Can I work while I'm on Social Security?
by Thomas P. McCormackYou're on Social Security--Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), Supplemental Security Income (SSI), or both. (The SSDI average monthly check is about $675; SSI pays up to $484 and New York supplements that up to $570.) But you find that your benefits aren't enough to live on. In addition, you'd like to stay busy by working.
THE SUBSTANTIAL GAINFUL ACTIVITY (SGA) RULE FOR SSDI AND SSI
You've got a problem. The Social Security law bases eligibility for disability benefits not on clinical condition alone--being "disabled" in an ordinary, medical sense of the word--it bases it on being unable to engage in any substantial gainful activity ("SGA") which exists in the national economy. This means that working can--and often does--cost you eligibility for benefits. Generally, monthly earnings of over $500 trigger Social Security to declare work to be disqualifying "SGA". In situations where someone is working, or trying to work, over a period of several months, though, earnings as low as $200 monthly can considered to be "SGA" and cost you your check.
WORKING FOR CASH, UNDER THE TABLE OR WITH PHONY PAPERS
But there are exceptions, as always with complex government programs. Of course, you could arrange to work for cash under the table, and not tell anyone; or, like so many of the illegal aliens we see around today, you could work under a friend's Social Security number and name, or invent a name and manufacture or buy a fake Social Security card to use. Thousands do it and get away with it. But it is illegal. Not only would you risk cancellation of your benefits, you'd be subject to prosecution for a federal crime in the event you were caught. If you were very careful and clever, the chances you'd be caught are very remote. And if you were, aside from owing Social Security for the benefits you collected while improperly working, there'd be the most minimal risk of punishment. Still, breaking the law is not the answer; don't even think about it!
THE "SUBSIDIZED EMPLOYMENT' WAY OF WORKING WHILE ON SSDI
$484 monthly is the basic federal SSI level in 1996 in most states; but is significantly higher in New York, New Jersey, California, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and other large industrial states because the state chooses to supplement basic SSI.
If you're on SSDI-and not SSI-you could arrange to work above board with an employer who is familiar with you in what is called "subsidized employment" by Social Security. This term refers to situations where an employee really doesn't earn his own way and really isn't productive. It's commonly used, for example, where a severely retarded person, for "busy work" purposes, is put to work weaving baskets or whatever. Such "work" doesn't really count as SGA and therefore it doesn't affect eligibility for SSDI. (It does affect SSI, however, because SSI is a welfare program, and any money you get-whether from "subsidized employment" or anything else-can reduce or eliminate your SSI check.)
But "subsidized employment" is also used by Social Security for situations where an employer "for old times sake" or for "disguised charity" reasons keeps or puts a long time or favored employee or friend on the job payroll even if they can't really "produce". You yourself probably know of situations where an employer kept on paying someone--and not just through sick or vacation pay either--even after they couldn't do much. It happens all the time when loyal employees gradually sicken. Social Security is quite used to the phenomenon, and fits it easily into its "subsidized employment" SGA exemption.
Let's say you went back to work at your old employer after the health crisis that forced you onto SSDI. If your boss--and preferably some job colleagues as well--presented Social Security with a letter explaining that you really didn't earn your "salary", and that it was just paid to humor you and as a charity donation, Social Security would consider your earnings to be "subsidized employment" and they wouldn't count as "SGA" and endanger your SSDI.
Of course, these statements must be true, and the supervisor, the coworkers and others must be prepared to stand behind their characterizations of your work's lack of real value. Lying is perjury under federal law. On the other hand, the chances are almost nil that Social Security will launch an exhaustive investigation of your workplace, cross-examine everyone there, or familiarize itself enough with the details of that business to effectively challenge your employer's claim about the "non-value" of your work.
But, again, it's important to remember that the "subsidized employment" exemption from the SGA rule doesn't really matter much for SSI because SSI counts all earnings toward its financial eligibility limit (to see whether you are poor enough; SSI counts all earnings except for $85 and one half the rest before comparing your resulting countable income to the SSI level ($484).
TRIAL WORK PERIOD UNDER SSDI (BUT NOT SSI)
SSDI (but, again, not SSI) has an even better exemption from SGA if you want to try working. It's called the "trial work period". This provision lets you work for up to nine months-no matter how high your earnings-without your coming up against the SGA limit. You'd still get your full SSDI check. The nine months don't have to be all in a row. It's a good idea to tell the Social Security office you're about to begin a trial work period, but not absolutely mandatory. (Like Big Brother, they'll find out anyway and deduct your working months from your nine month allowance). After the nine months are used up, you get three months' worth of "grace period" SSDI checks. Then they stop.
MEDICARE DURING TRIAL WORK PERIOD AND EVEN AFTER IT
While you are in the trial work period and then the grace period, your Medicare (if you've already gone through the two year waiting period for it) will continue. In fact, if you keep on working you'll remain eligible for Medicare for an "extended period of eligibility" of three more years after the trial work period (although you will have to send in a check for the Medicare Part B premium, currently $43.80, since you'll no longer be getting a SSDI check to have it deducted from). Months in the trial work period, the grace period and then the 36 month extended period can be counted toward the two year Medicare waiting period if you haven't yet qualified for Medicare at the time you started working.
MEDICARE EVEN AFTER YOU'RE WORKING, AND PAYING FOR IT
Remember that while you're in your 9 month trial work period and then your 3 month grace period, you stay on Medicare Part A for free and on part B too because the 43.80 premium continues being deducted from your SSDI check. Then in the next stage--the 36 month "extended period of eligibility"--while part A continues free, Part B doesn't. Since you won't have an SSDI check from which the Part B premium can be automatically deducted, you must arrange with Social Security to mail in the premium yourself.
If you can't afford to pay the premium, you can get the welfare office to do it for you by applying for Specified Low Income Medicare Beneficiary (SLIMB) coverage if your gross earnings are under $1663 monthly. (If they are under $1403, the welfare office will not only pay the premium, it will also cover the Medicare deductibles for you under the Qualified Medicare Beneficiary (QMB) program!)
Once the 36 month "extended period of eligiblity" is over, Medicare will start charging you a premium for Part A coverage. In 1997, this will be $187 monthly, unless you paid into Social Security for less than ten years over your whole working life, in which it will be $311 per month. If you can't afford the part A premium, the welfare office's Qualified Disabled Working Individual (QDWI) program will do it for you if your gross earnings are under $2717 monthly.
As long as you have the condition which put you on Social Security to begin with, you can stay on both parts of Medicare--even if it's for the rest of your life! And you should! Medicare is one of the cheapest, most comprehensive health plans in America. It's only real fault is the lack of prescription drugs. If you are fortunate enough to secure private health insurance through a job, take that too, especially if it has drug coverage. But keep the Medicare as well. Having the 2 insurances at once will reduce your copayments to virtually zero and bring you important benefits that one insurance alone cannot offer.
The SLIMB, QMB, and QWDI income levels are raised each year to take account of inflation.
GOING BACK ON SSDI DURING OR AFTER TRIAL WORK PERIOD
The trial work period, the grace period and the "extended period of eligibility" are good for more than just keeping (or counting months toward getting) Medicare, though. If you stop working, you only have to call or visit the local Social Security office to have your SSDI check started again. You won't have to go through all the red tape it took to get your check started first time. Since you're likely to have months where you're just not up to working, this "extended" rule gives you an easy way to fall back on benefits-more than once, if you need to.
DEDUCTION OF IMPAIRMENT-RELATED WORK EXPENSES FROM GROSS
SSDI (and SSI too) has one other way to help you work-although it's a rule designed more for "traditional" disabled people (such as those in wheelchairs, for example). It's called "impairment-related work expenses". These are bills you pay yourself (not paid by Medicare, Medicaid, ADAP or health insurance) that enable you to work. They could include, for example, drugs you yourself pay for, plus any other medical care, and related things like wheelchairs, special transportation, etc.
Again, it is not likely that you'll have medical and related bills that qualify under this provision without having some severe mobility problem as well as HIV, but the money you spend on these kind of expenses gets deducted from your gross earnings before those earnings are compared to the SGA level (i.e., $500 monthly initially, or $200 monthly for continuing work situations.
And, if you're on SSI, impairment expenses get deducted off your total before SSI even begins its earned income counting process to see whether you're eligible and how much your SSI check should be.
WORKING ON SSI: THE SGA RULE VS. STILL BEING POOR ENOUGH
While SSI does not have a trial work period the way SSDI does, it does use the subsidized employment and impairment-related work expenses exemptions which SSDI uses. But there's an important difference. Whether you're working or not, you must always be poor enough to be on SSI. This means that, even if the subsidized employment loophole allowed you to work and avoid losing your status as disabled because of the SGA rule, your earned income, from any kind of employment, if it is high enough, could make you "too rich" for SSI.
Let's say you arranged subsidized employment and developed written testimonials to Social Security about how the job wasn't really productive and was only "disguised charity". This, indeed, would exempt you from the $500 and $200 SGA earnings limit. But your gross "earnings", would still be deducted from the SSI level of $484 after two disregards: any impairment-related expenses you already deducted from your gross earnings to evade the SGA rule, which you can now use again in the separate computation of how poor you are, and $85 and half the rest of those wages. (And loss of SSI might not be so bad if you're making good money, but loss of the Medicaid you get from being on SSI will be disastrous.)
STAYING ON SSI-BASED MEDICAID WHILE WORKING: SECTION 1619
But now that you know there's really no way to legally get around the basic income eligibility rule of SSI that you must, in countable income, still be poor enough for SSI, you're probably thinking "Well, the SSI check wasn't that much anyway. I can earn that much in less than a month. But what I've simply got to keep is the Medicaid I get from being on SSI".
Congratulations! You've discovered something Congress discovered and dealt with years ago. It passed Section 1619 of the Social Security Act. This says that if you're already on SSI, and then you go to work in spite of your medical condition, and SSI and the Medicaid you get from being on it provide you the help you need to work, then the SGA rule will be waived. You must always get advance permission from Social Security to do this. It applies only to SSI-not to SSDI.
The regular SSI income-counting rules keep being used, though. This means that after any impairment-related expenses and the $85 and half the rest of earned income is disregarded, your resulting countable work income would still be compared to the SSI allowable income level of $470. And, if that countable income were high enough, you'd still lose the actual SSI check (which, with earnings this high, you wouldn't need much anyway) but Social Security would pretend that you were still on SSI so you could keep getting a Medicaid card.
Since Medicaid is one of the most valuable health coverages you can get with an expensive illness like HIV, Section 1619 is a tremendous benefit--unfortunately little-known and little-used--for those who start out as SSI recipients to support themselves better than SSI can do, yet stay on Medicaid. Again you must start out on SSI and Medicaid under the regular rules, and only then use Section 1619. Section 1619 won't preserve SSDI benefits, though, if your SSDI is so low that you're on both SSI and SSDI. You'll lose your SSDI (and, if your countable earnings are high enough, your SSI too) but the Medicaid that comes from being on SSI will continue. Always get advance permission from Social Security before trying to use this great procedure.
Nevertheless, Section 1619 won't enable you to earn outrageous sums and yet stay on Medicaid. The law says that once your gross earnings are high enough for you to pay your own SSI and Medicaid costs yourself eligibility stops. In 1996 the New York income level was $28,892; it is adjusted each year to reflect rising costs. (For other states, call the local Social Security office to find out what the Section 1619 earnings limits are.) If your earnings exceed these levels, you're presumed to be no longer eligible for Section 1619, unless you can show that your own actual medical and related expenses are higher. In that case, the higher level would become the Section 1619 limit for you.
SSI'S SPECIAL EARNINGS DISREGARDS FOR STUDENTS AND THE BLIND
SSI has even more generous ways to disregard (that is, not count when determining how much your check will be, or whether you're poor enough to get one at all ) earnings if you're under 22 and attending a college, a high school or a vocational course for at least 8 hours weekly. In that case, earnings of up to $400 per month up to an annual total of $1620 can be disregarded. And for those who are blind of any age all kinds of work expenses like payroll deductions, carfare, uniforms, union dues, etc., can be disregarded in addition to the other, regular SSI disregards. (To be considered "blind" under Social Security, you don't have to be totally sightless; corrected vision worse than 20/200 qualifies; and many persons with CMV retinitis, for example, are eligible to be treated as blind by SSI.)
PLAN FOR ACHIEVING SELF SUPPORT (PASS)
Social Security's Plan for Achieving Self Support (PASS) allows for not counting, for SSI eligibility purposes, income and assets which is used by a recipient in a pre-approved, written plan for achieving self-support. The SGA rules of the SSDI and SSI programs are not waived by having an approved PASS-although someone with a PASS could have them waived under other SSDI/SSI SGA exemption provisions (see above). In essence, having a PASS allows you to get a designated part of your income or assets disregarded in determining whether you're eligible for, and how much you get from, SSI. For example, let's say you already received $700 monthly from SSDI, plus another $300 from an employer disability pension. This would be too much for both SSI and Medicaid. If you wrote up a PASS, had it countersigned by a staffer at any public or private social service agency or disability advocacy group, and submitted it to Social Security, any income or assets you designate would have to be disregarded for SSI purposes.
Let's say your plan called for saving $1,000 out of your $3,000 savings account, plus $543 a month out of your SSDI and pension toward the $27,000 purchase price of a large professional-size van you need to set up your own private on-call taxi service for the handicapped. (This could be done to save for any job or education goal you can reach within four years, by the way.) The $1,000 savings you set aside toward the purchase price would no longer make you "too rich" under the $2,000 SSI asset limit rule. Similarly, the $453 you saved monthly out of your SSDI and pension income would reduce your "countable" income, for SSI purposes, to $457. Since you're allowed up to $2000 in ordinary savings, and up to $484 in countable income to get SSI, you would qualify! You'd get a $13 SSI check monthly, plus a Medicaid card. There are obvious and great advantages to the PASS program, as you can readily see.
But there are important technicalities which must be met. First of all, you can't wildly claim almost anything as a job goal to get Social Security to approve a PASS. Your plan must a least appear reasonable and achievable within four years. It must be endorsed in writing by some public or private social service, vocational rehabilitation or disability group or agency. Most importantly, you must put the income or assets you are "setting aside" (and which therefore won't be counted in determining your SSI and Medicaid eligibility) in a separate bank account which Social Security will monitor for both deposits and balance.
If you don't deposit the money in this account-or if you withdraw it prematurely for non-Plan purposes, Social Security will quickly uncover this. (They make you provide details on your Plan account and submit data on account balances and activity as a condition of the program). In that case, your Plan would be immediately canceled, you might have to pay back money you received from SSI or Medicaid if you had made a disallowed withdrawal (or did not deposit disregarded money and spent it instead), and you'd lose both SSI and Medicaid. The official moral here is that your Pass should reflect a genuine future job goal that you're really saving for.
USING PASS TO GET MEDICAID, YET KEEP ENOUGH MONEY TO LIVE ON
What if you're not really saving for a future job goal? What if what you're actually aiming for is to have your "excess" income or assets disregarded so that you could get on SSI (and the Medicaid coverage it brings with it) in spite of SSDI, other income or assets that are above the normal SSI levels? This might be the case, for example, if you are in the two year waiting period for Medicaid. Or it could be that even Medicare (if you've already "served out" your two year wait) isn't enough because it doesn't cover medical expenses like prescriptions.
Or maybe a PASS would bring you other benefits you need. The artificially reduced PASS income-and not your actual income-is what other help programs like HOPWA, Section 8, subsidized apartments, public housing, home energy assistance, food stamps, school lunches, WIC and AFDC must count by federal law, so having a PASS can save you rent money and increase your other benefits. States are allowed--but not required--to count the lesser PASS income, rather than the higher, real income, for their ADAP, Ryan White, and general assistance programs.
So let's say you filed the PASS only to get the Medicaid you were otherwise "too rich" for or other public subsidies. (This isn't recommended, of course; but many people are tempted to do it out of simple desperation to get medical coverage they'd be denied otherwise.) You figured that even if you lived for the full four years the PASS plan would take before you reached your "goal", the future could take care of itself then: you need Medicaid and other help now! But you can't put all that money into the PASS bank account. You need it to live on! SSI may think you can live on $484 a month, but let's get real here! So, how can you have your cake and eat it too? How can you make the PASS loophole work for you? How, in short, can you keep money in a bank account that Social Security is going to monitor, yet have use of that money to live on?
PASS & "SECURED" CREDIT CARDS: HAVING & EATING YOUR CAKE
The answer is the "secured" credit card. Secured credit cards are offered, often via late night ads on cable and low-rated television stations, to people with poor credit or no credit. They issue credit cards equal to, or sometimes as much as twice as high as, the amount you deposit in the credit card company's designated bank. If you make such a deposit to secure such a credit card (and note that you can do this even if you have terrible credit or no credit) that bank account-and continuing deposits to it and maintaining its balance-would qualify you for a PASS under Social Security's rules.
But the account, because it's "secured" (i.e., they won't let you withdraw money from it until your credit card balance is paid down), also qualifies you for a credit card with an account limit as high as the amount in the account. You can live on credit card charges or cash advances, yet keep an account open to satisfy PASS! Of course, to keep this solution viable, you'd have to be sure to meet minimum monthly payments to the credit card firm. That should be particularly easy, though, since with each month's deposit of the money your PASS plan requires you to put in the bank, the credit card company will helpfully increase your credit limit by that much (or even twice that much)! Better yet, if you're fortunate enough to use on the secure card firms that gives you a "double" credit line, you can actually have access to more money than you deposited.
And for real icing on the cake, there's one other detail you can arrange: when you take out the card, be sure to take the small-fee life, disability and unemployment insurance that's offered to cardholders. This insurance will make your monthly payment once you invoke its disability or unemployment clause, and will pay off your balance if you die. This kind of insurance is almost never meaningfully "medically underwritten" (i.e., use of pre-existing condition clauses and waiting periods, etc.); even if the literature on the insurance does mention such limiting clauses, they are rarely if ever invoked when disability, unemployment or death claims are filed.
But a word to the wise: don't claim disability or unemployment while you expect to continue using the card, the PASS, or the secured account; your card will be canceled for future charges, and your account balance may well be debited by the credit card company's insurer. This would be disastrous if you needed to keep the bank account untouched in order to meet PASS rules-and therefore to keep your Medicaid and other benefits available.
On the other hand, if you have literally no assets to leave anyone, it may not be worthwhile to choose to pay a credit card balance life insurance premium. (Depending on your situation, though, disability and/or unemployment credit card insurance might still be good idea, since they can pay your monthly bill if you can't while you're still alive.) You might have no estate that the credit card company could go after. But then again, if dying without debt recorded against your good name is important to you, taking out the life insurance may be a sound idea. It's your decision.
To find out what banks offer "secured" credit cards, and which ones have the best terms (interest rates, insurance options, "double-your-money" credit limits) call the non-profit Bankcard Holders of America at (540) 389-5445. For a very nominal fee, they'll send you the most current list. As you can see, the Social Security system permits a variety of complex methods to work, earn more money than "normally allowed, yet still receive benefits from SSDI, SSI, Medicare, Medicaid, and other programs. It takes very careful, detailed analysis of your particular case under the technical rules to get the benefits which really are out there for you. The key is patience, learning about the technical rules, and above all, persistent and thorough financial planning by you! Keeping all your benefits straight while you're on disability can be virtually a full-time job, many people have found! But if you want extras, it means putting in a little "overtime" in managing your benefits. Like any overtime work, it calls for making an extra effort after you're already tired from your regular "shift" of handling your benefits. But the payment for putting in this "benefits overtime" can be well worth the effort-more money to live on, Medicaid or Medicare coverage you might not get otherwise, other public benefits and the healthy rewards of staying active and alive!
SSDI vs. SSI, MEDICARE vs. MEDICAID: WHICH IS WHICH? WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?
The Social Security Administration runs two separate income programs for disabled people-Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI). It also determines eligibility for federal Medicare program for disabled and aged Social Security recipients, and tells states localities who is on SSI so that they can be given Medicaid cards. (States and localities determine Medicaid eligibility for everyone who is not on SSI and run the rest of their Medicaid programs with Federal financial help.)
SOCIAL SECURITY DISABILITY INSURANCE (SSDI)
Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), which is an insurance program that sends out monthly checks to disabled workers who paid Social Security taxes (called FICA on your paycheck stubs). You must have worked for at least five years over the last ten years before you apply to be "currently insured" or covered--but the minimum time is less if you're under age 31 when you become disabled. The amount you get depends upon how much you paid in taxes and for how long, since SSDI is an insurance--not a welfare--program.
In general, the higher your earnings and the longer you earned them, the higher your SSDI check will be. Benefit amounts vary from a low of about $200 monthly to a high of about $1100; the average is about $675, but this average reflects the low wages paid in the South, in rural areas and in small towns. Big city workers who've enjoyed big city paychecks do better. If you have minor children (whether or not you live with them) when you become disabled, they can also get smaller supplemental checks to support them and so can their other parent if he or she stays home to take care of them while they're under age 16. The children's and other parent's check will continue--and even increase--after your death.
SSDI checks start at the end of the fifth month after the "date of onset"--the day you became disabled under the Social Security rules by meeting the medical criteria as well as not engaging in substantial gainful activity (SGA; see main text).
MEDICARE
After receiving SSDI for 24 months, you get Medicare coverage--the very same health plan that retired people over 65 enjoy. Medicare has two parts: Part A, which you already paid for through your payroll taxes and which covers overnight hospital bills, hospices, home health care and very limited patial nursing home care; and Part B, three fourths of which is paid for by the federal income tax and one fourth (currently $43.80 a month, deducted from your SSDI check) by you. It pays for doctor, ambulance, emergency room, clinic and most other outpatient care except drugs and nutritional products. Medicare has an inpatient hospital deductible of $760 for most admissions and a $100 yearly Part B deductible. It then pays 80% of it's allowable fee schedule.
Why doesn't Congress abolish the two year waiting period for disabled people to get Medicare? The answer is that there is no money to do so. Nearly 40% of disabled people die during the Medicare wait. If Medicare had to cover them all it would go bankrupt, or higher new taxes would be needed. Even the Democrats, when they controlled Congress, didn't dare add this to the budget. Now that the new Republican majority wants to cut Medicare costs for those who are already eligible, the chances for abolishing the two year wait are less than zero.
SUPPLEMENTAL SECURITY INCOME (SSI)
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is a welfare program for disabled people who meet the Social Security medical and SGA disablity rules and whose income and assets are blow the eligibilty levels. SSI allows assets of $2000 liquid; a separate bank account of up to $1500 for "burial"; a car of any value if used to go to medical care; household furnishings; business equity and equipment worth under $6000; and a lived-in home of any value. The SSI income level is $484 per month and in New York supplements it up to $570.
All gross income counts against this level: SSDI, earnings, pensions, gifts, contributions, bank interest, dividends, veterans benefits, whatever. If your SSDI check is below the SSI level, you can get SSI as well as SSDI. Many people with low wage records do. Before comparing gross income to this level, SSI disregards $20 per month and $65 and half the rest of any earnings. If the resulting countable income is above the SSI income level, you're not eligible. If it's less, you get an SSI check for the difference between your countable income and the SSI level--and as a fringe benefit, a Medicaid card.
MEDICAID
Medicaid is run by the state governments. It completely covers hospital, clinic, emergency room, doctors, hospices, home health, nursing home, ambulance and outpatient prescription drugs. Medcaid has very small copayments for prescriptions, doctor visits and hospital care, but in general, care is free. While all hospitals and almost all drug stores accept Medicaid, most doctors don't, and many health care agencies and facilities are reluctant to accept Medicaid.
YOU CAN (AND IF YOU CAN YOU SHOULD) BE ON BOTH MEDICARE AND MEDICAID
It's possible--indeed sometimes it's absolutely necessary--to be on both Medicare and Medicaid at the same time. In that case Medicare first pays medical bills up to whatever it's rules allow, then Medicaid pays the rest according to it's rules. Always get Medicaid, if you can, to supplement Medicare, because with it you'll have a way to pay deductibles and copayments that you would otherwise face without it. And Medicaid pays for some things Medicare just doesn't cover at all--most notably drugs.
Conversely, always get and keep Medicare (including Part B) even if you are already on Medicaid. Medicare pays doctors and hospitals more than Medicaid does. Therefore if you have Medicare too, health care providers will know that the majority of your bills will be paid under the higher Medicare rate schedule and they will be more likely to accept you as a patient and devote adequate time to your case. Don't be afraid of the Part B monthly premium, either. Once you're on Medicaid, it will start paying the premium for you, and your SSDI check will go up by $42.50!
TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT WORKING WHILE ON SOCIAL SECURITY
Call (800) 772-1213, or visit your local Social Security office and ask for:
Red Book On Work Incentives--A Summary Guide to Social Security and Supplemental Security Income Work Incentives For People With Disabilities. SSA Publication No. 64-030.
Working While Disabled--A Guide To Plans for Achieving Self-Support While Receiving Supplemental Security Income. SSA Publication No. 05-11017.
For the best comprehensive narratives describing these programs, visit a law library to read and photocopy the following article from the monthly Clearinghouse Review: Sheldon, James. "PASS: SSI's Plan for Achieving Self-Support" March/April 1997 The article includes sample applications, cover letters and prepares you fully to understand and navigate the PASS Program. You can order a copy of this issue for $15 by calling (312) 263-3830.
pages modified: 6/4/97
