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Financial and Benefits Counseling for People with Disabilities |
The Institute is operating and evaluating a three-year pilot program to provide technical assistance for (primarily) employees of Community Rehabilitation Programs (CRPs) with disabilities. Through this project, the Institute has partnered with the Cerebral Palsy Research Foundation (CPRF), in Wichita, Kansas, and the AmeriCorps Program. CPRF is the project coordinator and AmeriCorps members are providing the technical assistance services for the workforce and other eligible participants in each CRP community.
This program seeks to provide support in the following areas:
- Tax preparation
- Benefits planning assistance
- Financial literacy education
This technical assistance is an important step in maximizing the economic/financial portfolios of individuals with disabilities for the following reasons:
- The overall financial "well-being" of an individual is critical to quality of life and can impact decisions people can make and choose to make regarding work.
- It is not uncommon for employees with disabilities to be unaware of tax refunds/credits they are eligible to receive which translates into lost opportunities for additional income.
- Employees that are SSI/SSDI beneficiaries may be misinformed or uninformed regarding the impact that job choices/changes may (or may not have) on their benefits.
- Employees are targets for payday advance loans, income tax refund advance loans, high interest credit cards, and car loans, etc. Decisions made can negatively impact credit scores and lead to fewer and less optimal employment options.
AmeriCorps members and CRP staff are also collecting participation and outcome data so that the Institute can evaluate the overall success of the project.
The current host CRPs are:
- Work, Inc. – Boston, MA
- Lakeview Center – Pensacola, FL
- Peckham Vocational Industries – Lansing, MI
- Bayaud Enterprises – Denver, CO
- Center Industries/BITCO – Wichita, KS
- PROVAIL, Inc. – Seattle, WA
Current Outcomes
Outcomes from the first two project years were very positive and included well over 1,300 employees and other customers annually having received assistance with filing their income tax returns and claiming an average of $1,000 in tax refunds and credits (EITC, child tax credits, etc.,). Additionally, hundreds of employees participated in financial literacy education sessions and received one-on-one financial counselling.
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