RAISE The Standard, September 2026, v.12 n.9 | |
Benefits Coordination
For young people with disabilities, coordinating benefits such as Social Security, SSI (Supplemental Security Income), Medicaid, and SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) can be important for living independently. Without careful planning, changes in income or work can cause someone to lose needed health coverage or financial support. Coordinating benefits can also be difficult because each program has different rules, paperwork, and reporting requirements. It may take time and help from families, counselors, or benefits specialists to understand how the programs work together. When benefits are successfully coordinated, young people can work, earn money, keep needed health care, and build greater financial independence without losing essential supports.
In this issue of RAISE The Standard, we will explore how young people with disabilities can coordinate benefits, navigate complex rules, and build a path toward greater independence while maintaining the supports they need.
| | Special Feature: In Focus | | |
What Do You Mean By "Benefits"
There is a range of federally funded programs that may help people with disabilities.
Supplemental Security Income: SSI provides monthly payments to people with disabilities and older adults who have little or no income or resources.
Click here to learn more.
Social Security Disability Insurance: SSDI or “Disability” provides monthly payments to people who have a disability that stops or limits their ability to work.
Click here to learn more.
Medicare: Health Insurance for those 65+, and those with certain chronic health conditions. After 2 years on SSDI, individuals are automatically enrolled in Medicare.
Click here to learn more.
Medicaid: Provides health care insurance coverage for low-income people, including families and children, pregnant women, the elderly, and people with disabilities. The program funds vital services that allow people with disabilities to live, work, and learn in the community.
Click here to learn more.
Children’s Health Insurance Program: While each state may have its own name for this program, CHIP provides low-cost health coverage to children and pregnant women in families that earn too much money to qualify for Medicaid.
Click here to learn more.
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: SNAP provides food benefits to low-income families to supplement their grocery budgets, helping them afford nutritious food essential to health and well-being.
Click here to learn more.
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The Benefits Balancing Act
Remy Gallen shares his experience navigating the red tape of SSI, Medicaid, Medicare, and employment while trying to become more independent. He describes how confusing rules, paperwork, and reporting requirements made it difficult to understand how working would affect his benefits.
“When I was offered Social Security benefits due to my disability, I was reluctant at first before ultimately accepting, a decision I didn’t regret, although it would easily become a pandora’s box years later.”
His story demonstrates why benefits coordination and clear guidance are so important for young people with disabilities.
Click here to learn about Remy’s experience with managing his benefits.
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Connecting the Dots
Benefits aren't separate silos. They connect in ways that can make navigating them together especially important. A change in employment or income can affect SSI, SNAP, housing assistance, Medicaid, Medicare costs, or other supports—but the effect isn't always as simple as “you start working, so you lose your benefits.” There are work incentives and protections that can allow people to work while maintaining important supports. The Social Security Administration offers a guide to understanding common government programs and how they connect to one another.
Click here to learn about how benefits relate to and affect each other.
SHIP
The nation’s 54 State Health Insurance Assistance Programs (SHIPs) provide local, in-depth, and objective insurance counseling and assistance to Medicare-eligible individuals, their families, and caregivers at no cost to consumers. Your state SHIP can provide help on a range of Medicare matters, from understanding when and how to enroll in Medicare, to understanding how Medicare works with supplemental policies, retiree coverage, Medicaid, and other insurance, and making an appeal or complaint.
Click here to learn more
Coordination of Health Insurance Benefits
Sometimes, a person has coverage under more than one health insurance plan. Coordination of benefits (COB) is the process the health plans use to determine which plan pays first and to ensure that benefits aren’t overpaid.
If you have coverage under two or more health plans, one will be the “primary payer”, and the others will be the “secondary payers.” When a person has Medicaid in addition to other coverage, the other coverage will always be the primary payer. Coordination of Benefits can be confusing.
Click here to learn more about how to coordinate healthcare insurance benefits.
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Benefits That Work With You
Making money from a job can push your income too high to qualify for Medicaid, but there is an optional Medicaid Buy-In Program in place in 47 states (all except Alabama, South Carolina, and Tennessee) that fixes that problem. While states use different names for this program (WorkAbility, CommonHealth, Freedom to Work, etc.), the purpose is the same: to help people with disabilities earn wages by working full-time or part-time while keeping access to full, comprehensive Medicaid benefits. It also allows eligible workers to save money without automatically losing Medicaid. For young people building careers and greater independence, these programs can be an important tool for balancing employment, income, and health care.
Click here to learn more.
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Know, Ask, Speak Up
Understanding benefits is an important part of becoming independent. Young people with disabilities can take a more active role in managing their supports and planning for their future with just a few steps:
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Know: Learn what benefits you receive and what rules apply.
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Ask: Before starting work or making a major change, ask how it could affect your benefits.
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Speak Up: Keep records, report changes, ask for explanations, and appeal decisions when something doesn't seem right.
Self-advocacy doesn't mean figuring everything out alone, though. Programs like Work Incentives Planning and Assistance (WIPA) exist to help young people better understand and advocate for their benefits. A benefits counselor, like a WIPA counselor, can help young people understand the system and make their own decisions. WIPA programs specifically serve transition-age youth ages 14–25 who receive SSI or SSDI.
Click here to access the WIPA about page.
| | There are eight (8) Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) Regions throughout the United States that provide training and programming to youth and young adults with disabilities, their families, professionals, and other Parent Centers. The focus is on issues surrounding youth transition. | | |
In this issue of RAISE The Standard, we focus on Waze to Adulthood (PEATC), a collaboration between Parent Centers in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Florida:
https://peatc.org/services/youth/
Waze to Adulthood (PEATC) works directly with young people to support a youth leadership team and provide trainings for youth on topics related to transition, employment, and self-determination, as well as family engagement. Waze to Adulthood identifies and to addresses state-specific gaps in services and systems to help improve long term outcomes for individuals with disabilities.
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Explore resources created by youth with disabilities from across the country and discover tools and strategies for meaningfully engaging youth partners in projects that drive impactful changes.
Click here for episode 3 on fair compensation.
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Get WISE
The Ticket to Work program offers recurring webinars called Work Incentive Seminar Events (WISE). Free, online, and generally held on the fourth Wednesday of each month, the webinars cover rotating topics related to benefits coordination and work. Recent topics have included how work affects disability benefits, working while receiving benefits, reasonable accommodations, and choosing employment service providers. WISE is particularly useful because it gives people a place to learn before making decisions about work and benefits. There are also recordings and materials from past webinars available online
Click here to register for the next webinar.
Making Work Important: Raising Family Expectations Around Employment
Making Work Important: Raising Family Expectations Around Employment, hosted by RAISE and featuring Sean Roy, Chief Innovation and Training Officer, TransCen. This session examines the importance of engaging families in the secondary transition process, emphasizing competitive integrated employment as the preferred transition outcome. Attendees will learn how to approach family engagement and competitive integrated employment from a strengths-based lens and is intended to promote improved partnerships with families. Tools and strategies will be shared that help families envision a future that includes community connections, new experiences, and meaningful work.
Nov. 16, 2026 at 2pm
Click here to learn more and to register
| | Collaboration • Empowerment • Capacity-building | | RAISE The Standard enewsletter identifies and shares resources that the Rehabilitation Services Administration Parent Training and Information Centers (RSA-PTI) can use and share with families. | | The RAISE Technical Assistance Center is working to advance the accessibility of its digital resources, including its websites, enewsletters and various digital documents. | | RAISE, the National Resources for Access, Independence, Self-Advocacy and Employment is a user-centered technical assistance center that understands the needs and assets of the RSA-PTIs, coordinates efforts with the Technical Assistance provided by PTI centers and involves RSA-PTIs as key advisors and partners in all product and service development and delivery. | |  | |
The RAISE Center is a project of the SPAN Parent Advocacy Network and is funded by the US Department of Education's Rehabilitation Service Administration. The contents of this resource were developed under a cooperative agreement with the US Department of Education (H235G200007)). However, the contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education and should not assume endorsement by the federal government.
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