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Wisconsin Disability Benefits Network Newsletter For Your Benefits

Vol. 8, Issue 42, December 2011

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For Your Benefit – Introduction

The Wisconsin Disability Benefits Network (WDBN) is a statewide system that provides direct assistance to benefits counseling practitioners and seeks ways to reach out to and better serve people with disabilities, their supporters, and professional service providers in Wisconsin. This newsletter provides current program news, important notices and updates, and upcoming training and educational opportunities. Check out past editions of this newsletter!

What's New


Income Maintenance Regional Consortia

Income Maintenance Regional Consortia have been determined. Counties will provide economic support services to individuals as part of these Consortia. There will be 10 Regional Consortia and Milwaukee Enrollment Services (MilES). Each consortia will determine how individuals can apply and contact the agencies, but the programs and eligibility for programs will not be changing. 

Starting January 1, of 2012 all cases currently at the Enrollment Services Center (ESC) will be transferred to the county in which people reside. The cases will be maintained at the counties.

Find the list of consortia. Additional information can be found on the DHS website.

A Note from Jolene Wanek, WIBSA President

With one year under our belt, we are happy to say that we are 54 members strong and have high expectations for the upcoming years.

The Executive Board has established a number of goals for WIBSA’s second year. These goals include development and roll out of new membership levels, development of marketing materials, increasing WIBSA’s visibility among potential new members and vendors, establishing a recognition system for outstanding Benefit Specialists, and providing one WIBSA-sponsored training event. We are looking to have members vote on the new membership levels soon. The hope is to roll out new levels just after the beginning of 2012. Marketing materials are currently being developed which will help increase our visibility. We are also working on organizing one (possibly two) WIBSA-sponsored training events in the Spring of 2012.

All WIBSA members were encouraged to join the WIBSA members group hosted on the Employment Network online community website. Members to this group will receive the latest news, updates and information about benefits related issues as well as have access to a community of benefits peers to ask questions and provide feedback. If you are a WIBSA member, make sure to check out recent updates to the group.

You may still have a few questions about the Association. Please check out our website for further information.

Health and Employment Counseling (HEC)

Beginning January 1, 2012 there will be changes in the Health and Employment Counseling Program (HEC). There will no longer be Medical Assistance Purchase Plan (MAPP)/HEC Specialists around the state. The MAPP program and the HEC program will continue to be available to individuals. HEC fulfills the work requirement for MAPP for up to 9 to 12 months while someone looks for work. Work, defined for MAPP, is a paid or in-kind activity one time per month.

In 2012, HEC will be a much more self-directed program than it has been in the past. Individuals in need of work, but otherwise eligible for MAPP, will receive the HEC application from County Economic Support services. The person then completes the Employment Plan/HEC Application on their own or with the assistance of someone they know, such as a case manager or other professional. The completed application is sent to the HEC manager, and an approval letter is sent to the applicant. The applicant is responsible for taking the approval letter to their Economic Support Worker to complete their MAPP application. All HEC screens and program related questions can be directed to the HEC manager, Amy Thomson, at Amy.Thomson@dhs.wisconsin.gov or 866-278-6440.

Gifts and SSI

It’s that time of year again.  Freshen up on holiday information.  Find out how gifts are viewed by the Social Security system for the SSI program.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) may or may not count a gift that a Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipient receives as unearned income.  For SSI a gift is something a recipient receives which is not repayment for goods or services the person provided and is not given because of a legal obligation on the giver's part. To be a gift, something must be given irrevocably, that is, the donor relinquishes all control. POMS SI 00830.520

An SSI recipient should report to SSA any gift that may be counted as income. SSA makes no special effort to find out about gifts but does ask a routine question about them during the person’s scheduled redetermination of non-medical factors (which usually occurs once a year.) SSA will not pursue the issue when a recipient answers in the negative unless there is reason to doubt the allegation.

If a recipient alleges receiving a gift, SSA will normally accept a recipient’s signed estimate of the value (or actual value if cash) unless there is reason to doubt the estimate. SSA will determine the nature of the gift and apply the appropriate rules.

Following are situations when a gift is excluded as income for SSI:

What's New in Employment


Alliance for Full Participation (AFP) Conference

A number of people from Wisconsin attended the Alliance for Full Participation (AFP) Conference this November 17 to 19 outside Washington D.C. The conference sought to find solutions to the challenges of increasing employment for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. This conference themed "Summit 2.0 Real Jobs--It's Everyone's Business" was a highly interactive event convening of the leaders of the intellectual and developmental disabilities community to address the challenges and barriers facing increasing employment for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Find out more from ERI’s Brendan Eagan who attended this event and summarized some of the key happenings around this initiative.

Individual Placement & Support (IPS)

Have you been hearing about Individual Placement and Support (IPS) and wondered what it is? Individual Placement and Support (IPS) is a supported employment model (developed by Robert Drake and Deborah Becker from Dartmouth College) that gives people with mental illness the help needed to work successfully at competitive jobs. What sets this employment strategy apart from others is its integration of employment services and mental health treatment. It also considers benefits information a key component to success. IPS has been extensively researched and is a federally recognized Evidence Based Practices (EBPs) for Persons with Mental Illness.

PERC recently collaborated with Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Bureau of Mental Health staff on this employment strategy. You can check out the training introducing Individual Placement and Support (IPS) and some related resources on the PERC website!

 

Benefits News Roundup


Benefits News Roundup

FoodShare

There have been a couple of changes this year for the FoodShare Wisconsin program.

June 2011: The Exceptional Expense State Supplement (SSI-E) no longer counts as income in FoodShare calculations. The entire $95.99 is disregarded income.

October 2011: Many of the FoodShare deduction amounts and the eligibility limits changed for the Federal Fiscal Year of 2012 (starting in October, 2011). These changes include changes to the income limits, standard utility amounts, standard deduction and more. Allotment amounts for 2012 will not increase. Check out all of the changes in the FoodShare Wisconsin Handbook or in the Ops Memo.

WHEAP

Income limits for 2011-2012 for the Wisconsin Home Energy Assistance Program (WHEAP) also changed October 1, 2011.  Check out the new income limits.

Social Security Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA)

SSA announced that there will be a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for 2012.  It will be 3.6%.  There will also be changes in the Substantial Gainful Activity (SGA) amount, Student Earned Income Exclusion amounts, etc. Check out all of the 2012 COLA details.

Also, download the COLA fact sheet!

Medicare

The 2012 costs for Medicare have been announced. This includes a new basic Medicare Part B premium amount of $99.90 per month. Medicare costs for 2012.

DBS Program Updates

Here are the latest updates from Disability Rights Wisconsin for the Disability Benefits Specialist Program.

Starting January 1st, dual eligible individuals getting home and community based waiver services will $0 copayments on prescription drugs.  See additional details in the DBS program updates.

Wisconsin SSA Offices - Work Incentives Liaisons – Updated 011/11

Contributed by Bob Monahan, Area Work Incentives Coordinator (AWIC)
Bob.Monahan@ssa.gov |  (866) 807-5995 Ext 26051

Please update your list of Work Incentives Liaisons in Wisconsin (pdf).

When should you contact someone on the list? Contact your local WIL when:

Ben Spec

Hi Everyone:

Ever wonder about the Family Maximum and benefits for the Title II programs? I frequently get questions about this, so I wrote about this recently on my blog. 

I continue to receive great questions from everywhere and look forward to hearing from you all! Send me your benefits questions or connect with me:
askben@eri-wi.org | Visit Ben's Blog | Twitter | Connect with me on the Employment Network

Cool Resources


App Me! ASAP

by Phil Goodman
Since more and more of us who work in the field are turning to tablet devices like the iPad, I’d like to share some of the apps I’ve found useful for productivity. There is just so much out there that tablet users really need to share the good apps with others.

Store, Transfer, Sync Files - Dropbox
First off the Dropbox app is a no brainer that will help you transfer files to your tablet for use in other apps. If you need to read or compose a variety of different office file types and want one app that will do this, I would recommend Office2 HD App. This app will allow you to open or compose Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents.

Open and Read Files - GoodReader
Going one better I would highly recommend the GoodReader app. This app will not only open and read .PDF files but most other office type files and even some audio, video, and compressed files. It also has great sync, search and annotation features. The learning curve is a little steep but the help feature is good. If you want to create .PDF files on the fly, the PDF Reader Lite App allows you to take pictures with the device camera and convert them to .PDF’s.

Taking Notes - Dragon Dictation
The free Dragon Dictation app is handy for dictating notes up to 60 seconds or so. You can email them, send them to Facebook or Twitter, or copy them into another application. For longer notes use the free Dragon Recorder app. This is a recorder only app, but the files can be transferred (wired or wireless) to a computer to be turned into text by The Dragon Naturally Speaking software.

Language Translation - Speaktext
The last app I want to mention isn’t for everybody but I love it. Speaktext app allows you to key in or paste text from somewhere else (like the Dragon Dictation app) and have it read back or translated into another language and have it read back in that language. The basic app is free and will do limited amounts of text if you want to try it out, but I highly recommend the SpeakText for Me or the SpeakText for Office as these will allow you to key in web pages and have them read back in multiple languages or have e-books read to you.

Do you have a favorite app or are you looking for ideas about what other people are using? Check out our App Discussion on the Employment Network.

Training and Educational Opportunities:


Webcasts

Ongoing Training:

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