Employment Services
Benefit Planning Assistance & Outreach Project Now Becomes Work Incentives Planning Assistance Project
The Benefits Planning Assistance and Outreach Project (BPAO) has served Michigan over the last six years. We have worked with individuals receiving Social Security Disability and/or SSI Benefits who were interested in employment. The BPAO Project has had great success and shown that many people, who hesitated to work for fear of losing their benefits, are now employed. This is due in part to a greater understanding of the work incentives offered by the state and federal government. The BPAO Project ended September 30, 2006 and was replaced by the WIPA Project.
On October 1, 2006, the Work Incentive Planning and Assistance Project (WIPA) was introduced, and United Cerebral Palsy of Detroit was awarded a three-year grant to serve Lapeer, Macomb and Oakland counties in Michigan. The Social Security Administration, which underwrites this grant, has changed the name and objectives of the project, but the staff who serve your area will remain the same. WIPA staff will be known as Community Work Incentive Coordinators (CWICs).
While working on the BPAO grant we met with individuals interested in understanding the effects of working while receiving SSI/SSDI benefits. Now under the WIPA grant, Social Security wants our efforts to be focused on helping individuals who about to enter the workforce or who are currently employed, including students 14 years of age and older. The goal of the grant is to help SSA beneficiaries to understand where they are in the system, and how to utilize the work incentives available to them while being employed.
Thank you in advance for your understanding during this time of change; we are looking forward to the next three years. Please call me, if you would like us to provide a presentation to your staff.
Sincerely,
Paul T. Landry
WIPA Project Director
UCP of Metropolitan Detroit
23077 Greenfield Rd., Suite 205
Southfield, MI 48075
(248) 557-5070, Ext. 233
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