YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY
By DAVID BROWN

This month people across the nation will observe National Disability Employment Awareness Month. And, as President Bush has noted, "Americans with disabilities must have the opportunity to develop the skills they need to compete and obtain jobs in the 21st century work force."

Social Security has a prominent role in this observance because more than 10 million people with disabilities receive each month either Social Security or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) disability benefits. Just as importantly, almost all of them are eligible to participate in a special work incentive program to help them go back to work. Social Security's Ticket to Work program is one of the best ways that Americans with disabilities can realize the common ambition of returning to the workplace. When a beneficiary receives a ticket in the mail, it arrives with instructions on how to redeem the ticket for free vocational rehabilitation services, employment and other support services.

Social Security has teamed with hundreds of groups and organizations that have been set up as Employment Networks. These networks work directly with beneficiaries to help them return to work. While the service is free to the people who receive Social Security and SSI disability benefits, Social Security pays the Employment Networks for their results.

Even after a ticket is redeemed and someone returns to work, the assistance continues. Beneficiaries can continue to receive medical coverage under Medicare for at least eight years and six months after returning to work, eliminating one of the most feared hurdles.

Another feature of the Ticket to Work law helps people restart benefits if they try to work but then have to stop because of their disability. Their benefits can be started again without filing a new application. The request to start benefits, including Medicare and Medicaid, must be made within five years after benefits are stopped.

The Ticket to Work program is voluntary. Social Security and Supplemental Security Income beneficiaries who receive a ticket are not required to work, but may choose to use their ticket for the needed support to attempt to go to work.

To learn more about Social Security's Ticket to Work program or other work incentives for people with disabilities who want to work, visit our Work Site online at www.socialsecurity.gov/work . Or call Social Security at 1-800-772-1213 (TTY 1-800-325-0778) and ask for the publication, Disability Benefits.

Mr. Brown is District Manager of the Social Security Administration's Downtown New York Office.