Announcement: Change to Work Incentives Planning and Assistance (WIPA) Service Priorities

We wish to alert State Vocational Rehabilitation agencies about a change to the Work Incentives Planning and Assistance (WIPA) service priorities that became effective with the cooperative agreements we awarded on August 1, 2015.

Throughout the United States and US Territories, WIPA services support beneficiaries who are working, about to work, or who plan to return to work by providing accurate and timely information about work incentives and related information that would facilitate work and support employment.

• As with earlier iterations of WIPA, Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) beneficiaries are eligible for WIPA services if they receive a monetary benefit, Medicare, Medicaid, or an SSI state supplementary payment based on the beneficiary’s own disability.
• With the cooperative agreements granted August 1, 2015, Social Security made several changes to reduce administrative costs, minimize travel costs and maximize resources, and to focus WIPA services on those beneficiaries at greatest risk. By way of explanation, we intend to encourage working beneficiaries to retain and increase earnings, while anticipating changes to benefits that might otherwise derail work attempts or cause overpayments for example.   
• Social Security distributed the cooperative agreements to fewer organizations with larger service areas in order to reduce administrative costs.
• We outlined a service model that encourages distance technology such as phone, online meeting platforms, Skype, and facetime to reduce travel costs.
• Finally, we established priorities in order to focus services to beneficiaries who are Veterans, youth between the ages of 14 and 25, or adult beneficiaries who are working or about to go to work. We also focus on youth between the ages of 14 and 25 in order to help them and their families understand that work is possible and part of a normative future for everyone.

How the new model affects VR:

• The new WIPA model prioritizes referrals for services under WIPA since we target working beneficiaries, beneficiaries about to begin work and beneficiaries on the brink of working or serious about employment.
• Some WIPA projects have experienced challenges communicating the new model to their State VR Agency, resulting in referrals to WIPA projects where the beneficiary requires very basic information.  In turn, this causes frustration for State VR counselors when the WIPA project staff explains that that prioritizing certain beneficiaries reflects the new service model.
• We encourage State VR Agency staff to work closely with WIPA projects to learn more about the new service model so that the beneficiaries with whom they work have realistic expectations for the services they will receive from the WIPA. We encourage WIPAs and VR agencies to schedule meetings to discuss referrals, strengthen collaborations and discuss how to best capitalize on the WIPAs resources and capacity.