1-800-734-7475 or 617-204-3854, or at 617- 204-3834 (TTY).

For more information, visit www.socialsecurity.gov/work or your local Social Security office.

Transition Information Fact Sheet No. 26

Special Needs Trusts