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Recommendation: You may become SSI Eligible by Including Your Employability Investments in a PASS

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, you are currently making Employability Investments (spending or saving for any educational or training expenses, equipment purchases, or other expenses that should improve your future financial self-sufficiency). The amount you reported spending and/or saving per month for these employability investments, if included in a Plan for Achieving Self-Support (PASS), equals or exceeds the amount needed for you to meet the income eligibility requirements for SSI.

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. However, you are currently using some of your income to make employability investments. If you include the amount of your employability investments in an approved PASS, you could become eligible for SSI and Medicaid benefits (if you are otherwise eligible). You must be using 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.

Remember, your goal under this scenario is 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.

If you can include the income you are currently using for employability investments in 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.           In the Work Incentive Information section, under Plan for Achieving Self-Support (PASS), answer Yes (if you have not already) 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)?".

5.           Then accept the suggested amount already shown as the answer for the next question "How much of these employability investments and work expenses per month are you claiming under a PASS?".

6.           Finally, 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.

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