Contact
Michelle PigfordDevelopmental Disabilities Administration
301-362-5124
michelle.pigford@maryland.gov
SMRO- "How to Work & Keep Disability Benefits" April 27, 2017
Please note: If this training session is full, please register for another session by scrolling down. When you find the date/location that works for you click to register.
Most people with disabilities want to work, but worry they’ll lose cash and medical benefits they depend on for survival. Fear of losing benefits is the greatest obstacle to employment for people with disabilities.
Believe it or not, people really CAN work and keep essential benefits, using special rules known as “work incentives”. Learn how work incentives can:
- Enable people to work, within certain limits, and keep both cash and medical benefits
- Provide benefits at higher levels and/or longer periods in some cases
- Protect medical benefits if earnings are high enough to stop cash benefits
- Restore cash benefits quickly and easily if earnings drop or stop
- Make people eligible for some extra benefits if they work that they don’t qualify for if they don’t work
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This workshop also explains how people (including transitioning youth) can get or keep Medicaid Waiver services while working. Finally, you’ll discover how to get benefits counseling – a service to help people use work incentives to protect their benefits. Practical exercises will illustrate how work incentives can benefit real people. Learn how the system works so you can, too!
Who Should Attend:
- People with developmental disabilities
- Self-Advocates
- Family members of people with developmental disabilities
- Supported employment providers & day services providers
- Residential service providers
- Coordinators of Community Services
- Support Brokers
- School transition coordinators
- Case managers
- Entitlement specialists
- Advocacy Organizations
Training materials will be emailed prior to the training date.
Trainer: Michael Dalto, the Work Incentives Project Director for the Maryland Department of Disabilities, trains and certifies benefits counselors – the specialists who help people with disabilities use work incentives - in Maryland. Michael has delivered presentations on work incentives to thousands of professionals, people with disabilities and family members since 1989.
Lunch is on your own.
Participant are encouraged to bring a laptop with them to utilize training worksheets.
