Work Incentives Benefits Specialist Initial Training Fall 2024 – Virtual and Online

Work Incentive Benefits Specialists (WIBS) provide information to people who have disabilities and receive public or private benefits. WIBS provide information needed for making informed decisions about work. This helps a person understand how earnings may affect disability payments, healthcare, and other publicly funded benefits. For people with a disability, work incentives benefits information is an essential part of getting and keeping a job.

WIBS can provide written reports, follow-up information, and answers to questions as needed.

This comprehensive introductory training will cover a variety of benefit related topics including an overview of the Social Security Administration, Title II Benefits, SSI, Work Incentives, Medicare, Medicaid, Subsidized Housing, FoodShare, and many other essentials to benefit planning and analysis. It provides both federal and state-specific information.

What You Will Learn

Through the initial training and ongoing technical assistance, you will learn how to sift through the world of public benefits to find, calculate and analyze complex information. You will also learn:

• How to collect and analyze benefit information for the people you serve.
• How to tie together multiple sources of information to address each individual’s situation.
• How to write written benefits reports.
• Ways to organize information, your time, and your caseload.

This training is for you if you...

• Are inquisitive and persistent. A Benefits Specialist spends a lot of time asking questions and connecting with other public agencies for information. Benefits Specialists have to have a willingness to look up information and ask questions.
• Enjoy paying attention to the details and then analyzing them. Benefits Specialists must know and understand policies and rules of many benefit systems. They must understand the details to accurately predict how all of someone’s benefits will be affected by work.
• Are willing to become a technical writer. Benefits and the rules that come with them can be complicated, so the Benefits Specialist’s job is to provide the information in an easy-to-understand way.
• Have a genuine interest in providing unbiased information about benefits to individuals to support their choices about employment goals and careers.
• Can commit to regular continuing education for your life as a Benefits Specialist. The two guarantees in this field are that you will never be able to learn everything, and rules and policies are ever-changing. Staying connected to other Benefits Specialists and accessing regular training keeps Benefits Specialists up-to-date.
• Are not afraid of math. Benefits Specialists spend a lot of time working with calculations to predict eligibility and cost responsibilities.
• Work in a supportive environment and have room in your schedule to continually learn and research the complexities of benefits.