Parent Focus: Four Ways Benefits Support Work
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The Basics
Your child can work, even if he or she has a disability and gets benefits from Medicaid or Supplemental Security Income (SSI). In fact, Medicaid and SSI are designed so that people who work end up better off.
With a job, your child can:
- Keep Medicaid health coverage no matter how much the job pays
- Have more total income and keep getting SSI
- Save up some money and keep getting SSI
- Get back on SSI if it stops and is needed later
You can help your son or daughter plan for work. Get started by understanding these four ways benefits programs and a job can work together.
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Benefits for Young People
Find out how benefits support young people who work.
Getting Past the Myths: The Truth About Working
Get the facts about how benefits support work.
School and Work Estimator
Are you a young person? See how working and staying in school can help you.
Parent Focus: Four Ways Benefits Support Work
- The Basics
- 1) Medicaid Covers People With Disabilities who Work
- 2) A Job + SSI = More Money
- 3) Your Child Can Save More
- 4) Your Child Will Stay Connected to SSI
- Next Steps
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Medicaid Covers People With Disabilities who Work
These rules mean your child can keep Medicaid even while making a lot of money at work:
- If your child gets SSI benefits while working, Medicaid will continue automatically.
- If your child used to get SSI benefits, but now makes enough money that SSI benefits ended, SSI's 1619(b) rule means Medicaid will continue automatically even if your child makes up to $42,027 per year.
- If your child doesn't get SSI, but is under 22, gets Medicaid based on a disability, and is also regularly attending school, the Student Earned Income Exclusion (SEIE) means that if your child gets a job, Medicaid coverage will probably continue.
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Freedom to Work lets your child pay a monthly premium to get Medicaid coverage.
- When applying, your child's countable income must be at or below $3,038 per month, but earned income and unearned income are counted differently, so your child could work and make more than the limit and still qualify.
- After coverage starts, it doesn't matter how much your child earns and your child can have up to $75,000 in resources — your child can still have Freedom to Work coverage!
- If your child's income is even higher than that, he or she can get private health coverage through work or on Healthcare.gov. Private insurance companies cannot deny coverage to your child.
Your child can get health coverage after getting a job.
Learn more about Freedom to Work and SSI 1619(b).
Learn more
Benefits for Young People
Find out how benefits support young people who work.
Getting Past the Myths: The Truth About Working
Get the facts about how benefits support work.
School and Work Estimator
Are you a young person? See how working and staying in school can help you.
Parent Focus: Four Ways Benefits Support Work
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A Job + SSI = More Money
Getting a job doesn’t mean your child will stop getting Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits. SSI makes sure your child will be better off when working.
SSI Rules that Help Young People who Get Jobs
SSI is based on financial need. That’s why people worry that if they get jobs, they’ll lose their SSI benefits. These rules show why you don’t need to worry:
- The Student Earned Income Exclusion (SEIE) means that if your child gets a job while in school, his or her SSI benefit probably won’t go down. That means your child will get money from work and SSI at the same time.
- With the SEIE, anyone under 22 and regularly attending school can make up to $2,220 per month up to a total of $8,950 in a year, without having that money reduce their SSI benefits at all!
- If your child doesn’t qualify for the SEIE, working is still a good idea, because SSI counts less than half of what a person earns at a job when calculating his or her benefit.
If your child is in school and under 22, the SEIE means he or she can work and keep getting as much SSI as ever. For every additional dollar your child earns that is not excluded by the SEIE, your child’s SSI benefits amount will only go down by 50 cents. No matter what, SSI's rules mean that your child will have more money overall while working.
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Learn more
Benefits for Young People
Find out how benefits support young people who work.
Getting Past the Myths: The Truth About Working
Get the facts about how benefits support work.
School and Work Estimator
Are you a young person? See how working and staying in school can help you.
Parent Focus: Four Ways Benefits Support Work
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Your Child Can Save More
As your child makes more money, he or she can start saving for bigger goals, like college, a car, or someday buying a home. Building assets will be a key to comfort and security for your child’s entire life.
SSI and Medicaid Rules Help People who Work and Save
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and SSI-related Medicaid have $2,000 resource limits. However, your child can save way more money than this if he or she gets a job.
SSI resource rules for people who work:
- Not all resources are counted, so your child can own a car or get certain types of financial aid for school that won’t be counted against the resource limit.
- An ABLE account will let you and your child put money into a special account where the first $100,000 will not count against the SSI resource limit.
- Savings in a Plan to Achieve Self-Support (PASS) or Individual Development Account (IDA) are not counted. These special types of accounts let your child save for specific expenses, like school tuition.
- Assets in certain types of trusts do not count.
Medicaid resource rules for people who work:
- The SSI resource rules also apply to Medicaid.
- None of the money in an ABLE account is counted against Medicaid resource limits.
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If your child has income from a job, your child can pay a premium to get coverage through the Freedom to Work program.
- When applying, your child's countable income must be at or below $3,038 per month and your child's resources must be less than $9,090.
- After coverage starts, the amount of earned income doesn't matter and your child can have up to $75,000 in resources (or more, if your child puts money into retirement accounts).
- There is no resource limit for income-based Medicaid, no matter how old your child is.
Saving money for the future is important. Talk to a Benefits Planner to figure out which asset-building strategies will let your child keep getting SSI.
Learn more
Benefits for Young People
Find out how benefits support young people who work.
Getting Past the Myths: The Truth About Working
Get the facts about how benefits support work.
School and Work Estimator
Are you a young person? See how working and staying in school can help you.
Parent Focus: Four Ways Benefits Support Work
- The Basics
- 1) Medicaid Covers People With Disabilities who Work
- 2) A Job + SSI = More Money
- 3) Your Child Can Save More
- 4) Your Child Will Stay Connected to SSI
- Next Steps
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Your Child Will Stay Connected to SSI
The more your child works, the more money your child can make. If he or she makes enough, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits may stop, but overall your child will be much better off!
SSI Has a Safety Net for People who Lose Benefits and Need Them Later
Even if your child makes a lot more money than he or she ever got from SSI, you will probably worry about what would happen if the job ended due to a disability. Would your child be able to get back on SSI if needed?
Yes.
SSI’s 1619(b) rule helps people who stop getting SSI start getting them again. If a job ends or earnings go down, your child can just report the change to Social Security and SSI benefits will start up again. He or she will not even have to reapply.
1619(b) is for people earning less than $42,027 in a year. If your child earns more than that, other rules can help your child start getting SSI benefits again if they are needed.
If your child stops getting SSI benefits due to work income and then that income goes down, he or she can get back on SSI.
Learn more
Benefits for Young People
Find out how benefits support young people who work.
Getting Past the Myths: The Truth About Working
Get the facts about how benefits support work.
School and Work Estimator
Are you a young person? See how working and staying in school can help you.
Parent Focus: Four Ways Benefits Support Work
Try It
Next Steps
Learn More on DB101
Use DB101’s School and Work Estimator to get a sense of how work could impact your child’s benefits.
For more about these and other ways benefits support work, read DB101’s articles about:
- If You Get SSI and Are Turning 18, which looks at how your child's benefits might change at age 18.
- Benefits for Young People, including details about many different benefits and how rules change as your child gets older.
- Supplemental Security Income, which covers SSI’s rules in detail.
- How Health Benefits Work, which covers detailed health coverage rules for people with disabilities.
- Building Your Assets and Wealth, an introduction to asset-building strategies.
- Plans to Achieve Self-Support, an in-depth look at the ways a PASS can help.
- Individual Development Accounts, a detailed look at IDAs and how to set them up.
Benefits Planning Services
If you're currently on SSI, SSDI, or DAC benefits, and you're looking for a job, a trained Benefits Planner can help you avoid complications when you are working on a job plan for your future. For questions or guidance specific to your situation, you can speak to someone at the Ticket to Work Help Line at 1-866-968-7842 or 1-866-833-2967 (TTY) Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m. EST.
View DB101's full list of experts who can help you understand different benefits.
Ticket to Work
Social Security’s Ticket to Work Program helps people with disabilities who get Social Security benefits re-enter the workforce and become more independent. The Ticket to Work Program offers free access to employment-related services, such as training, transportation, and vocational rehabilitation.
Learn more
Benefits for Young People
Find out how benefits support young people who work.
Getting Past the Myths: The Truth About Working
Get the facts about how benefits support work.
School and Work Estimator
Are you a young person? See how working and staying in school can help you.