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Recommendation: PASS Possibilities (Blind)

If there are expenditures for training, education, equipment—or other expenditures—that could help you become more self-supporting, you could possibly recover (partially, if not fully) the amount you set aside and/or spend per month for such employability investments as well as for your work related expenses (whether those expenses are disability-related or not).

NOTE: Your PASS amount can not be greater than the income that you have available. Your available income does not include your SSI Cash Benefit, but does include earnings, other unearned income, income deemed from your spouse, income deemed from your parents, and in-kind support (if that support is figured using the Presumed Maximum Value (PMV) rule). It does not include income already designated as a Blind Work Expense (BWE).

ALSO NOTE: You may not be able to include in your PASS work expenses that are already included in a BWE. See the additional note at the end of this topic for a fuller explanation. If you do include those expenses in your PASS, you must first remove them from your BWE. Work Expenses can not be included in both a PASS and a BWE.

You could recover these expenditures by including the amount in a Plan for Achieving Self-Support) (PASS) and having your SSI check raised to its maximum amount.

"WHAT-IF?" STEPS

1.        Create a New Situation.

2.        If you have only entered one situation, the new situation will be based on it. Otherwise, choose the column containing the 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 and enter a situation label such as "Using PASS" if you wish.

4.        Then scroll down to the Employability Investments section. 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?" (Only the first line of the question will be visible until you click on the answer box.)

5.        As soon as you accept the "Yes" answer (by pressing "Enter" or clicking on the "Okay button"), you will be asked the amount of the employability investment. Refer to the "Text Results" recommendation for the highest total amount of work expenses and employability investments you can at least partially recover in this situation. Enter the amount you would like to spend or save to become more self-supporting.

ALSO NOTE: You may enter an amount higher than the amount recommended – if that is what you want and are able to spend or save – but the extra amount cannot be recovered through your SSI benefit. (The recommended amount raises your SSI check to the maximum for your situation.) If, however, you have other benefits such as housing subsidies or food stamps, then including the full amount may cause those benefits to be higher. Check with the applicable agencies.

6.        As soon as you accept the amount, you will be asked, "PASS for spouse reducing Countable Income: Are you claiming any of your employability investments and/or work expenses under a Plan for Achieving Self Support (PASS)?" Answer "Yes".

7.        You will then be asked, "How much of these employability investments and work expenses per month are you claiming under a PASS?" Accept the amount that is already in the box unless you have a reason to enter a lessor amount. The amount already entered will be the sum of the work expenses and employability investments you entered above.

REMEMBER: If you are including any of your work expenses in a BWE, you should not include those expenses in your PASS.

8.        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.

ADDITIONAL NOTE: Under current PASS rules, only those expenses related to the PASS that weren't pre-existing can normally be considered a PASS expense. For example, if you were already working and paying for medication in order to work, the cost of the medication could be treated as a BWE. Now, if you intend to work additional hours as the result of a PASS, but no additional medication expense was involved, the original medication could not normally be included as a PASS expense. If there was an expense because additional medication would be needed in order to work the additional hours, only the cost of additional medication could be included under the PASS. In this example, you could have a PASS and BWE simultaneously. Check with your SSA Claims Representative about whether a specific work expense should be included in a PASS or a BWE.

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