Your SSI benefits will not stop because you work. You may continue to receive cash payments and Medicaid. Work Incentives help people with SSI work and still have important benefits. Work incentives can help:

• Keep your Medicaid benefits while working.
• Save for items or services you need for work.
• Make it easier to get your SSI payments back if you stop working.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) uses your income and resources to determine your SSI benefits. To help you keep your benefits while working SSA does not count some of your income or resources. Work Incentives that help you keep your benefits while working are:

• Student Earned Income Exclusion (SEIE):  A certain amount of your income will not count if you are a student under the age of 22 attending school or a training program.
• Earned Income Exclusions: SSA will not count the first $65 you earn from working.
• General Income Exclusions: General income is any money you may get from sources other than employment. SSA will not count the first $20 of general income you receive.
• Impairment Related Work Expenses (IRWE): SSA will not count work-related items or services (medication co-pays, equipment, transportation) you must pay to go to work.
• Blind Work Expenses (BWE): SSA will not count any part of your earned income that you spend to be able to work. The expense does not have to be related to your blindness.
• Plan for Achieving Self-Support (PASS): SSA will not count income or resources saved under a PASS. PASSlets you save money and resources to pay for items or services needed to achieve a specific work goal.
• Subsidies and Special Conditions: Your employer may provide financial support or other help you return to work. If this support is included in your paycheck, SSA will not count it against you.

Work incentives also make it easier to get your SSI payments back if you stop working.

• Reinstating SSI Eligibility Without a New Application: You may stop receiving SSI payments because you are working. If you stop working, you can restart your SSI payments again at any time without a new application.
• Expedited Reinstatement: If you stop receiving benefits due to your work, SSA may restart them. You can be reinstated if you lose work within 5 years of your benefits ending.

Other work incentives help you save.

• ABLE Account: An Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) account allows you to save above SSI and/or Medicaid savings limits. You can use an ABLE account to save funds for many disability-related expenses. Others, including family members and friends, can add funds to your ABLE account.

Rhode Island has a Medicaid Buy-In program for people with disabilities who work called the Sherlock Plan. The Sherlock Plan allows people with disabilities to keep their Medicaid coverage.

How do I qualify for the Sherlock Plan?

The Department of Human Services (DHS) will look at your income and resources to decide if you qualify. They will also decide if you have a monthly charge for coverage. All working adults with disabilities can apply. There is no minimum number of hours you need to work.

For more information or help finding your local DHS office, go to www.dhs.ri.gov, or call (855) 697-4347.

If you are worried about how working will affect your benefits, contact the Work incentives Planning and Assistance (WIPA) program. WIPA can help you understand work incentives and plan for the effect of employment on your benefits. Call the Ticket to Work Help Line at 1-866-968-7842 or 1-866-833-2967 (TTY). You can also use the Find Help tool on the Choose Work website.

If you have questions about work incentives, you can contact Disability Rights Rhode Island (DRRI) atinfo@drri.org or (401) 831-3150.

Social Security funded the creation of this document under a grant. Although Social Security reviewed this document for accuracy, it does not constitute an official Social Security communication. This communication is printed, published, or produced and disseminated at U.S. taxpayer expense.