Plan for Achieving Self Support (PASS): Example

Catherine is 35 years old and gets SSDI and SSI. She recently saw a documentary on television about someone with her disability who became an elementary school teacher. She had been thinking about pursuing this career herself, but worried about how she would pay for graduate school. If she used her benefits to pay for school and other expenses that would help her become a teacher, she wouldn’t be able to pay for rent, food, and clothing. She was so inspired by the story that she decided to go to her local Social Security office

to ask if there was anything she could do.

A Social Security officer told her about a program called Plan for Achieving Self Support (PASS). “It’s designed for people in your situation. You can set income aside to pay for expenses related to pursuing your goal of becoming a teacher. Social Security will not count that income when they calculate your benefit. Another way to think about it is that your SSI will increase to pay for your cost of living expenses while you invest your income towards your work goal.”

The Social Security officer explained that most people who want to sign up for a PASS get help preparing it from an outside organization. He gave her a list of agencies in the area that had experience helping people set up a PASS. Catherine began calling through the list right away and made an appointment at the local Vocational Rehabilitation office with a woman named Alisa. Before the appointment, Alisa asked that Catherine look over the PASS application and bring any documents that she thought she would need. Catherine downloaded the application

from Social Security’s website and carefully read through it before the meeting.

“That’s quite an application,” Catherine said as she walked into Alisa’s office.

“Yes, it’s a bit long, but we should be able to get through most of it today. I’m glad that you had a chance to look it over. Before we dive in, let me just ask you a few questions to make sure that you’re eligible for the program. The first requirement is that you have to want to work, but we talked a little about that over the phone. Are you on SSI right now?” Alisa asked.

“Yes, I get $390 a month in SSI,” Catherine responded, looking at the SSI check slip she had brought with her.

“Well, I don’t have a job right now, but besides the $390 in SSI, I also get $500 a month in SSDI. Does that count?”

“Yes, the SSDI counts. That’s the money that you’ll use to set aside for your work goal. Your SSI check will go up so that you can continue to pay your living expenses. Okay, it sounds like you’ll meet the eligibility criteria, so let’s start working our way through the application. Remind me again what your work goal is, and please be specific. This is the job that you want after your training and job search.”

“Yes, that will do just fine. Now we have to go through some details about your work goal, your medical history, and your prior work and educational experience.” They worked quickly through a few pages of the application until they got to Part III – Your Plan. Alisa told Catherine to tell her all of the steps that she would need to take to achieve her goal of becoming a second grade teacher.

Catherine said, “Well, I was planning on taking my graduate school classes starting this fall.”

“Okay, that’s great,” Alisa said with a smile, “but we’re going to have to get more specific than that. We’ll need to know about which classes you’re taking, and also how you’re going to go from getting a degree to the classroom. Did you happen to bring a description of your degree program with you?”

Catherine had noticed this instruction on the form and had brought all of the information she had about her program. She and Alisa marked down all of the details, and also wrote down internships, licensing exams, and attendance at an educational job fair as steps towards becoming a teacher.

They worked through the rest of the application. Catherine had put a lot of thought into all of the things she would need to set aside money for in order to pay for all of the steps she had just outlined. She was surprised to hear that a PASS could apply to most of them. She decided to set aside money for tuition, books, transportation, exam fees, a resume writing course offered at a local college, and the registration for the job fair. The application asked for specific amounts that each of these things would cost. Alisa told Catherine that these amounts had to be “market value”. When Catherine asked what that meant, Alisa explained that the items had to be reasonably priced. Catherine had scoured the internet for the least expensive options, and she was confident that they would meet the requirement. Alisa also told Catherine that she could include this PASS preparation as one of her expenses.

Alisa then helped Catherine fill out the “funding for work goal” part of the application. Catherine had to detail her current income and how she planned to save it for her expenses related to her work goal. After finishing up a few more items, the application was finished. Alisa pulled out another form. If she wanted her to, Catherine could sign the form and have Alisa deal directly with Social Security if there was a problem with the application. Catherine was so impressed with how easy the whole process had been that she was happy to have Alisa represent her. Alisa said that, as part of her services, she would mail in the application to the Social Security office. Alisa explained that she would probably hear back within three months or so. Before leaving, Alisa asked Catherine if she had any questions.

“Well,” Catherine said somewhat sheepishly, “I do have one sort of silly question. I don’t really understand how all of this is going to help me.”

“Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry. Why didn’t you say so earlier? So, let’s look at how SSI figures out your benefit right now. You’re a single individual living independently, which means that you are eligible for a maximum benefit

of $870. This is the amount of money that Social Security thinks someone in your situation needs for living expenses. Since you have income, they think you can spend some of that on your living expenses. They use a countable income calculation to figure out your benefit amount. For instance, you have unearned income in the form of an SSDI check for $500. Social Security assumes that you can spend all but $20 of that on living expenses. In your case, that’s $480. In order for you to meet your basic living expenses, SSI will pay you the additional $390 to make sure that you have $870 a month. Without a PASS, if you were to take that $500 SSDI check, and save it to pay for school, you’d only be able to have the $390 SSI check to pay for basic living. With a PASS, Social Security is saying that if you’re investing your income in your work goal, SSI will replace that money. So you’ll now put that $500 SSDI check in a savings account, and your SSI will go up to $870 a month to replace that income.”

Catherine said, “Well, that makes a little more sense now. Let’s send in the forms!”

Two months later, Catherine got a letter in the mail saying that her PASS had been approved. It said that she would meet with a PASS officer over the phone in six months. The PASS went according to plan for the first year, and Catherine completed her first year of graduate school. Over the summer, she was offered a paid internship that would give her valuable classroom experience. She remembered that the letter she got from Social Security had explained that it was important to contact them if anything changed. She called the PASS expert and told her about the internship. The PASS expert thanked her for calling and said that she was sure they could amend her PASS to fit this in. She explained that, normally, any earned income would decrease a benefit, but that if they amended the PASS to include this income, and if she used it to pay for the rest of her PASS related expenses, that it wouldn’t be counted.