Please understand — we are serving in an advisory capacity only…
You decide if, when and how you will return to work!
 

The Decision
There is no plan by any public agency to change, alter or modify the criteria by which an HIV disability is determined nor has there been a change to the conditions that SSA uses to determine whether or not an individual who is disabled with HIV should or should not go to work. AAP's Benefits Counseling Service has been designed to answer questions, provide information and direct its clients to a host of resources to enable the individual to educate him/herself as to the potential impact — both positive and negative — that a return to work might have on their current "safety net."

Issue 4.1 of the ProBen New$, an AIDS Project Los Angeles Newsletter for Health Care Professionals dated March of 1998 reported that Social Security Commissioner Kenneth Apfel reiterated the current administration’s commitment to people living with AIDS.

In a World AIDS Day letter to the heads of AIDS service organizations in the United States he wrote, “Although we are encouraged by the development of new drug therapies, we know that this epidemic is not over. We are aware that many people living with HIV/AIDS who have benefited from recent treatment advances may want return to work. There are important provisions in the disability programs called ‘work incentives’ that enable a beneficiary to return to work for a period of time without losing the ‘safety net’ of monthly cash benefits and Medicare or Medicaid.”

Roughly translated, that means,

1) don’t panic and;
2) consider returning to work if you like but;
3) Social Security nor Congress nor the current administration nor anyone else is now considering any sudden changes to the eligibility for or distribution of continuing benefits.

Those receiving Social Security Disability Insurance and/or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits because of an HIV related disability might find the following information of use if a return to work — or entering the workforce for the first time —  is being considered. As a matter of fact, for many, the satisfaction that comes from a job well done is often instrumental in resurrecting a facet of one's self worth that has gone missing since leaving the job.

Surmounting the obstacles of physical limitations due to any disabling condition or disease is a powerful incentive in and of itself. Returning to the workforce with a lengthy history of productivity and an invaluable set of newly acquired and finely honed skills stimulates then perpetuates the motivation to not only to pursue but to succeed.