Iowa's UCEDD Works to Raise Awareness of Work Incentives for People with Disabilities

March 18, 2009

The University of Iowa's Center for Disabilities and Development (Iowa's UCEDD) has been working with the Iowa Department of Human Services to raise awareness among Iowans with disabilities that they can work and keep their Social Security and Medicaid benefits. Recently the CDD partnered with staff implementing the Iowa Medicaid Infrastructure (MIG) Grant to develop and publish a "Work Incentive of the Month" wall calendar and a Benefits Planner. Over 8000 calendars and planners have been distributed to people with disabilities and service providers throughout the state of Iowa.

The calendar and planner were designed for Social Security recipients to provide information on Social Security Work Incentives such as the Medicaid Buy-in, Impairment Related Work Expense, Ticket-to-Work, and other local and national resources and services that support working Iowans with disabilities. On both the calendar and planner there is space to keep a record of earnings and deductible expenses related to work and disability - and to document the reporting of that information to Social Security. In addition, the Planner has pouches for people to store pay stubs, receipts, and other important information. The Iowa planner is based on one produced by the Massachusetts Developmental Disabilities Council.

VSA arts of Iowa and their group of talented Iowa artists with disabilities created the artwork for the calendar. In addition to the artwork, the calendar features information on each artist. VSA arts of Iowa is a program that provides statewide services to cultural organizations that include ASL interpretation, audio description, large print format, and other adaptations. We do have a limited number of the wall calendars. If you are interested in obtaining one, you can email: Brandee Toland. You can view the wall calendar in PDF format here.