Are you familiar with Vocational Rehabilitation (VR, aka Voc. Rehab. or Vocational Rehab.) at all? I've worked for VR for the state of Missouri for over 8 years right now. VR is a state agency designed to help individuals with disabilities find and maintain employment. VR covers any and all disabilities, including learning disabilities; depression, bipolar, anxiety, etc.; and even substance abuse, though you can't exactly be actively using. Ha! You also need to be getting current treatment, if your disability is of the nature that you have ongoing treatment. (i.e. a head injury or something like Cerebral Palsy may not have ongoing treatments.) You basically just need to have a disability that makes it difficult for you to get or keep a job. And that's quite liberal. For example, if you have arthritis and you've done labor work, even though you could do a sit down job (therefore it wouldn't really keep you from working) VR can probably help, because you'd need to do something different than you've done in the past, if that makes sense.
Each state has their own VR. It's a federal program, but run by the states. So there are broad rules that states sometimes interpret differently. In other words, what you get in one state may not exactly what you get in another. Also, some states have a waiting list for services, others do not. I can't tell you for sure which do and which don't, but I can probably find out if your state is likely to have a waiting list.
VR can even assist in paying for college, but there are a number of guidelines for that, and, even tough I work for VR for my state, I cannot give you an answer on whether you'd qualify for that. Services are very individualized.
Services include assistance in finding employment, job coaching if you need extra time to learn a new job, and sometimes we can assist with on the job training.
That's the ...medium length version. (I was going to say "short" version until I reazlied this has gotten quite long...) Feel free to ask me any questions.
And here are a couple of lists of VR agencies for each state. Or ask me and I'll find yours for you, because I make no guarantees that either of these lists are actually up to date.
askjan.org/cgi-win/TypeQuery.exe?902
www.fda.gov/downloads/AboutFDA/workingatFDA/UCM277757.pdf
I always say that I consider VR to be somewhat of a hidden gem, in that the people we could help the most are often the people who have no clue we even exist!
Seriously. Ask me anything, either here or in a private message. Whether I think you'd qualify, if we might be able to help out with something specific, etc. I won't be able to give you a sure answer, but I can give you some general guidance.
And here's the simple answer to the SSI/SSDI question, but please check with someone at an SSA office to confirm.
Basically, if you go back to work with SSI, there is a very small amount (somehwere in the $60 or $80 range, I believe) that they ignore completely. After that, they will take $1 for every $2 you're making.
So as a simple, made up formula, let's say you get $600 per month in SSI. (Or SSDI, after the 9 month work trial period. More on that later.) You make $565 per month on your job. Let's say $65 is that magic amount I mentioned earlier that they ignore. So you keep that $65, leaving you with $500. $500/2 is $250, the amount they'd take off your $600 in SSI. So $600 minus $250 is $350.
Your total monthly earnings would be as follows.
$565 (employment earnings per month)
$350 (remaining SSI, after the "ignored" amount and $1 for $2 is taken into account)
---------
$915 (total monthly income)
So you'll always come out ahead if you are able to work and collect disability at the same time.
Now if you're getting SSDI, there is a nine month work trial period, where you can make as much as you'd like and it will not impact your SSDI at all. This is not nine consecutive months. If you work for 4 months, lose the job, are off for a few months and work for 5 months, that's still 9 months.
Also, with the "ticket to work" program, if you lose your job because of your disability, you should NOT have to reapply for SSI/SSDI. All you should have to do is contact SSA and let them know you're no longer working, and you should get your full amount back, minus any "over payments" you may have against your account.
I hope that makes sense. As I said above, feel free to contact me via PM if you have any questions, or you can ask here. That goes for anyone, not just the OP.
I've been contemplating making a thread about VR, but I'm not sure how that would be perceived, so for now I just reply to individuals posts as I can, and copy and paste to save my fingers a bit of typing. Ha!