What Is WorkWORLD™?
WorkWORLD™ is decision support software for personal computers designed to help people with disabilities,
advocates, benefit counselors, and others explore and understand how to best use the work incentives associated with the various Federal and State disability
and poverty benefit programs. It automates the computation of benefits, and takes into account the complex
interaction of income, benefit programs, and work incentives.
We will use a
consumer profile as a context to properly explain the basic functionality of the
WorkWORLD software.
NOTE: After reading this page to gain a basic understanding of what WorkWORLD is, you may wish to see and hear some of our multimedia Tutorials and Presentations. Tutorial modules explain WorkWORLD's features and show many aspects of its operation, while presentation modules discuss the software's use in the broader context of benefits planning and service delivery for individuals. See and hear all the modules on the
Tutorials and Presentations page.
Meet Jerry
Jerry is a 16 year old with ambitions to work around people and with computers.
Jerry has CP with minor cognitive disabilities, a great personality, a clear speaking voice and
can use a wheelchair. He has never worked but is considering several part-time options.
Jerry can use WorkWORLD to help advise himself and his family of various custom
tailored work incentive plans. First, Jerry's current situation needs to be entered into WorkWORLD.
How Does it Work?
WorkWORLD's interface is split into two main areas: the input area and the results area.
Within the input area, WorkWORLD asks the user a series of questions specific to his current
situation. Each new question is based on previous answers in order to make the process as
simple as possible. Figure 1 shows the WorkWORLD interface prompting the user for an answer
to a specific question.
Figure 1: Answering Questions
Once all the questions have been answered a set of results are generated.
Results appear in numerical, graphic, and textual formats. The numerical results show benefits,
earned and unearned income, and expenses in tabular form for each situation. These results are
available for viewing graphically in several ways for greater understanding. Additionally,
text results provide warnings, notes, and recommendations related to the circumstances entered
in a situation. Figure 2 shows a recommendation deduced by WorkWORLD specific to Jerry's entered situation.
As you can see, WorkWORLD is recommending trying a PASS to save for future work.
Figure 2: PASS Recommendation
How are New Situations Explored?
The WorkWORLD user can choose to make changes from their current situation to test what may
happen in the future in a "what-if?" situation. Specifically, Jerry may want to see the
effect of the PASS recommendation. Jerry enters this change as a new situation based on
the original entry, allowing for easy comparison between the current and future situation.
Only the changed items require entry while other items automatically carry over and benefit
change computes automatically.
Jerry may create any number of changes and compare the
results. In this example, Jerry creates three additional situations
to compare:
- Jerry takes a part time job but no work incentives are arranged,
- Jerry takes a part time job and uses the Student Earned Income Exclusion (SEIE)
- Jerry takes a part time job, uses the SEIE, and has a PASS.
Figure 3 shows the WorkWORLD interface as Jerry is adding the fifth situation.
Notice that he can choose which of the previously created situations to base the new
situation on.
Figure 3: New Situation
Work Incentive Comparisons
Figures 4, 5 and 6 show the results of the various work incentive models.
The results help Jerry and his family understand that:
- Situation 1: Jerry continues to get $496/month in SSI but is no closer to self-support or a job. WorkWORLD recommends trying a PASS to save for future work.
- Situation 2: Jerry has the same net income as in the previous situation but he can save
for items that will assist him toward greater independence through the PASS.
- Situation 3: Jerry's income goes up considerably with his earnings but his SSI Federal
Benefit is decreased. WorkWORLD recommends using a SEIE.
- Situation 4: Jerry's income greatly increases using the SEIE even though his actual earnings
are identical to the previous situation. WorkWORLD text result recommends combining a PASS with SEIE.
- Situation 5: This is Jerry's most positive outcome. His net income stays the same as
the previous situation, but he is empowered to save $180/month for greater self support in
the future.
Figure 4: Numerical Results
Figure 5: Graphs
Figure 6: Text Results
Is it Easy to Use?
WorkWORLD has an elaborate Help and Information system the
user can access in a variety of ways. As each question appears, context-specific help about the
question or information about possible answers is a mouse click away. This capability is
demonstrated in figure 7, where the help screen for the PASS question has been activated.
Figure 7: Context Sensitive Help
Similarly, each text result
note,
alert, and
recommendation is linked to explanations and/or
procedures necessary to follow the recommendations. An example of a procedure displayed to follow a
recommendation is shown in figure 8. The user may select information topics from a table of contents or the complete index.
Additionally, it is possible to search the entire information system for specific words.
Finally, many topics have links to Internet sites accessible directly from within the program.
Figure 8: Procedure to Follow a Recommendation
More Information
If you would like to have access to other more complex
consumer profiles or find out more
information about WorkWORLD, visit our website regularly or
contact the Employment Support Institute directly.
Tutorials that explain WorkWORLD's features and show many aspects of its operation, and presentation modules which discuss the software's use in the broader context of benefits planning and service delivery for individuals are available on the multimedia
Tutorials and Presentations page.
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