Consult a disability benefits counselor first – before accepting a job – to protect your individual benefits.

Disability Benefits Counseling First!

Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), Medicaid or other assistance program recipients with disabilities should consult a disability benefits counselor first – before accepting a job – to protect their individual benefits.

The Work Incentives Planning and Assistance (WIPA) program helps people with disabilities interested in working understand the impact their wages will have on their Social Security and other government benefits. Benefits counselors help job seekers understand the potential benefits of employment for a person receiving disability benefits from Social Security.

The program provides accurate information to beneficiaries with disabilities and transition-to-work aged youth while dispelling the myths about working. Counseling services are free to all North Carolina residents ages 14-64.

Disability benefits counselors will:

• Analyze how work and earnings may impact SSI, SSDI, healthcare and other public benefits.
• Explain the services offered by North Carolina Vocational Rehabilitation (NCVR) or other agencies and how they might help the individual.
• Provide proactive follow-up services to ensure that work incentives are properly applied and resolve benefit-related problems
• Offer long-term work incentives management on a scheduled, continuous basis to support employment efforts

WIPA benefits counselors work in cooperation with Federal, State, private agencies and nonprofit organizations that serve SSI and SSDI beneficiaries with disabilities.

To contact a benefits counselor in your area, click here find your county in the Disability Benefits Counselors list below and to learn more about WIPA, visit https://www.ssa.gov/work/WIPA.html

Healthcare Coverage for Workers with Disabilities

North Carolina’s Medicaid Buy-In allows workers with disabilities to transition to work and earn wages that exceed Medicaid income or asset limits without facing loss of Medicaid coverage. To qualify for Healthcare Coverage for Workers with Disabilities, a worker must be between the ages of 16 and 64, be working and not exceed 150% of the federal poverty level in earned and unearned income – as of September 2017, that was approximately $23,448.

Applications for the “buy-in” are the same as general Medicaid applications. Source: Medicaid Buy-In © 2016, Disability Rights North Carolina

Disability Benefits Counselors by Service Area:

Counties: Alamance, Davidson, Davie, Forsyth, Randolph, Rockingham Stokes, Surry or Yadkin,
contact: Brenda Lowe, Burlington Office (336-227-2730), [email protected]

Counties: Alleghany, Ashe, Caswell, Cumberland, Iredell or Wilkes,
contact: Jacqueline Lucas, Rocky Mount Office (252-977-2112), [email protected]

Counties: Bladen, Chatham, Durham, Franklin, Granville, Harnett, Lee, Orange, Person, Rowan, Sampson, Scotland, Vance or Wake,
contact: Ava Bennett, Raleigh State Office (919-855-3554), [email protected]

Counties: Anson, Cabarrus, Hoke, Mecklenburg, Montgomery, Moore, Richmond, Stanly or Union,
contact: Lisa Oakley, Charlotte Unit Office (704-568-8804), [email protected]

Counties: Alexander, Avery, Burke, Caldwell, Catawba, Gaston, Guilford, Lincoln, Mitchell, Watauga or Yancey,
contact: Denise Horton, Greensboro Unit Office (336-487-0543), [email protected]

Counties: Buncombe, Cherokee, Clay, Cleveland, Graham, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, Macon, Madison, McDowell, Polk, Rutherford, Swain or Transylvania,
contact: Courtney Bullman, Asheville Unit Office (828-670-3377), [email protected]

Counties: Beaufort, Brunswick, Camden, Carteret, Bertie, Chowan, Craven, Currituck, Dare, Duplin, Greene, Jones, Lenoir, New Hanover, Edgecombe, Gates, Halifax, Hertford, Hyde, Johnston, Columbus,Onslow, Pamlico, Pasquotank, Martin, Nash, Northampton, Robeson, Pender, Perquimans, Pitt, Tyrell, Warren, Washington, Wayne or Wilson,
contact: Fayetteville Office (910-401-5495), [email protected]

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