The PASS is part of the original SSI statute. It is a work incentive program.
designed to help people receiving SSI or Social Security disability to return to work.
The PASS is a plan you write up, usually using Social Security's form, and usually
with help from a counselor or advocate, which says what your work goal is, what you
need to do and buy to achieve it, how long that will take, and what it will cost.
The work goal can be anything, part or full time, at or away from home, working for
wages or starting your own business; that you can convince Social Security is
something that you could realistically expect to accomplish, and will generate
adequate income for you.
The things you need to buy must be related to the goal - training or tuition, a car or
van for transportation, a computer or tools and supplies of your trade or business,
day care for a child while you work or attend school, adaptive technology, etc.
The length of time the PASS will take will depend on your plan, what you need, and
the amount of money you have available to put in a PASS. Thanks to an Act of
Congress in 1995, there is no arbi/trary time limit for a PASS.
The PASS lets you put income which would otherwise reduce, eliminate, or make
you ineligible for an SSI check, such as part or all of an SSDI or RDSI check, or
wages; into a separate bank account to be spent for the things you need to go to
work that are written into the plan. So you can see that the amount of money that
goes into the PASS depends on how much of this kind of income you have available
to put in it.
After you put this money, into the PASS, you are given SSI, or more SSI than you
had, to live on.
After you write the PASS, you submit it, with supporting documentation, to the PASS
reviewers in your region. A PASS must be approved by Social Security before it is
in effect.
In addition to enabling an individual to become SSI eligible by sheltering income in a
PASS, the individual also becomes Medicaid eligible, because Medicaid goes with
SSI..Two other statutes, important to return to work issues, the 1619 (a) and 1619(b)
Statutes, were legislated in 1987. Translated from jargon to English,
1619(a) says: You get an SSI check, so you also het Medicaid.
1619(b) says: You are earning too much money to get an SSI check, but you will
continue to get Medicaid, and remain SSI eligible.