Getting Help
In this section
- Community Work Incentive Coordinators
- Work Incentives Planning and Assistance
- Ticket To Work
- For more information
Community Work Incentives Coordinators (CWIC)
If you receive social security and you have a job or are looking for one, there are specially trained professionals known as Community Work Incentive Coordinators (CWIC) to help you make sense of complex employment and benefit-related issues.
What is a CWIC?
Community Work Incentives Coordinators (CWIC), also known as Benefits Specialists, provide confidential services to people with disabilities who receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and/or Social Security Disability Income (SSDI). CWICs educate beneficiaries on how employment will affect their public benefits such as SSI, SSDI, Medicare, Medicaid, subsidized housing and food stamps.
CWICs are funded by a U.S. Social Security program called Work Incentive Planning and Assistance but they are not SSA employees. However, they do serve SSI and SSDI beneficiaries, including young adults who are transitioning from school to work.
CWICs provide information about:
- Federal and state work incentives
- Private and state job training and job placement services
- Employer-sponsored or federally subsidized health insurance once employed
- Legal protection and advocacy services (if needed)
CWICs also:
- Answer general questions regarding eligibility, benefits and work incentives
- Make referrals to community resources
- Gather information, verify facts and answer specific questions regarding an individual’s federal and state benefits and work incentive options
- Prepare a personalized benefit analysis that demonstrates the impact that earning wages will have on an individual’s public benefits
- Provide direct assistance to accessing specific work incentives
- Periodically monitor progress, reassess the impact of work on benefits, and provide additional planning for managing benefits while working.
Work Incentives Planning and Assistance (WIPA)
Work Incentives Planning and Assistance is a service funded by the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) as part of the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999 (see below). There are more than 100 WIPA grantees in the United States.
Two of the WIPA grantees, BenePLAN and Project IMPACT, are in Massachusetts. The programs employ certified Community Work Incentive Coordinators and each serves a specific region:
BenePLAN is operated by the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and serves Worcester and Middlesex counties as well as the four counties in Western Massachusetts. Call toll free at 1 (877) 937-9675.
Project IMPACT is operated by the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission, and serves all other counties in Massachusetts. Call toll free at 1 (800) 734-7475.
Ticket to Work
If you are between the ages of 18 and 63 and have a disability, and you receive Social Security disability benefits, the Ticket to Work Program can help you get a job without losing your benefits.
Ticket to Work is a program of the U.S. Social Security Administration’s Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999. The program is voluntary; you do not have to participate in it if you don’t want to.
What does the Ticket to Work program do?
The Ticket to Work program helps people who are receiving Social Security disability benefits find employment from a service provider, or Employment Network (EN), of their choice.
State Vocational Rehabilitation agencies (also known as State VRs) such as the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission and the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind are ENs under the Ticket program.
Other service providers including public and private agencies must submit an application to the Social Security Administration to become an EN. For a list of approved ENs in Massachusetts, click here.
Related resources include Work Incentives Planning and Assistance and Protection (see above) and advocacy services.
For more information
To learn if you are eligible for services under the Ticket to Work program, call toll free 1 (866) 968-7842 (Voice) or 1 (866) 2967 (TTY).
For more detailed information on the Ticket to Work program, visit:
Your Ticket to Work
About Ticket to Work
Ticket to Work Recruitment and Outreach
