Resources you may not have thought about
Veteran’s Administration
The Veterans Administration offers vocational rehabilitation services for veterans whose disability is service connected. Veterans with serious employment handicaps may receive self-employment assistance. Veterans who qualify for assistance, typically people with the most severe disabilities, are considered to require self-employment to achieve a positive rehabilitation outcome. These veterans may receive comprehensive training; minimum stocks of inventory or supplies; essential equipment; technical assistance through the period of start up, and incidental services such as business license fees.”
If you are eligible for educational benefits as the dependent of a deceased or disabled veteran and you have a physical or mental disability "...you may be eligible to receive Special Restorative Training or Specialized Vocational Training. The disability must prevent you from pursuing an educational program....you must be at least 14 to receive benefits for Specialized Vocational Training.... this Training may involve speech and voice correction, language retraining, lip reading, auditory training, Braille reading and writing, or other training of this nature."
For more information, please go to the Veteran's Administration page on eligibility.
ALL ABOUT THE TICKET TO WORK PROGRAM - If you don't find this program difficult to understand, you are probably the one person in all of the United States who doesn't and you should get a job with the Social Security Administration!
What is it? A program to assist people receiving Social Security Disability Income (SSDI) to get jobs.People with disabilities who receive SSI and/or SSDI can choose when, where, and how they access vocational rehabilitation, employment, and/or other support services.
How does it work?
- An Employment Network is a program that provides services to help a person with a disability get a job. This can be a state vocational rehabilitation program, a tribal vocational rehabilitation program, a One-Stop Employment Center or a private program.
- Eligible persons with disabilities will receive a ticket in the mail from the Social Security Administration. An individual who has received a Ticket to Work can take it to any Employment Network. Click here if you want to see what a Ticket to Work looks like.
- Under the current payment system, Employment Networks receive their first payment for services after the beneficiary has been working for one month. It should be noted that this may be after the program – vocational rehabilitation or other – has been providing services for this individual for many months. The delayed payment system is one of several reasons that private organizations may be reluctant to accept Tickets to Work.How to get a ticket if you don't have one: Beneficiaries and/or Employment Networks working with eligible individuals can request their ticket from MAXIMUS, the company contracted to manage this program. Tickets can be requested for either new consumers or students with whom an EN is working as well as for those on their existing caseload.
Who is eligible? Eligible individuals must be between 18 and 65. SSDI and SSI recipients whose cases have Medical Improvement Expected (MIE) must have had at least one Continuing Disability Review (CDR) in which the final determination was that disability continued. SSI disability recipients must be eligible for benefits under the adult disability standards.
TICKET TO WORK AND CONTINUING DISABILITY REVIEW (CDR)
The Social Security Administration (SSA) conducts periodic reviews, called continuing disability reviews (CDRs), to determine whether individuals receiving disability benefits have medically improved so that they are no longer considered disabled and no longer eligible for benefits. The CDR process allows SSA to ensure the integrity of the SSI program by monitoring the disability status of beneficiaries.
Medical Continuing Disability Review Protection
A medical Continuing Disability Review (CDR) is the review conducted by SSA to determine whether or not a beneficiary continues to meet SSA’s disability standard. SSA will not conduct a medical CDR while the beneficiary is using the “Ticket”. However, this protection does not apply to work reviews that SSA may conduct to determine whether or not a beneficiary is engaging in substantial gainful work.
SSA defines “using a Ticket” as a specified period of time during which the beneficiary is actively following his/her approved plan to become self-supporting. The Employment Network (EN) monitors the beneficiary’s progress with the plan, but MAXIMUS actually decides if the beneficiary is “using” the ticket. SSA cannot initiate a medical CDR while the beneficiary is “using the Ticket”.
More on continuing disability reviews can be found at this page on the Social Security Administration web site.
Next page, vocational rehabilitation links