Benefits counselors currently use WorkWORLD as a technical aid to allow them and the people with disabilities they are assisting to explore work incentive options and to construct short-term and longer-term plans for increased earnings and progress toward self-sufficiency. WorkWORLD profiles are created, manipulated, and saved with ease. Individual profiles are used on a continuous basis to plan and track decisions of benefits recipients. An electronic file record allows counselors to find information quickly and to transfer it expediently using WorkWORLD's import/export utility. Enhanced accuracy of information and instant recommendations about work incentive options makes the job easier for all who are involved with the process.

The North Carolina Division of Rehabilitation Services, through the Alliance for Employment Enhancement, has initiated statewide efforts to improve services to recipients of SSI and SSDI by using WorkWORLD software:

The first step is a meeting to gather thorough and accurate information about the individual's disability profile, personal and family demographics, current levels and types of benefits utilization, employment status, and other details about personal resources. Counselors make certain that all current situation information is in place before using WorkWORLD with the individual.

An aid to this process is the "Worksheet for Developing Your Own WorkWORLD Case", a convenient checklist developed by ESI to ensure that all critical data is provided by the individual and relevant agencies who are working with him/her. The worksheet defines what information must be collected at the outset to ensure that reliable current situation information is in place before using the software to explore new situations. WorkWORLD's Help/Information System may be utilized to look up terms that are unfamiliar on the worksheet. We encourage you to visit WWW.WORKWORLD.ORG/Profiles.html and to download the worksheet to learn more about it. The worksheet will be covered in greater detail in the next module of the planned distance learning program.

In North Carolina, Social Security's State Online Query System is used as a rapid way to collect all details about the person's Social Security status. Then, communication is initiated and coordinated between Alliance for Employment Enhancement staff, Social Security staff, and other service professionals to gather all relevant facts about the person's current situation so they can be entered accurately into WorkWORLD.

Before the next counseling session with the individual, benefits counselors build a variety of test scenarios using the software. The possible scenarios are created and saved in the individual's file. At this time, both the counselor and consumer use WorkWORLD to examine options for using work incentives and other employment supports most effectively. Numerous possibilities are modeled quickly, enabling them to work together to select and prioritize options for the next planned meeting involving the full interdisciplinary team. The team--the individual and counselor, representatives from the referring agency, other agency professionals, and members of the family, as appropriate--use the possible decision paths modeled in WorkWORLD to decide short and long-term goals.

Selected options are shared with the local Social Security office for verification and approval. Plans for using work incentives, such as Impairment Related Work Expenses, Plans for Achieving Self Support, and other programs, are authorized by Social Security and then pursued by the individual, with counselor follow-up and support.

The software has also helped counselors and payment specialists identify and correct errors in some cases. Most common is identification of overpayments that have been occurring, or soon will occur, in individual cases. SSDI recipients have also learned important facts about the status of their Trial Work Periods so they can carefully plan steps to use work incentives and other employment supports in their return-to-work efforts.

Go to http://www.vcu.edu/busweb/esi/wwkbds/WWKBDS.html to learn more about how WorkWORLD is used by benefits counselors and rehabilitation professionals in North Carolina and other states.

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