WWW.NYMAKESWORKPAY.ORG March 2010 2010 KEY IMPLEMENTATION ACTIVITIES -Expand the number of credentialed benefits and work incentives practitioners in NYS -Increase participation in asset building strategies for working age New Yorkers with Disabilities -Expand the use of the Earned Income Tax Credit -Increase the number of New Yorkers with disabilities that use IDAs, micro-loans and other sources of capital to promote entrepreneurship and economic self-sufficiency -Create a state level interagency work group on asset development to reduce and eliminate barriers to advancing self-sufficiency PARTNERS MISCC EC – Most Integrated Settings Coordinating Council Employment Committee VESID – Office of Vocational and Educational Services for Individuals with Disabilities OMRDD – Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities OMH – Office of Mental Health OASAS – Office on Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services VA – Division of Veterans Affairs CBVH – Commission for the Blind and Visually Handicapped DOL – Department of Labor DOH – Department of Health OSC – Office of the State Comptroller OTDA – Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance United Way of New York State ABSTRACT: Access to Work Incentives, Asset Accumulation and MBI-WPD ISSUE Thirty-five percent of the 12,456,000 New Yorkers with disabilities live at or below the poverty line. Few New Yorkers with disabilities participate in asset building strategies including earned income tax credits, IDA’s, micro-loans for entrepreneurship and other sources of capital that can improve their economic self-sufficiency. GOAL #6 Create linkages for New Yorkers with disabilities to employment at livable wages through increased access to work incentives planning, health care, and asset accumulation tools and strategies. RATIONALE Through New York’s Work Incentives Information Network (WIIN) and an array of Work Incentive trainings and Regional Asset Development Summits, NYMWP will work within targeted communities across the State to build the local capacity to assist individuals with disabilities in accessing local services to better understand their benefits, their opportunities to save and their potential to build assets. To elevate asset accumulation for people with disabilities to an interagency policy and practice priority at the State level, NYMWP intends to facilitate the integration of the needs of individuals with disabilities with currently convening work groups on the financial needs of all low income New Yorkers. The goal of these events, as well as development and publication of toolkits and issues briefs, is to increase the number of New Yorkers with disabilities using an array of financial resources to improve their economic self-sufficiency and to eliminate the barriers that prevent them from attaining financial freedom. STATUS NYMWP has trained over 2,000 individuals on Social Security Work Incentives and New York’s Medicaid Buy-In Program, Medicaid for Working People. Over 100 new work incentives planners have been certified. 290 New Yorkers participated in six local Asset Summits. Materials to educate the disability community have been created and a disability page has been added to the Office of the State Comptroller’s website, www.yourmoneynewyork.org. In 2010, NYMWP will continue to engage financial institutions, community development organizations, VITA sites, and other anti-poverty and community groups in new broad-based stakeholder coalitions to ensure that people with disabilities are included among their targeted constituencies. For more information call the toll free Technical Assistance number: 1-888-224-3272 VOICE, 1-877-671-6844 TDD or visit http://www.NYMakesWorkPay.org.