Milestones Magazine - Summer 2019

More documents

Recommendations

Info

ealized they had been duped. I’m thinking they must have been at least a little peeved. Who wants to work for free? I was at a transition planning committee meeting the other day. One of the presenters who works for Gigi’s Playhouse (check it out at https://gigisplayhouse.org) mentioned in passing that some people who attend Gigi’s employment readiness programs don’t want paid work for fear that it will disrupt their benefits. I always feel a bit sad when I hear that because 1) it’s not true and 2) who among us who is not independently wealth would settle for primary employment that does not pay? I should note here that Gigi’s is a strong proponent of paid work. I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating. A lot. People with disabilities are almost always better off working and earning money than not. Here’s an example using Supplemental Security Income (SSI), which is the first benefit for which a person with a disability usually qualifies. SSI is means-tested, which is a more palatable way of saying it is welfare. You don’t have to contribute anything in Social Security tax to get it. If you have a disability, you just have to be poor. Which means you can’t have too much money in the bank and you cannot earn too much. But there is nothing in the rules that says you cannot earn at all. And since a worker only loses fifty cents of SSI for every dollar s/he earns, the worker still has more money. Let’s do the numbers. Clara receives SSI. Since she pays her parent’s room-and-board (that’s a different topic), she receives the full amount of $750 a month. But she’s bored and she’d like to have additional funds. Her parent’s help her to find a part time job at the neighborhood café. She works 15 hours a week at $10/hour. Now she’s earning $600 a month. The first $85 do not count when Social Security calculates her SSI. Of the remaining $515, half or $257.5 does not count. The remaining $257.5 — let’s round up to $258 — is deducted from her SSI benefit. So: Before: Total income = SSI = $750/month After: Total income = SSI + wages = $492 + $600 = $1,092/month In addition to having over $300 of additional disposable income, Clara also has new experiences, a chance to learn new skills, co-workers and a way to use her talents. Since she is paying Social Security tax from her paycheck, she also has a way to earn Social Security credits towards retirement benefits and, in the kind of circular logic you might expect from a government program that evolved through over time through many different administrations, credits towards disability benefits. Yes, you can start work with a disability and earn enough credits so that you go on Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) from your own work. You earn one credit for every $1,320 in gross work income (2018). You can earn a 21
maximum of 4 credits/year. How many credits you need to get SSDI depends on your age. You can find a more detailed discussion here: https://www.ssa.gov/planners/credits.html. Let’s say that Clara, who is 21, goes on to earn 6 credits by the time she is 24. She now qualifies for SSDI on her own work record. SSDI is based on her work history, which is short, so she only qualifies for $200/month to start with. Because her SSDI benefit is lower than her SSI benefit, she continues to get the SSI, although it is reduced dollar for dollar for the amount of SSDI after $20. Her work income continues to reduce her SSI by 50 cents for every dollar over $65. So, her SSI benefit is reduced by $180 due to the SSDI and then by $268 due to working. So now, her income looks like this: Before: Total income = SSI = $750/month After: Total income = SSI + SSDI + wages = $302 + 200 + 600 = $1,102 Now, let’s say that Clara continues to develop at her job. Now, she is working 2 hours a week and earning $1,000/month. Her SSDI benefit, which grows as she accumulates higher earning years, is now $300. Of this, she gets to keep $20. The remaining $280 reduces her SSI benefit to $470. She gets to keep the first $65 of her work earnings. Half of here remaining income — $935/2 = $468 — counts against her remaining SSI. So now, the picture looks like this. Before: Total income = SSI = $750/month After: Total income = SSI + SSDI + wages = $2 + $300 + $1,000 = $1,302 One of the criteria for “having a disability” according to Social Security, is the inability to earn more than $1,180/month (2018). As long as Clara earns below that threshold (which is indexed almost yearly), she can continue to receive her full SSDI benefit and keep all of her work earnings. If she believes she has the capacity to earn more than that on an ongoing basis, she may want to risk crossing the line and going off benefit, knowing that she can go back on is, due to her disability, she finds herself unable to sustain earning at that level. That, however, is a discussion for another day. Beyond a doubt though, it is better to work for pay than not.” Contributor Alexandra Conroy Baig, MBA, CFP® can be reached by phone at 773-297-1556 and email at alexandra@companionsonyourjourney.com. She maintains a website, www.companionsonyourjourney.com, providing Special Needs Expertise for families and professionals. M 22
Page 1 and 2: eyond disabilities Summer Issue 201
Page 4 and 5: Milestones and Beyond Just about al
Page 6 and 7: THE LANGUAGE BARRIER PARENTS TOP 3
Page 8 and 9: Won’t you be my Friend? The title
Page 10 and 11: MELTDOWN INAisle5 While it’s unli
Page 12 and 13: their goals within the community, h
Page 14 and 15: Is it wheelchair accessible? What w
Page 16 and 17: 1. Manage Your Expectations: When w
Page 18 and 19: Mom, Can I Use the Car Tonight? One
Page 20 and 21: determination to become a driver mu
Page 24 and 25: IT’S MY MONEY! “earning one’s
Page 26 and 27: GO to SLEEP! For virtually everyone
Page 28 and 29: Of all the milestones a person can
Page 30: Connections child care Child Care C

Milestones Magazine - Summer 2019

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?