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YOUR BUSINESS, YOUR BENEFITS: SOCIAL SECURITY WORK INCENTIVES FOR SELF-EMPLOYED SUCCESS
SEPTEBMER 10, 2025
1:00 PM CENTRAL TIME

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LEXI JONES:  Welcome, everybody. We're going to let everybody come in. We'll get started in just a moment.
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I would love to get started with "Your business, your benefits: social security work incentives for self‑employed success."
Over to Ray Cebula for the presentation.
RAY CEBULA:  Thank you very much. Good morning, everybody. Or it is lunch time. Welcome to today's session. We're going to have ‑‑ we're going to go through a lot of information very quickly. We have taken into account your need to ask questions, get them in the chatbox please. We've got a little team here who will be responding to those questions. So we are going to focus on social security benefits, their work incentives, and self‑employment. How it works. I just have to give you the commercial for Cornell. I'm an faculty at Cornell. I'm a lawyer by trade. There's a grant, and we thank you for the leadership and being part of the grant. What you need to know. We're going to start with a special Title II disability rules for self‑employment. The benefits we're going to be addressing are social security disability insurance, childhood disability benefits, or CDB, and disabled windows benefited. DWB. We will talk about SSI later. We have to talk about these two separately.
The first thing you need to know about all of this is that you need to be sure which benefit you are receiving. Please know what benefit you are receiving. Title II benefits. What are they? This is SSDI, CBD, and DWB. Social security uses special rules for self‑employed people on o Title II disability benefits. When working with self‑employed people who get these Title II benefits, make sure to explain these rules when you are discussing Title II. Title II is insurance. It is not the SSI program. You are worked. You have paid into the social security system via FICA taxes. You are worked enough to become insured. I'll tell you about SSI when we get there. The first work incentive that everybody on Title II receives is the trial work period. This is counted two ways for somebody who is self‑employed. The trial work level is $1,110 in 2025. That's going to go up a little bit every year, we hope. It will never go down. We have this notion called NESE, it is net earnings from self‑employment. If you are self‑employed, you have expenses. You might rent a store front, you might have a kiosk, you are buying supplies to sell to people, you are paying electricity. You have business expenses. All of those business expenses that are very similar to the IRS business expenses for taxes will be deducted from the gross that you are building ‑‑ that your business takes in.
We only want it know what you earn. If you have earned more than that $1,110, you use the trial work program. We all know that it could take several months to me again making money. That doesn't mean you are not working. It just mean it is going to take time for the business to incubate and hatch. If you work at this business, for more than 80 hours a month, we look at first test. Which is just the doesn't apply to check to see how much you are working every month. Angela just put up 1160 for trial work. My error? Thank you.
Two ways of looking at it. We know people can work really hard and easily work 80 hours a month, but not the full work period. They will get the full amount of the Title II benefit. Every month during the trial work period. Not only are you getting the money that you are earning, but you are getting your full benefits check. No questions asked. You are accountable for that. Your accountable earnings are below 1160 and you are working less than 80 hours a month at this business; you'll receive your benefits. And after that during the trial work period, we're going to get you a two‑fer. It is giving you a break of paying benefits right when you need it. Your business may not be bringing in as much income as you expect. After all nine months are used, social security is going to look. Make sure you have used nine months. If you never catch nine of them in the business that moves, you haven't finished yet. If you are not used them, you are going to keep counting. If you've used your trial work, then you got nine months. I'm sorry. If you've got the nine months and 60 months, then your trial work period is over. We move into the next part of the rules. Trial work is really a good thing. Remember you are getting your money, your earnings, and you are receiving full benefits and health care. For the entire nine‑month period. Now it is ‑‑ I think it is $1620. Commonly called SGA. We're going to look at that as the next threshold that we're involved with. We're moving into a period of time that's called the EPE. The extended period of eligibility. sometimes it is called the reentitlement period. Once it ends, the month following that whether you are still working on not, you are going to run. This is the 36‑consecutive month period. Again it is called the reentitlement period. Why is that? Because if you do SGA, you are performing substantial gainful activity, you no longer have the benefit.
All right. If you work at SGA levels, your business is doing well, your disability income is above 1620, after the 36‑month RP, your benefits will be terminated. Social security is giving you 36 months. It is the benefits to play out. That's a long time. Terminate is a tough word to hear. There's more protection coming for you. Now this is another role. If the person is eligible for title benefits for less than 24 months, social security is going to use three different tests to see if you are working at SGA levels. Significant service and substantial income is the first one. Are you working, providing business services to your business, a significant amount of time every month? Think back. 80 hours. That's significant. Substantial income is above $1620 a month. Countable income. I'm going to tell you what countable income is. That's the first test.
If they can't get you with that one, they move to the second test. The comparability of work income. What they are going to do is look at what I'm doing in my bookstore, and see if it is conferrable to what other bookstore owners are doing. Other bookstores may close down. They are climbing ladders. I can't lift a base of books. All that's going to do is make my condition worse. If it is not, I'm going to go. Social security has a third test waiting, if it is not. The worth of the work activity. This is a tough one to explain to people. I don't like to be in the business of diminishing work activity. Its carrying cases and shelve them. That's going to come off. If those two items are worth $5/hour, social security is only going to look at $15/hour. That's if you've received benefits for less than 24 months. After 24 months, it is easiest. They are going to look at the standard income. They are going to look at the earnings, after the expenses, it is not just the business expenses, we have work incentives coming. If accountable income is more than SGA for the year, then the persons welcoming at SGA levels and the benefits will either be ceased during the 36‑month‑period, or potentially terminated after that. Work incentives are important tools. They are amazing. To reduce countable income for people who start their self‑employment after 24 months. And it is such a dramatic difference, if you are on benefits for 22 months right now. Wait two months before you start. It makes a great deal.
Self‑employment SGA tools. We have a bunch of things here. This is where it gets fun. At least for me. Impairment‑related work expenses or IRWEs, unpaid help, and uninsured business expenses. Those are two very unique things to this work incentive to self‑employed people. This is NESE from items or services that enable you to work, necessary due to impairment, and paid for by you without any hope of reimbursement.
That could be a co‑pain for pain medication. I'm going to stick with my book. My bookstore. My impairment causes pain. That's why I can't lift and climb ladders. Pain medication. How about physical therapy and how about massage therapy? Do I need to join a gym? You know, my spouse had rheumatoid arthritis. He needs a gym with a pool. So he can swim. That helps him and allows him to work. Even a gym membership could be an IRWE. You have to pay for that IRWE during the month of work activity. If you have your wheelchair and need to make that fully accessible. I'm going to build a ramp. I have to build it for the business. So I can build the ramp when I open the business. There are five different IRWEs. You won't know until you see the social security is reducing your income below the SGA level. None of this calling up and saying, hey, I need a ramp on the front door of the store. Yeah. Sounds reasonable. Do it. Then we'll see if we can deduct it. It is only when you see it being used that it has been approved.
Policy to practice tips. If you are going to be a benefits planner out there, this is for you. If you are getting yourself started in business, you pay attention to. Certain items of services maybe approved as IRWEs, even though they are also needed for non‑work activity. Now the prescriptions are perfect; right? If I take a prescription, I have to take it every month and all night. I need it. It means I need it all during the workweek as well. Now if I stop taking my ‑‑ I use always and going to say my bookstore is only open Monday‑Friday. If I stop taking my prescriptions on the weekend, it is not likely I'm going to go to work. It is the cost of your entire month. And it maybe something that you need. If I have a walker to help me get around the store when I get tired or have a little extra pain. I may use that at home. You can find the program the manual system. This is the work that the local offices use. You can see the pump 10520.020. You are going to come up with all kinds of information about IRWEs. This side of the bullet here says the impairment must be of record. Now what does that mean? It means that social security considered that impairment when they made the decision that you were disabled. If you've developed something new and I have diabetes and developing a visual impairment, I have to tell social security about that impairment. Then I could claim IRWEs that apply to the vision impairment. You know, again, IRWEs is subtracted from network earnings from self‑employment to reduce accountable account from SGA. We are trying to keep it below SGA to keep the benefits coming in, unless your business is really run on its own and really stable and providing you at least what you are seeking benefits. Here's some examples. Of course. If we have a and you have a job, in the first hour of Monday or an hour before you open the store, help you get business ready to open and help plan your week, that hour, if you are paying for it is an IRWE. Attendant care services, how about the transportation? The transportation is related to your impairment, you know, you can't take the subway. It'll make me a nervous wreck. How about an Uber. The difference between the subway and Uber is your IRWE. That's an easy one. Work‑related, employment, and assistance. As a business owner, you are going to be doing this. In my world, if I were working with somebody, I would ask them for the secret.
I could buy it myself and make a deductions. Service animals. Remember you have to get the dog a license. You need the dog trained. You need the heavy‑duty harness. You need the vest. You need to take it to the vet. You need animal food. Don't stop at dog. Residential modifications. Bathrooms and entrances. Routine medical. What if I take a drug that bothers the stomach. Take two or three Advils. Not Advils, Tums. Take two or three Tums. It is not just because I had Mexican food. I have heart burn. Walker is a non‑medical appliance. It is probably not going to apply to the situation. Not going to talk about it. We're keeping a list, the monthly cost, and receipt. Because the first time you are going to report these, you have to have it all documented in the social security. We need to report them if they change. I want to let social security know. Here's the receipt. Reoccurring expenses. You know, this is a good thing to know. You can buy something. Anything. I'm going to buy myself a big computer monitor. I can claim that once. Or you can pro‑rate it up to 12 months. What works better for me? Have a 400 or 500 dollars in one month or divide that by 12 and keep the IRWE equal for 12 months. You got to do the math twice to see what happens. Rental goods. You know, I talked to people a lot about this when they are looking to buy an electric wheelchair. They are going to work. They are not sure. What should we do? Well, rent the wheelchair. Just like a car. You can rent it just like a car.
The rental cost every month becomes your IRWE. They are not cheap. But it is a big IRWE every month to allow you to stay below SGA and give the business time to grow. Consider that. I've made deals with my client.
It is a two‑year rental. Let's talk in one and a half years to see how it was going. If they were going really well, maybe it is time to buy. You can prorate it for another 12 months. Then you'll be on your own. We can draw this experience out for you, so you are comfortable with every step that you are making. Now this is amazing. Unpaid help. I had a plumber who had unpaid help. It is a great story. He became disabled. Decided he wanted to go into plumbing and air conditioning type business. Well, his impairment was not going to let him lift half of what he needed in the business. Crown, he had a traumatic brain jury. He had a real tough time remembering. He could do his plumbing in certain circumstances if his son, adult son, was there to say, okay dad, now this is the pipe that connects here. Get it connected. With explicit instructions how to do things. He would forget. He was a very typical TBI client who just couldn't remember. It is just the way that impairment focusing on somebody's ability. He had an over payment. A big one. I said how often does your son come with you? He said to every call that we get. You know, my physical impairment and lift something and I get help. Him lift it. The two of us can do it. He does that stuff. He coaches me through the repairs that I have to make. I know how to do them when I'm doing them. I'm not necessarily sure I'm going to remember everything that has to go on around it. What does the plumber assistance made? Every dollar they provide me with a $20 deduction. It might be because of the TPI and intellectual disability. What if I'm not good at math? My spouse takes care of the books. Not making any money. What does a bookkeeper cost on average in my area? And every hour of bookkeeping services I get more nothing gives me an hourly deduction.
This is fabulous. This is fabulous. It only exists for self‑employed people. All right. What we're doing with this deduction? Making sure employment to ensure your disability benefit will continue.
Now policy to practice. What does social security need? The name of the person pervading help? The relationship of that individual to the self‑employed worker. Si can be a family member or friends and an estimate of the value. What does the plumbing assistant get in the greater Atlanta area. Unincured business expenses. I was welcoming with the agency in my state. I wanted it shall a bookstore owner. What do you need to do that? I need my license. I'm also going to need a computer system. Cash registers are all on computer now. One of the machines that lets people swipe their cards. You know, the monitor. How about the Internet service? The utility bills and electricity opinion all of that was given to me. It was given to me my VR. They provided me with six months’ worth of electricity and six months’ worth of Internet in hopes that all of that is a deduction. How much is the value? Any expenses. What if my parents decide once that ends. They are going to provide with me another six months of Internet and electricity. It is just a different language ‑‑ just sort of different language on the same form. You know, all for the purpose of keeping the benefits coming in. Not forever. Until your business is up and running and can provide what you need to live on. Hopefully more.
Policy to practice. We need the agency name or the person paying it. They are going to say it is a business startup. They want to see the time period and from my parents. How much does it cost? That's all I need. Print that out and give it to social security. Now I go into some of the benefit work incentives that still again allow us to keep going. Remember we have the SGA line.
If my income is going above it and below it and above it and below it, take the months where it is happening. And average them. If the average is below. If the average brings you below the SGA level. You are paid. You are paid for the four months. The at end of the career, it can happen too. You know, you have to pretty much project what your income is expected to be for the first‑year‑old. At the end, you are going to sit down with social security. Do you owe us money? Do we owe you money? That reconciliation can result in the projection of income for the next year. You know, if you have severe ups and downs, you may want to let social security know before then. Maybe it is not working out. With the projections that you made.
Report. Report. Report. I'm going to say that over and over again. Your condition, wages, fluctuations, if you are getting too big to not fit in to what your projections are tell social security. Here's another good one. Unsuccessful work attempt. This is a burst. People come in. They want to look. Most people that go in come out with more books than they want. That's a good thing. The impairments. The day where I close the shop and open it in the afternoon, that affected business. It is not really good to close the store when you said it is going to be open. Business started going down. Was that because of my impairment? Yeah. It was. Or something significantly related to the impairment. What you can do at this point is say this was an unsuccessful work attempt. Social security will look and if they say, yes, you were working at SGA, your impairment caused that SGAness to go away. Erase the tire period. Erase the period of unsuccessful work attempt can be no longer than six months. If I work six months at SGA and it happens, it is not an unsuccessful attempt. That's just the rule of social security that makes us live with. That's what we are talking about that sensations. We're erasing it. There's going to come a time when the sensation is there and you can't erase it. If the cessation sticks on work attempts and income averaging to not be used anymore. Maybe it will work out with the season coming up; right? Christmas is coming up. People want to buy more books. They want to go down and return all of the books. They are going to rarely occur in self‑employment. It is something for you to be aware of. They have a severe disability. If it gets in the way, remember you have tools to deal that.
All right. How to report network earnings from self‑employ to SS. Anybody that goes to work should have focused on the self‑employed have to report their income to social security. If you just assume they are going to find out, well, they will. Because you are going to file taxes. That's going to be two or three years before social security finds out. You don't want that to happen. You want social security to know right away. You are obligated to report your income when you sign on that dotted line for benefits. So as soon as you start earning income, you need to report. It may not be above SGA. You still need to report. I like to tell people report during your trial work period. Can gives you ‑‑ do you have to? No, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter how much I earn. I'm going to get my money. Report, report, report. There's no pressure. By the time you get to month ten and your extended period of eligibility begins, you are not habit of reporting. Get in the habit. You know, keep records of all of your income, all of your expenses, number of hours you are working each month. It is all going to be important. You know, particularly the expenses; right? You need to know. You'll have a business plan. You know, we're not going to cover during the training. Just work incentives. You'll have a plan that's going to tell you what your expenses are going to be. Your taxes are going to deduct all of the expenses as well. There's plenty of information available. We just need to keep it. We just need to keep it.
Social security is going to use projected income and expenses the first year. We talked about that. You know, we're going to ‑‑ what do you think? What do you think you are going to make? If I say $1,500 a month? I'm not sure. Maybe average that up to $2,000. You are really not sure, are you? It is a guess. Social security is going to set the year up at $2,000. If I don't have deductions from the net earning, I'm above SGA. I won't get paid. You can wait until the end of the year and do the reconciliation meeting to see if you were intended to any more money during the year. But maybe you don't want to. Maybe you don't want to. If they are assuming you are doing SGA work and they are not paying you and you fall below SGA, you need to report that right away. Get that spigot turned back on. You have enough money to meet your personal needs. Again, once you have that reconciliation, that's going to be your projection for the next year.
It is a little awkward. It is the only way social security can do it. That's what the rules say. Annual reporting of self‑employment income. You have to report this by April 15th. Yeah. That sounds like tax day. It is tax day. We're talking about reporting it to social security. You know, self‑employed people who get the Title II benefit or SSI, which we haven't talked about yet, must submit central tax returns, including all of those schedules. All of your deductions are going to be on one schedule. Even it if you get an extension from the IRS. Let's say you delayed. It is now April 12th and you make the employment to get your taxes done. If your appointment is after the 15th, you've violated the rule. It only applies to the IRS. You need to give some documentation to the Social Security Administration by the 15th. That could be general stuff. It could be your notes and all of this. And the business records that you are keeping every month. But they have to have something by the 15th. Social security will use this to project again. Which we said for the next year. Along with that information. They should not be using just the tax return. They should be using the other information that you provide about what's going on at that business. Are there still, you know, unincurred business expenses or unpaid help? We divide that projection by 12. That's the assumption that we have for the next year. Every month the next year. That's the way it is going to work. Again if it doesn't work for a couple of months, tell social security. You don't have to wait until the end of the year. All right.
Reporting major changes during the year. Didn't we just cover that. If you change the business, I have a bookstore. You know, I think I'm losing to some of the bigger bookstores. People come in and say they like having a small, locally owned bookstore. I can't get a cup of coffee here. I'm going to set up very informal little cafe at some table and chairs. Some people can get a cup of coffee for themselves. That's pretty much starting a little business. It is expanding your business band‑aid the book selling. If you stop working, clearly if the business fails, you need to tell social security. Because they are still going to assume that you've got money for several months if you don't tell them it stopped. And if any significant changes to your self‑employment habits to your income or expenses occur, we need to tell social security. Nast good or bad. If the expenses decrease, the money that you are giving me is dependent on what we came up with reconciliation. Changes are only, you know, it is only going to avoid problems. If you report them immediately.
All right. Are there any questions that you might want to answer? I know the team has been responding.
CAROLINE BOLAS:  There's quite a few questions. If we don't have time to gather them, we're going to ask you for a Word document. There's a lot of great questions. I know we have quite a lot of content. We'll carry on for now and see how we get on by the end.
RAY CEBULA:  All right. This is going quicker than I thought it was. We might have 15 minutes at the end.
CAROLINE BOLAS:  Perfect.
RAY CEBULA:  Dual combination. Thank you. If you want to get the titles into the box now, we're really switching gears. With switching to supplemental social security income. And what exists for SSI. SSI is a needs‑based benefit . It is basically a federal welfare program. So we're looking at the person's income, we're looking at the person's resources in order to qualify for SSI. We're looking right now again at network earnings. We'll look at all of that. It is going to affect your SSI. The good thing about it is it is not often on. Like Title II was. SSI as your income goes up. Your SSI benefit goes down. They care about half of the earnings. They are going to use that to get it down. As you go through the SSI process, it is much smoother and it is also much safer and predictable. And your Medicaid benefits are going to stay with you until that took store is making a ton of money.
Subtractions and deductions. It is what you made. Not what the business made. We are going to use these and reduce that. When we use it to reduce it here, we're not pulling income below SGA. The SGA doesn't heater. What we are doing is keeping the SSI benefit higher. The federal benefit rate for SSI is not that much. You know, in 2025, the maximum that the individual living alone is going to receive is $967. SSI in most states comes automatically with Medicaid. There's a separate application. Don't worry. Don't wait. If you are filing for SSI, waiting for your application to be processed, you can file separately for Medicaid. Get that Medicaid filed quick lip let's see what else we have here. Work incentives. We are going to use to deduct NESE. These are all on the calculations sheet. We can get that to you. In you are interested. Some of you likely haven't. We are going to deduct a student‑earned income exclusion, if you are under age 22 and regularly attending school. We've got to find out what that means; right? What's regularly attending school and what is this exclusion? It is a gold mine. It is a gold mine. The general income exclusion. You know, we always look at unearned income first. So what unearned income could you have? SSDI benefits are unearned income for SSI. Winning the lottery is unearned income. So o there's lots of things unearned income. If we have none, and most SSI recipients don't have unearned income, we get to take off the $20 monthly exclusion. Then the earned income exclusion is $65 a month. We then look at IRWEs again. Just what we talked about on the other side. What are they? We are going to look at keeping records. We need the receipts.
In the SSI program, we're going to benefit 50 cents to the dollar. I've spent a dollar. I'll get 50 cents back. Why is that? Because after we get the IRWEs in, we divide all of the income by two. Social security cares about less than half of your wages. I've never done a sheet for someone that doesn't show more in the end. Earned income exclusions for blind work is power of the blind lobby. This is remarkable. These deductions are completely remarkable. Then we have past plan. You know, a plan that we are saving money according to the schedule and you are spending money in accordance with the schedule to become. To get to your vocational goal, let's put it that way.
To get to your vocational goal. If my vocational goal is to open the successful bookstore, you could get a lot of these items, services that I need by putting the past together. When you see how that works on the calculation sheet, it is amazing. I saved $300 a month; my SSI goes up $300. Sounds like free money. My putty, Ed, did call it that. This is free money. Let's talk about the past plan. Yeah. This is an SSI only work incentive. Somebody who is an SSDI could potentially get one. But they need to create SSI eligibility. Remember that's a low‑income program, low resource program. It can be tough.
What you are going to do is set aside some of your income, some of my NESE. I'm going to set that aside into my account that's protected from resources. If I need $20,000 to reach my goal, I can actually save that. If I get a gift from somebody, that could go into the past plan. Can't put your SSI in there though. That's the only trick. And it is to achieve a work goal. Opening up a book shop is a specific work goal. Becoming a teacher is a specific work goal. We can have the cost of obtaining and receive training. How about starting your business and not just putting your plans together. But starting the business, part of that you want to go take a few classes on how to run a business. Interesting support services. Notice this is almost limitless. It truly is. This has to be approved by social security. There's a special past specialist that's going to look at it. They don't want them to fail. They don't want to deny. You can complete the social security form which is 545 BK. You can get that online at SSA.gov/forms. Then you can send it over to the past specialist. There are other ways of doing this. You might have a past specialist. They are looking at parts of your plan. This is good. I know you are going to need a car. A brand new Maserati is not that you need. You are going to buy you a hatchback Honda SUV. You are not going to get new cars. Once it approving you can start making explicit and direct savings into your separate pass account and begin to spend. You know, just on what you said you needed. If I'm a teacher, you need a computer. I may need some clothes. I'm a college guy. I need some dress clothes to get a teaching job. I need a car. I can't grow up to be a car. But I can grow up to be a teacher who needs a car to go to work. We're going to plan that out. If you are still getting your education, maybe you don't need the car yet. We'll buy the car at end. We have to get the computer and all of that stuff. Same thing for self‑employment. You know, if you need, let's say, a pickup truck. Getting one of the great big Ford things, you know? That you need the ladder to climb up in to. It is not what you are going to get. You might get a Toyota Tacoma. Something reasonable. Then your work.
What happens if something happens? I have a situation. Now I need help to get the books off of the truck and into the store; right? I can save extra and pay somebody as an low. That requires you to go back to the past specialist and change the plan. If you change it on your own, it is not going to work. Remember the money in the PASS account is protected in the resource limit for SSI. If you break PASS by doing something that wasn't prescribed, the shelter is gone. You may not be eligible for SSI any longer. Make sure you keep in touch with the specialist. Business plan resources. Past applications with a work goal of starting a business must submit a businessman. It is not something I wrote down. The list is not a business plan. This is a normal business plan that's going to have to be professionally developed. There are resources out there. You know, the service core of retired executives or score. They are great. These are actually help business people develop the business plan. They can do a great job for you. Not only in the business plan area, but planning when things are beginning to happen. Planning on what extra resources that you may need for things, and they can mentor you on how to run a business.
The small business administration, the SBA, has also free resources to develop a business plan. This is very, very important. These are exceptional resources. That business plan must be submitted with the past application.
Now what would happen if you submit a past plan with a goal for self‑employment out it? Not much. Not much. The past specialist will likely get in touch with you and say before I can process, I need a business plan. Try SCORE or SBA. The specialists are really looking to make your past work. They are generally pretty nice people who are encouraged when people come in and ask about work. Separate bank account. This is critical as well. I have a checkbook. That's my money. I buy groceries with it. I go out to dinner with it. Whatever else I need to buy. I can't put PASS money and comingle it.
There's no way for social security to see what is PASS money and what isn't. As a result, I have two checkbooks. One that does nothing but buy things for me and one that does nothing but spend money in accordance with my plan. Never the twain shall meet. It is really dangerous to confuse these things. Much like self‑employment, you are going to end up with a separate account. You are not going to mingle your money with the business money. All of this is going to be separate. For self‑employment, we're going to have three accounts. Sounds like it is more work. Trust me. It is going to avoid problems. Here's a PASS online program. Cornell developed it, my buddy, Ed, again who used to teach with me. The web site is WTIonline.org. Rather than looking for the social security form that's written in government language, this asks you very simple questions. If you are not sure, this has a help button. How do I describe what I want to do? There's a help button. Examples will. Up. Giving you an idea of what you might want to include in your answer. You go through these questions. I mean if you are working with somebody to help and potentially even the past specialist, if I'm working with a client and I'm developing a PASS using the tool, I want my client to give me their password for PASS online. I'm going to tell my client start answering questions. This is your plan. We want you to build it. When you finish the first couple of pages, let me know. I'll go in and I'll possibly suggest some edits to it.
If we have the PASS specialist involved, which we have had many times, the PASS specialist might say, you know, the Maserati is out of the picture. Let's get that Honda. You know? Okay. We'll change that. When the PASS specialist says hit print, we have a plan. If the PASS specialist isn't involved, I'm going to think what we've done is get approved.
When we hit print, the PASS coming out on social security forms. All you have to do is sign it. I don't know how Brett did that. Good for Brett. Here's the PASS online address. It is a really good tool. For those of you who are working with people who want to be become self‑employed, if you do this, and you do let your consumer fill out these forms as much as possible, you are investing them in the plan. That's hoping to help them succeed. I think that kind of personal investment is critically important. So resources for self‑employment. What kinds of stuff do we have for self‑employed people? How about ABLE accounts? How about property essential for self‑support. S. Both of these things are going to allow you to accumulate money, accumulate tools, you know, accumulate inventory, and not bump you out of the SSI resource level, because they are protected. So that's a great way to do things. Social security has a resource limit. $2,000 for an individual, $3,000 for married couple.
That's in a lot of money. If you come in at the beginning of the month, that's when they snap their camera and see, oh, they have $2,050. I'm not eligible for $967 that I was getting from SSI. Protecting as many resources as we can is very important. Those figures of $2,000 and $3,000 came into being in 1989. It hadn't been touched since. This requires an act of Congress to change.
Okay. If an individual has more resources than the limit, they are not eligible. It is as simple as it is. If your resources are too high, you'll be suspended for 12 months. If it goes into 13 months, you'll be terminated. We need to protect resources. The resource impact on self‑employment, you have to save money. If the small little one‑man bookstore, I own all of the money. If you have a corporation, that's a different thing; right? But if I'm a self‑employed guy having a bookstore, all of the business assets belong to me. That's a lot of resources. We want to protect as many resources as we can. We have a couple of tools. The past is one tool. We're using that to get to your goal. Our vocational goal. You can have $50,000 in the past. With the spending plan to spend it all before you get to your goal. It won't count towards resources. Now ABLE accounts, one of the new kids on the block. It's been a while. But they are really good. PESS, property essential for self‑support are the social security‑related tools for us to save money.
Now ABLE accounts change the world for a lot of our SSI recipients. It was the first time I could say as an SSI recipient, you can amass wealth. I never thought I would say that. Never thought I would say it. It is a tax advantage account. It is savings for disability‑related expenses of the designated beneficiary. If I set up my own account, I'm the designated beneficiary. I own it. That's not countable. My parents could set up an account for me. You know, for me. You know, I'm the designated beneficiary. The ABLE account is established and maintained by a state agency or somebody who is contracting with the state if they were a private company. Most states, you know, if you are in California, call CAL ABLE. New Mexico ABLE. Ohio has a ST ABLE account. All of the same thing. Some ABLE accounts are national. Ohio that has a national account. We want to shop; right? We want to look. I want to look at New Mexico rules. I want to look at the interest they are paying. I want to look at Ohio. Doesn't matter where my money is. You got your computer. And you just do your bills that way. Who cares where it is; right? So we shop around for the most beneficial account for us. Now right now the individual must have been blind or disabled because of the condition that began before their 26th birthday. That doesn't mean you were diagnosed before your 26th birthday. If I'm 30 and I want an ABLE account and I can prove that my disability began before age 26, I don't need SSI. I don't ‑‑ so I have the 26 ‑‑ you know, I have before 26. My doctor diagnosed me then. I just didn't apply for benefits until later. I have an ABLE account.
Good news coming on January 1st of 2026. That age is going to increase to 46. I think we're really going to see some massive growth. Just think about if you are in the audience and you are thinking about your own business and you want to engage in self‑employment. How old are you inform yeah. My guess is, you know, 26. I'm not ready to start a business. I'm not thinking that yet. But by 46, maybe. So I think we're extending this to exactly the population who needs it.
Be sure to check the state regulations. They are all generally the same. But they have different tweaks. Shop. Absolutely shop. Check if Ohio takes national, you know, Connecticut takes national, but I want to know how much interest. If Connecticut is beginning to pay me two and a half and his is going to give me three and a half, I want my money in Ohio. Particularly for the business is involved. We could have a lot of money. We got to be particular here about this one point. If I am an SSI recipient, and I use my earnings to put in to my ABLE account, those earnings count as income for SSI. So they are deducting it. You know, and then we are putting the money in. It just is a resource exclusion. But the resources that you are going to be able to save are significant. You know, what happens? Maybe I'm told by social security I'm not disabled anymore. We have a disability. They can require you to be account to social security. I'm still look at Ohio now. That's giving me a better deal. Distributions any person can distribute for the designated beneficiary. While looking at a person as the IRS season, so that maybe my participants set up a special needs trust for me. That trust can take the maximum amount that you can put into ABLE account. They are making the money available to me to do what I want. I said disability qualifying expenses. It is a barn door that you can run many horses through. It is very, very liberal. Crown, that little business or that state agency is going to check and see did you make the deductions that were all qualifying? Now you can put $19,000 into your business account in 2025. That's good. My parents can put that much money in every year or my trust can put that much money in every year.
In addition, if I'm making money, I could put up to $15,060 from my wages into that ABLE account. This year. Notice I keep saying this year. I hope the IRS, the IRS number the maximum for the ABLE account is tied to the IRS gift rules and potentially the amount of wages that I can put in will go up a bit every year. We will generally hear about some of these increases between October and December. It all depends on the cost of living. We have to figure that out. What is qualifying expense? Education. Housing. Transportation. Food. Employment training and support. I can spend a lot of money on the employment and on training. It depends on the decision of the doctor and anybody that you need to see for the purposes. And wellness. Here's the gym membership again; right? If I work and come out of work, exhausted and I'm a nervous wreck, because, okay, that was not a good day. I go to the gym. Maybe that's the cure; right? Let's looks at wellness. Financial management, administrative fees and legal fees, of course, they have to come out of your account. So I want to know that. They have the administrative fees and management and what does Connecticut charge? Expenses for ABLE account, oversight, and monitoring. This is just putting money into the business account. I want to make sure my ABLE is appropriate. It is going to pay for the state agency to look over these things. If I want an independent audit of my spending and I need to pay for it. The ABLE account can pay for it. Basic living expenses. Basic living expenses. I know I put this into my ABLE account to support my business. I need $250 to put into my account. ABLE doesn't count as resources, when I take it out, it doesn't count as income. It can fill the gap on the bum months. 
SSI exclusion of contributions and earnings. Individual contributions to the ABLE account will not reduce accountable income. If he works and puts $500 into the earnings, the $500 goes to the SSI calculation and reduces the SSI benefits. But when he put it is into the bank, it is not a resource. Not a resource at all. Third party contributions are completely exploited. This is a good trick. It is not a trick.
It is perfectly legal. SSI will not count it as income or a resource. Please, mom, don't give Andrew the money to put into his ABLI account. You put it in over ahead of Andrew, so it doesn't have any contact with him. You get both income and resource benefits from that. If it ends in dividends, what if I went to Ohio and I did an investment plan? My ABLE account is going to be made up of stocks, bonds, and cash. Maybe they will get more money. none of the income counts. It stays in the ABLE account. That's what Andrew did. That's good. You have playing the stock market now. When the ABLE set up the investments, they are low risk. They are going to need to be involved. You are going to have to pay attention to what's going on and manage those things yourself. At least be able to tell the plan manager what you want to do.
How much can you have? Up to $100,000 in the account. Now I don't think anybody should really; right? If you go over $100,000, you, of course, can have $102,000, the regular resource limit before it stops counting. Anything under $102,000 is going to make you ineligible, you know, for SSI. That's not what we need. I said I don't like to see people with $100,000. ABLE isn't really a saving account. I like to call it a spending account. I want to experience now. If I need the money to get a nicer apartment, I can do that. And pay the difference in the rent from what I was paying, you know, through the ABLE account. I think this should be actively used. I do not want to see that. There isn't lifetime limit on contributions as well. Most of them are over a half million dollars. That's amazing for an SSI recipient to be able to save $100,000 over your life. $500,000 or more. It doesn't count for SSI. That's the good thing. If something happens, if I'm the designated beneficiary and something happens to me, and I pass away unexpectedly, the money in the ABLE can be gotten to by the states to repay for Medicaid. There are nine states. Ohio being one of them. That has said, no, we're not going to do that. You know, if Medicaid does want money back and there's anything left, it will go according to my will or if I die without a will, according to the state law. It is about living expenses. While the business is getting ready and growing and reducing profits. That's a nice safety net. If you go above SGA, 1620, one cent, you are not eligible. If you work, you know, I save money and it is in the bank account for SSI purposes, you are not eligible. They have gaps to make it personally stable while the business is growing. That's a great thing. I have a nice little rainy day pot. Pay the rent. I want people to be able to do that. Since ABLE accounts can be used for qualified disability expenses, it can make accounting difficult. So this ABLE account which is a separate bank account needs its own checkbook. Even about making notes. I'm an old guy. I still make my notes on the check register to see what I've spent money on. If you are doing this to spend money on rent, and you are pulling out the same time for business‑related expenses, you got some bookkeeping. It make it is a little difficult. It is worth the effort to keep your business going. And to grow that business. So that you don't need SSI anymore.
It probably is best, you know, to have an SSI recipient self‑employed person. You know, hold their owners draw. I can take money every month. This is what I'm paying myself. Provided there's enough money coming in; right? And put it into the ABLE. They have the checkbooks and all that needs to be balanced at the same time. All right. Property essential to self‑support, or PESS. I'm a plumber. Because I like this is a good example. I have a van. I have some very expensive tools. I've got pipe. All of those tools that I need to plumb. Whatever they are. They are worth a lot of money. That equipment is worth a ton of money. Isn't that a resource? If it is accountable resource, I'm not likely eligible for SSI. But if it is property, essential, self‑support, it doesn't count as a resource. So if I become disabled and I've got all of the plumbing gear and my goal is to still be a plumber, that resource, the equipment, will not count as a resource because I'm expecting to use it in a business or tray. That's the first test. Used in a business or tray. That tray. How about property that represents government authority to engage in income‑producing activity. This is a little bit ‑‑ bitty thing. I like to use the Alaskan fishing rights. Many native Alaskans have licenses that are worth a fortune. It allows them to fish in certain places, you know, without limitations. They can feed their families over the course of the year. That could be sold to some other native Alaskan person. You know, it is PESS. It is PESS because it is property essential for my self‑support. You know, I'm not going to sell it. Right now I need the fish. Why employment matters? They need to maintain stock and operate the business. Look at all of the looks. Look at all of the coffee. I need that. It is worth more than $2,000. But it is PESS. Property essential for my support. It doesn't count as a result. Now annual reporting of self‑employment income, once again, April 15th. Your tax return has to be filed. You know? If you are on Title II or SSI. People who work and begin their business development while they are on SSI may not have filed taxes. In a very long time or maybe not at all. That's something that has to be done. And again even if you have an extension from the IRS to get it done on May 15th, social security wants it on April 15th.
If you are paying somebody to do your taxes, another business expense that can be deducted. You know, that person will be able to get you enough documentation to satisfy social security. If you give them enough time. You are going to be wanting to look at mid-April. To have your employment. When I have my taxes done, not self‑employed, when I have the taxes done, when I have the first apartment. He hasn't done the numbers yet. He knows what my expenses were. He knows my income. There's enough information there to put together to meet the April 15th deadline. Just got to be on top of that. Social security will look at the business income over the year, reconcile the past year, and then develop a projection for the second year. For SSI, social security is going to divide it by 12. That's what social security likes to do in SSI. Divide it by 12. Sometimes it doesn't work. How about, you know, a vacation? I'm going to close the bookstore for two weeks. Probably not a good idea. I'm not going to have as much income as I had in the month before or month after. I'm going to tell social security. The projection isn't right. I want my benefits. During that month with half salary. SSDI is dividing over the number of months in which the person works. If you are self‑employed, you are going to work every month. We are looking generally at self‑employment, both SSI and SSDI. We'll see that divide total income by 12 to project for the next year.
Most cases, it works out that way. Again exacerbations of your condition, you know, how about the business has outrageous expenses one month. It was every three months; I get another shipment of books. That brings my NESE way down. I want to tell social security that. So that I have stable income. Every month to meet my business expenses, and to meet my personal expenses. So health care is the last thing we're going to talk about. I kind of alluded if you were on Medicaid, your health care is beginning to be there are forever. You know, not forever. But for a very, very long time. There are so many wonderful programs on the SSDI side, Medicare will also be available. Question is during these extensions, who has to pay the premiums for part B and part D? Let's get started. Medicare and the extended period of Medicare eligibility, again Title II, SSDI.
People who get the Title II benefit don't get Medicare coverage until they become eligible for 24 monthly payments. I don't know who made this up. The first two years of your disability will not come with health care. If I'm self‑employed, do I need health care? Can I pay for health care? Can I get it from the exchange? Do I want to go into the web site and compare private plans for Blue Cross and Potential and all of that. Business expenses. Two groups of people that don't have to wait, those with Lou Gherig's disease and those with end stage renal disease. Both of those are incredibly serious. Without continuous and immediate health care, you are not going to survive the 24‑month wait. Those are the only two disorders that Congress has exclusions from the 24‑month waiting period. People worry about using Medicare coverage. I have been told by many in the SSI recipients I don't care about the $967. I do care about my Medicare. It is not going to go away. When self‑employment is not at SGA level. I can collect until I'm 65. When I'm 65, I'm no longer disabled. I'm aged. I just get it because I'm old now. Extended care. If they stop because of work, work coverage. Medicare continues for at least 93 months after your trial work period. That's 7 2/3 of a year. Almost eight years. You know, so my best advice to you is focus on making that business work. It is a complicated system. It doesn't matter where. Know that you are going to get at least 93 months, it not more. Parts B and D have premiums. Those premiums come out of your SSDI payment. Your Title II payment. If I'm not getting a payment because my work level is high, I have to pathos premiums. Part of this is now planning to pay for those premiums. That part of not your business plan. It is part of the life plan. They have to pay for $250 on top of the regular living expenses to pay for Medicare when I'm not getting benefits. That goes up every year. Part D, the average plan is $42 a month. It is not something you don't to consider. It is something that you need to consider. That $230 a month makes a difference.
Now Medicaid and SSI. No. I've got to go back. Let's stop that. After that 7 2/3 year goes by, you can keep Medicare. You have to keep the premiums account, A, B, and D. That's a lot of money. By looking at that kind of money, close to $700. More than $700 a month. Can I get a Blue Cross? Got to be smart about purchasing your health care. The benefits and remember when needs to pay the premiums? Now we'll move into Medicaid. Medicaid is a much more pleasant ending. It is a cooperative program. They have different names. If I'm no California, it is MedCal, if I'm in Tennessee it is TennCare, and Massachusetts it is MassHealth. If you get on to Google and Tennessee. You can use that for your searches. Each state has many Medicaid programs. Everybody thinks Medicaid is. This is from family and children. I'm no longer disabled. Medicare is federally funded. It is federal insurance. If I leave here in New Mexico and I'm traveling to Tennessee, and I get sick in Tennessee, it is the same insurance program. Nationwide. It is the same thing. There are no state variations. It is 100% federally funded. Along with the premiums that you have to pay.
Now, Medicaid on the other hand is publicly funded health insurance. Some states may not cover as much. The funding for this is divided by the federal and state government. It usually covers about 55% in most states. But in poor states like New Mexico, the federal government covers 80% of the Medicaid bill. That's all based on the per capita income in each state. How about both? If I'm eligible, I can get Medicaid as well. There's a couple of deductions. If you have both of these, you consider a dual eligible. Medicaid and Medicare picks up the rest. Medicare has co‑pays, they have co‑insurance, they have deductibles. That's the gold standard.
LEXI JONES:  Ray, this is Lexi from NDI. I want to give you a time warning. We have ten minutes left.
RAY CEBULA:  Thank you very much. We'll get through this. SSI Medicaid eligibility in most states, people on SSI. You have to apply separately. People who used to get SSI can qualify for automatic Medicaid. People who receive childhood disability benefits or disabled widows benefits, the Title II benefit. If the person was on SSI and Title II knocked away the SSI, that person keeps their Medicaid. Regardless of how much their benefit is. That's a great thing. People want to read. They are often worried more about this than the cash benefits. What happens if your income reduces your SSI to zero? 1619(b) allows to be a recipient that receives zero dollars and I get free Medicare. If what causes was earned income. They are going to look at everybody in New Mexico and say what is the average expenditures? We add that to the number of dollars it takes out to cash out your SSI toughie row. That's your threshold. Alaska's threshold is $65,000. I think New York is 43 or $54,000. Pretty good. Better than $967. That's really a good program. This program changed everything. You know, so we get that free. What if we go over that threshold. The business is doing really well. I live in Alaska. I'm going to top $65,000 this year. The Medicaid buy in for workers with disability. This is a program for people who have disabilities. Not SSRI or SSDI. You can then opt into your state buy‑in. Almost every state has them. There are a couple of state that is don't. But the states that have them, this is exceptional. We're going to go into the buy‑in. Which, you know, makes my SSI resource level in most states go up to 10 or $20,000. One of the checkbooks can have more money; right? You have to meet the definition of disability. Except for the limit on SGA level. So it doesn't matter how much income I have. They are not going to count the 1620 for anybody. You have to be getting the social security disability benefit to qualify. Some states are beyond that.
I know Ohio and I know New York both of those states just say you need to be disabled. Get a nice from your doctor. You can buy in. Other states in New Mexico, I'm sure you can't do that. We can't bear the extra expense. Covers workers with much higher incomes. New York's last year level was a hundred thousand a year. What if I'm not average? I have expensive disabilities. I have a lot of durable Medical equipment. I can just say I'm not average. They will ask what did you spend on Medicaid for Ray? That could make the $100,000 to go to $125,000 or $150,000. New York is trying to increase their Medicaid buy‑in level if $600,000. These programs are also perfect for our folks, if they are coming to the end of what you think the Medicaid will be. No, no, no. There's a buy‑in here. You'll probably have to pay a premium based on the income. They are incredibly reasonable. We are not going to have any further expansions. We're going to recognize the old expansions. These might be special programs. You know, they cover more than Medicaid would have as far as income go. This is going to work really well for people who are running small businesses. It really is. Because there's a room that you can go to. All of these plans are different Medicaid plans. Often you'll switch automatically. But how lucky do you feel? I want to call the state and tell them I'm switching in and going into the Medicaid expansion. I'm going into the buy‑in. I need an individualized threshold. We want to direct our health care. From 2013 to 2022, Medicaid coverage increased by 2.5 million people. Employees of small businesses and $1.3 million for self‑employed workers. Look at that. There are plans specifically that will help your business. That's a good thing.
Home and security‑based services. When I ask the veteran what the service rating is, 70%. If I ask somebody who is on benefits, do you have any waiver programs? They are going to know exactly what waive they have. Because they are providing a lot of the services that are necessary to support work. These are services that allow people to live independently. There's a couple. There's one I'm going to talk about. We don't have time to talk about it a lot. I'm an old guy. Back in Massachusetts when I was a legal services attorney, AIDS was ramped. And people were dying. If you tested positive, you were going to die. Everybody is in the hospital. Very expensive dare. Massachusetts called the center. He said we want to experiment. We want to do away with the medical income. We believe that providing them with the medication they need will keep them in the community and keep them in work. We know it was the right thing to do. It is going to be cheaper than putting all of the people in the hospital. They provided the backup for that. Massachusetts can break the general Medicaid rules for the population. There were all kinds of ways. You can be sure, you know, it is going to be a rare client.
The Affordable Care Act and the marketplace, they had very limited and affordable plans to participate in. You were walking into the Medicaid off. 2011, 30% of self‑employed workers had no health insurance. In 2025, 75% of the workers get their coverage through the marketplace. The marketplace is alive and well. Look at it if you need insurance. By 2022, only 17.9% of self‑employed workers were uninsured. Now with the new government, 2025, the premiums increased on an average of 75%. I just heard this morning on the news that the increases for next career are looking at 37% up to 52%. So, I think, even though the marketplace is there, we are moving backwards.
CAROLINE BOLAS: Hey, Ray. I think we have to stop there. We have a hard stop at 4:00 p.m.
We have our ASL interpreters.
RAY CEBULA:  Look at that. Can I read three slides?
CAROLINE BOLAS: We are going to give them out to people. They are going to be sent all of the slides. We also have had nearly 100 employees. I know Ray has answered many of them as he's gone along. We are going to collect them, send them to Ray, and Ray is going to hopefully answer them and make sure that we have them available for you all on our web site. We already have the slides. If you want to go back and look and see just a couple of information slides about Ray's amazing organization that we haven't got to, you can go download them now. The recording will be available very shortly. We will be sending out an e‑mail with links and how you can access all of the information and once we get the answers back on the slides, we will absolutely do that as well. One final question, Ray, where can people go for help? Talk about one sentence. That's the biggest question.
RAY CEBULA:  I think where you can start is with a benefits planners. There are people funded by social security, called WIPA. There are a bunch of people who are credentialed by Cornell to do the same work. They can help you plan. Here's your benefit situation. What is going to be the impact of having earned income or NESE? You know, I think that type of plan is critically important. Then you should be talking to SCORE and I can't remember the name of the other, SBA, Small Business Association, when you are getting serious to put the plan together.
CAROLINE BOLAS: Perfect. We put the links into the chat. We'll send them out. I want to thank you, Ray. You've had amazing feedback. It is fantastic. People want to know more. I'm sorry we couldn't get to the all of the questions. You can see it is a complex topic. We will answer your questions. Keep a look out for that. We'll definitely reach out with the answers that you need. Thank you for being here. Thank you, Ray, for what's been an amazing presentation. And we look forward to continuing the conversations. Thank you.
RAY CEBULA:  Thank you.