Social Security offered me their TICKET TO WORK program which they were experimenting with in 2 different counties in Wisconsin. In the TICKET TO WORK program, they relaxed the rules that are in place if you are working and still receiving benefits. It all sounded well and good but to me only worked if you were trying to get a fulltime job and get off Social Security.
I thought it would be nice to have some extra money coming in so decided to enter the program but was not looking for a fulltime job since I didn’t think I would be physically able to handle it. I would be doing the job from my apartment which gave me a fair amount of extra money each month.
It did cause problems though since I live in low-income housing and have other benefits from Social Services, Food Stamps and Social Security Disability income which the extra income effects.
I also had to report my wages to another program called BOND (Benefit Offset National Demonstration) where I would have to email copies of my direct deposited wages and she would fill out the necessary paperwork for Social Security to make sure I wasn’t making TOO MUCH MONEY!
They set me up with a company called Employment Options, which they had approved who would investigate the different work from home jobs available to help me find a legitimate employer who I could work for from my apartment. I had applied to several but none of them panned out until I found one which was doing the customer service work for a Fortune 500 company, paid regular wages and deducted for FICA taxes.
In the beginning, it seemed like it would work out great. I was working with the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation which purchased me a reconditioned Dell Inspiron computer for the job I was going to do.
My old computer had died so I set the new one up in the bedroom of my small 1-bedroom apartment where I could shut the door to block out noise from the Hallway. I had a small dog and the guy across the hall would watch him during the day for me.
I wasn’t sure if he would bark while on the phone but later found out he was very well behaved and would lay on my bed sleeping while I was on the phone. In the beginning, they had me download their program to a flash drive then set my computer to look at the flash drive first when I started it up.
It was in the fall of 2013 just before the Holiday Season when they needed extra agents to take the Customer Support calls when they called in to order from the company’s website or had other questions. It worked out okay in the beginning and I was given a set number of hours to work although they had a limit on the number of hours you could work each week, to avoid paying overtime.
Later they had worked on their system so you no longer had to log into the job from the flash drive but had a website you would log into. They felt it would only take about 5 minutes to log in, which they would gladly pay for, and be ready to take calls but for me, it ended up more like 20-30 minutes which they did not want to pay for.
At first, it did not bother me that they were essentially cheating me out of money since I was doing what was needed to access their system to do their Customer Support job. I was willing to overlook it since I wasn’t doing anything anyway.
Then there was the fact I could not depend on the number of hours and on top of that since I was answering Customer Service calls when the phone volume went down they were looking for volunteers to log off to save them money. If they did not get enough volunteers to log off, they shut your phone extension off so you had to log off.
If you were no longer taking calls, you had to notify them you were no longer on the phones so they did not have to pay you. Of course, as was usually the case, when they had people log off, the phone volume would shoot up and they would text you asking for "Jumpers" to log in, which I was more than willing to do, and help them with the call volume and when it went down again you were asked to log off again.
During that time you had voluntarily logged off, they did not want to pay you and even though I didn’t think much of it at the time, they were actually cheating me out of pay when I was actually working for them but not taking calls. Later I was notified that a number of previous agents had filed a class action lawsuit claiming they were cheated out of overtime pay, so I did end up getting over $500 in a settlement.
If something happened and you had to talk to their tech department, you had to keep track of that and having to be on my cell phone while they worked on my computer to figure out what the problem was, I had to sit there and watch the screen not being able to do anything else, while I watched the minutes tick away on my cell phone. I guess they did pay for that but I am not one who wants to just sit and do nothing.
I had the job which was supposed to be just for the Christmas Holiday in 2013 but was able to stay on fulltime for all of 2014. The job I was doing was easy because you went through different steps when talking to a customer to determine what extension to send them to.
I didn’t have to know a whole lot just how to move around in their system and it was quite pleasant other than the fact I wasn’t getting the number of hours I had been promised. Also, since you were not able to do anything for the customer except transfer them, they got very upset.
The other thing which bothered customers was talking to someone from the Philippines, India, Pakistan or Mexico who talk a form of English but it is extremely difficult for the average person to understand. One guy asked if I could transfer him to an extension in a call center in the United States but I could not.
I have a difficult time with that too so whenever possible I do a chat instead of phone call and even though you can tell they don't know English very well, at least you can decipher it easier. I had a smartphone which converted voicemail to text which I really appreciated since so many people are difficult to understand when listening to the voicemail.
They also wanted you to access different areas of their system which to me was beyond me since they had a more complicated way of doing things since they used jargon and verbiage I did not understand.
I muddled through despite customers being angry for having to be transferred to another extension since I could not help them. I had no access to any of their accounts so in January 2015 they began a new position similar to my current one where you would be able to take care of many of the customer’s concerns yourself without having to transfer them to someone else.
They looked for volunteers to train for the new position but I was not in the mood to flood my brain with more things to remember. I was with the understanding they would still keep my position but then on May 1, 2015, I was notified they no longer needed me.
I was good at Customer Service and talking to people but could only listen to the customer’s problem then find a phone extension to send them to. I could not actually do anything for them or access their accounts.
In January 2015 they had developed a new position wherein I would be able to do many of the things for the customer instead of transferring them to an extension. They were looking for volunteers to train for that position but not wanting to go through more training and having to remember more information, I declined with the understanding that my position would still be there even if the new position was helping many of the people.
Thus, I was let go May 1, 2015, with no warning as to what was going to happen although I had my suspicions. It's nice to have the extra income but then it affects so many other areas and when you no longer have the job, it creates problems.
Later, in the fall of 2015, they wanted more agents to train for the new position I had turned down before they let me go. I was hired and I found out it was indeed much more complicated and you needed to know more to do it.
To make matters worse, they trained me on one version of the program even though a new version would be coming out soon. I barely knew what I was doing with the old version but then when I finally got on the phones they had switched me to the new version and I was lost.
They did not want you to put the customer on hold but had to figure out how to help them while talking small talk to them. It's not easy when you are trying hard to figure out what to do and to keep talking to the customer so there was no dead air.
When I contacted my Team Leader about it she made it sound like I was dumb not to know that but I did not have experience with the old version let alone the new version. She finally did a remote access to my computer and said "Oh...You have the new version and I still have the old version."
She still figured I should be able to do it regardless so with that and the problems accessing other programs which were down quite often I finally quit.
Since I only have Social Security income to depend on, I am thankfully eligible for help with the Medicare premium each month and since I am also eligible for Medicaid I have the Medicaid buy-in plan which costs a certain amount each month and that too is paid by the special program.
I currently have a Medicare Advantage plan through United Health called "Dual complete" which is Medicare and Medicaid together so the 20% you would be responsible for after Medicare paid would be picked up by Medicaid. You would only be responsible for the copays that are involved.
Since I am also in Medicare Part D, I am linked to a Pharmacy by mail called OptumRx where I am able to order 3 months worth of my prescriptions for 1 copay instead of the normal 3 copays if I only got 1 month at a time. It has been a huge relief to me to know I am able to go online and order my medications and they are mailed and received by me within 4-5 days. They also have forms you can mail in and they will send the medications to you but I have them online which makes it much easier for me.
Since I was only working part-time and did not have many hours to rely on, if I made a little too much for the program paying my Medicare premium, then I had to pay that myself each month so would come out of my monthly Social Security check. Social Security had notified me that as of March I, 2015, I would have to begin paying the Medicare premium which was about $115 a month.
I had been let go on May 1, 2015, but things move quite slow with Social Security so they didn't begin taking it out until I got my June 3rd Social Security check, at which time they took out all 3 months at once which left me with about $650 for the month to pay my bills!
Since I was let go May 1st they could only take out the premium for March and April since it took them so long to begin taking it out they owed me the amount they had taken out for May.
Then because I was making about $500-$700 a month with the part-time job and I was in low-income housing, my rent went up to $462 a month instead of the $250 I had been paying. It also affected Food Stamps which I qualified for back and lost the $25 I was getting each month.
Since then the Food Stamps were lowered from $25, then $22 and now to $15 a month which I now get which does not go far when hamburger is over $3 a pound.
All in all, even though I am “surviving” on my limited income, I am not gaining ground. Once my car is paid for then I will have substantially more money to work with each month. I am also very fortunate at least so far to have enough medical coverage so I am only required to pay copays.
I do not know how I would make it without some version of Medicaid to pick up the 20% which I would still owe once Medicare pays a bill or how I would pay the premiums of Medicare & Medicaid without the program which picks up those costs.