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OHH Monthly Focus on Employment: Understanding Benefits – Broadening Options for PLWHA
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Recognizing the Importance of Benefits
Many, if not most, PLWHA considering employment have concerns about benefits and work incentives; some may also be misinformed about how work will impact their benefits. Work incentives and other policies that impact financial, medical, or housing benefits can be challenging to understand, for both individual recipients and their service providers. Broadening knowledge on benefits and work incentives, as they relate to employment, can help HIV/AIDS service providers assist clients in making well-informed decisions around employment.
Employment Services: Benefits 101
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| EXPLORE local resources to LEARN about benefits. |
- Learn about the different types of benefit programs (SSDI/SSI, SNAP, housing subsidies, health insurance, etc.).
- Get familiar with the different work incentives for each program.
- Know what benefits your client is receiving.
- Explore existing local resources for benefits information.
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| SHARE information with staff and clients. |
- Disseminate consistent and accurate information to staff and clients to help clarify misconceptions and diminish fears around how employment affects benefits.
- Identify reliable resources for benefits information for staff and clients.
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| IMPLEMENT benefit planning assessment tools. |
- Create individualized benefit planning assessment tools to identify whether employment is a logical option for each client.
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Benefits System Highlight: Incentives and Safeguards
There are many work incentives and benefits safeguards in place that HIV/AIDS service providers and PLWHA themselves should be aware of so that employment and asset building strategies can remain viable options for PLWHA. Here are two examples:
- Supplemental Security Income (SSI): Individuals on SSI will not automatically lose their benefits when they return to work. When an SSI beneficiary returns to work, income and earnings (after allowable deductions) are counted to determine the monthly payment amount.
- Housing: The Earned Income Disregard (also known as the Earned Income Disallowance) is a HUD regulation that requires housing providers to disregard some or all of the earned income of tenants with disabilities when updating resident rent calculations for a defined period of time.
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Learn more now:
Getting to Work Benefits Planning Webinar
SSA “Red Book” (SSI and SSDI Work Incentives)
Earned Income Disallowance Training
Work Incentives Planning Assistance
Using Medicaid Funding to Support the Employment of People with Disabilities: A Federal Framework
And, stay tuned!
The next email in the series is: Adopting an Employment Mentality: A Look at International AIDS Empowerment.
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