Social Security Work Incentives: An Employers´ Guide to Benefits Planning and Management for Employees with Disabilities.

According to industry reports, workers with disabilities consistently rate average or above average in performance, attendance, and safety. When it comes to retention, people with disabilities remain in their jobs longer than the general workforce. Many employees with disabilities turn down opportunities for advancement because they run the risk of losing crucial government benefits if their earnings increase. For employers, these benefits-related concerns limit the flexibility or work potential of their employees.

The following observations illustrate typical benefits-related issues:

The regional manager of Manpower, Inc., an international provider of staffing services well known for its leadership in employing people with disabilities, has reported much success in hiring people with disabilities in a variety of temporary jobs across the Commonwealth. When many supplemental workers are offered the opportunity to transition to regular employment within host companies, they need to limit their work "28 hours per week" or they will lose critical health care and other benefits. Even when given the opportunity to transition in full time employment with employer benefits or to take pay raises, many individuals with disabilities have actually declined offers, out of fear of losing the benefits that have "made it possible to live as independently as possible."

Don Wiggins, President, Virginia Trusses, Inc. says that within his manufacturing company near Williamsburg, he has employed 15 or so people with disabilities for several years. He feels they are some of his best employees and for years, he has been told these employees could only work 10 or 20 hours a week because, if they earned too much, they would lose their Medicaid health benefits. Don has valued these employees so much that he has expended his own staff resources to make sure these employees did not work too many hours.

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