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Alert: You are not Eligible for SSI because of Excess Income (PASS/IRWE Possibilities)

You indicated that you would like to receive SSI and Medicaid but you believe that your income or resources are too great to allow you to be eligible. Additionally, either you are not making any Employability Investments (spending or saving for any educational or training expenses, equipment purchases, or other expenses that should improve your future financial self-sufficiency) or the amount you reported spending and/or saving per month for these employability investments, even if included in a PASS, is too low for you to become eligible for SSI.

You do, however, have some disability-related work expenses that you have not included in an "IRWE for SSI Cash Benefit Eligibility."

You should double check your answers to these questions and make sure your answers are accurate.

It appears that, in fact, your countable monthly income does exceed the limit for SSI eligibility. If, however, you could set aside an amount that when added to the amount of your work expenses was equal at least to the amount shown in the text result, and if you could then include that total amount in an approved PASS, you could become eligible for SSI and Medicaid benefits (if you are otherwise eligible). You would have to use that money to pay for goods or services that would help you prepare for and get a job or start a business that would make you more self-supporting.

Unfortunately, you may not be able to include your disability-related work expenses in a PASS unless you can show that those expenses are related to your achieving your PASS’s occupational goal. Instead, you would include those expenses in an IRWE. SSA will make this decision. You can use WorkWORLD to see what would happen in either case. (See the "What If Steps" below.)

Remember, your goal in using a PASS would be to temporarily set aside some of your current income so that you can become eligible for SSI and Medicaid. During this period, you would use the money you set aside in a PASS to help yourself become more self-supporting later. You would be investing in your future. When you achieve the occupational goal in your PASS, your earnings would be higher than they are now. At that time, your PASS will end and your eligibility for SSI and Medicaid may end. If your eligibility ends, you would have used the temporary SSI and Medicaid benefits to help support yourself during the period you were becoming more self-sufficient.

NOTE: Your PASS must end when you achieve your goal. Note also that if you have disability-related work expenses that you have not included in an IRWE you should do so unless SSA will allow you to include them in your PASS.

If you can set aside income to become eligible for SSI (and Medicaid) while you invest in your future employability under an approved PASS, WorkWORLD can assist you in determining what the consequences might be on your net income and benefits. You can begin to do this by following this procedure:

"WHAT-IF?" STEPS

1.        Create a New Situation by clicking the New Situation icon on the Toolbar or choosing Situation, New from the Main Menu.

2.        If you have only entered one situation, the new situation will be based on it. Otherwise, choose the column containing this recommendation as the column on which to base the new situation. (The new column will contain the same answers as the chosen column until you make changes.)

3.        Go to the top of the new column. Enter a situation label such as "PASS for SSI Eligibility".

4.        Assume first that SSA will allow you to include your work expenses in your PASS: Go to the Employability Investments section and answer Yes to the question "Employability Investments: Are you spending or saving for any educational or training expenses, equipment purchases, or other expenses that should improve your future financial self-sufficiency?".

5.        The next question will be: "How much are you spending and/or saving per month for these employability investments?" Subtract the total of your disability-related and other work expenses from the dollar amount shown in the text result. That amount will be the minimum amount of employability investments that you need to become SSI eligible. (You should, of course, set aside more than the minimum if that’s what you need to pursue your occupational goal.)

6.         In the Work Incentive Information section, under Plan for Achieving Self-Support (PASS), answer Yes to the question "PASS reducing Countable Income: Are you claiming any of your employability investments and/or work expenses under a Plan for Achieving Self Support (PASS)?".

7.        Press <Enter> to accept the suggested amount already shown in the answer for the next question "How much of these employability investments and work expenses per month are you claiming under a PASS?".

8.        Review the numeric and graph outputs for changes to your net income and benefits, and the text outputs for additional recommendations specific to your actual situation.

9.        Now, if you want to see what would happen if SSA will not allow you to include your disability-related work expenses in your PASS (because the expenses are judged to be unrelated to the occupational goal of your PASS) then:

10.        Create a New Situation by clicking the New Situation icon on the Toolbar or choosing Situation, New from the Main Menu.

11.        Choose the column containing this recommendation as the column on which to base the new situation. (In other words, choose the same column you chose before, not the one you just created.)

12.        In the Work Incentive Information section, under Impairment Related Work Expense (IRWE) for SSI (Title XVI), answer Yes to the question: "IRWE for SSI Cash Benefit Eligibility: Are you claiming any of your disability-related work expenses to receive at least $1 of SSI Cash Benefits?"

13.        Press <Enter> to accept the amount already showing for the next question: "How much of these work expenses are you claiming as IRWE?".

14.        Review the numeric and graph outputs for changes to your net income and benefits, and the text outputs for additional recommendations specific to your actual situation. Depending on your situation, there may be a recommendation for a PASS with a new, lower minimum amount. That is the amount of employability investments that you would need for SSI eligibility if SSA does not allow you to include your disability-related work expenses in your PASS.

15.        You can continue, if you wish, to see further what would happen by following the instructions for that recommendation.

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