Advocating for Ticket to Work
Many CILs in Virginia provide valuable benefits counseling and advocacy support to people with disabilities. Blue Ridge Center for Independent Living (BRILC) in Roanoke successfully helped a local consumer access Ticket to Work supports to move forward with her employment goals.
“We completed her independent work plan and submitted it to start her services. However, her request was denied as they stated she was not receiving either SSI or SSDI,” explained Karen Michalski-Karney, BRILC executive director.
“After a bit of research, we discovered that she actually received Child Disability Benefits, a benefit paid to a person with a disability from a parent’s work record. We informed them this was an SSDI (Title 2) program, but it was still denied.
We contacted the consumer and she provided us with verification of her CDB benefits and we drafted a letter requesting again that she be assigned a ticket and relayed the applicable Social Security law and reference in the Social Security operations manual that stated CDB recipients are eligible for participation.
About a week later, we received notice that her ticket was assigned to BRILC and she is now in the Ticket to Work program.”