Statement of West Virginia Division of Rehabilitation Services, Charleston, West Virginia

Reference Hearing on SSA Management of the Ticket to Work program held on March 18, 2004

The West Virginia Division of Rehabilitation Services (WV DRS) provides the following comments as it relates to the above referenced hearing:

1. WV DRS has invested significant resources to train all VR Counselors and administrative staff in the Ticket to Work program, developed a brochure to educate beneficiaries about the program and updated the Electronic Case Management system to collect additional data needed for the program.
2. WV DRS has provided training to our Consumer Advisory Committee, State Rehabilitation Council and Statewide Independent Living Council on the ticket program, as well as, facilitated training provided to the Community Rehabilitation Programs in our state.
3. WV DRS has worked with Social Security Administration and asked for their input into developing our processes and procedures for implementing the Ticket to Work program.
4. WV DRS refers all Social Security recipients to the Benefits Planning Assistance and Outreach program specialist to discuss how working will effect their benefits and any incentives they can take advantage of when  entering or re-entering the workforce.
5. Our interpretation of the SSA Transmittal 17 – If an individual applies for VR services, is determined eligible, meets our order of selection of having a most significant disability and works with the Rehabilitation Counselor to develop their Individual Plan of Employment and would not agree to assign their ticket to the agency; then DRS would send MAXIMUS the front and back page that includes signatures of the IPE and the unsigned SSA 1365.  This effectively establishes that DRS is working with the individual and gives MAXIMUS the data it needs to determine ticket assignment and/or sharing of reimbursements.

Since West Virginia is a third round state, we do not yet have any agreements with Employment Networks in our state but we are not experiencing negative relationships with other Employment Networks.