Benefits Planning, Assistance, and Outreach (BPAO) Program
Services and Resource Guide
February 2003
For people with disabilities who receive SSA benefits but would like to work, the road to employment and economic self-sufficiency can travel a variety of routes and lead to a number of destinations. When the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Program began, the Social Security Administration (SSA) established a Benefits Planning Assistance and Outreach Program (BPAO) to help SSA beneficiaries with disabilities make use of the right services and programs and make better choices about the work options available to them.
Many community-based agencies, such as independent living centers, advocacy groups, VR offices, and rehabilitation centers, now have staff members trained in the BPAO program who can offer SSA beneficiaries with disabilities timely and accurate information about work incentives and other available programs. More than half of these BPAO specialists are themselves people with disabilities. They help draw a map through the landmass of confusing information that can keep people with disabilities from exploring and pursuing the career and work goals that interest them.
BPAO program specialists do not tell beneficiaries what to do. Instead, they help people with disabilities explore ways to take charge of their work lives and enhance their economic self-sufficiency, while still maintaining necessary supports and services.
Native American people with disabilities who live on reservations often contend with additional factors that can both complicate the search for employment and emphasize its importance. When Census 2000 findings were used to examine the economic characteristics of 25 reservations scattered throughout the United States, one or two of these reservations were revealed to have vibrant economies and more residents active in the work force than the state surrounding them. Other reservations, however, contended with family and individual poverty rates markedly higher than those in their home state. These reservations were also likely to be home to a larger percentage of Supplemental Security Income or public assistance income recipients than could be found among the population of the surrounding state.
Reservations in the western and southwestern United States exhibit these economic characteristics to a greater extent. Some of these reservations are located in isolated rural areas where sources of employment and opportunities for economic development may be reached only with extensive travel, often on poorly maintained roads. Learning what the Benefits Planning Assistance and Outreach (BPAO) program has to offer can prove important for people with disabilities who want to work, but live on economically and geographically isolated reservations.
A person who would like to access the services of a BPAO specialist must first be a recipient of Social Security Disability Insurance/Supplemental Security Income (SSDI/SSI). This requirement can become an obstacle for tribal members with disabilities who are not aware of these programs and have never applied, or who gave up applying after initial rejection.
Tribal officials can help by informing tribal members with disabilities about these SSA programs, helping them apply, and encouraging them to re-apply after an initial rejection. When BPAO specialists and Native American people with disabilities get together to explore possibilities for greater economic self-determination and empowerment, a more vigorous economic life for the entire reservation can emerge as well.
The attached list offers contact information for BPAO specialists in all fifty states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. For more information on the program, contact the nearest Social Security Administration office or visit http://www.ssa.gov/work/ServiceProviders/bpaofactsheet.html
Source: Social Security Administration, Office of Employment Support Programs (2002). BPAO Program Cooperative Agreements [On-line.] Retrieved October 29, 2002 from the World Wide Web: http://www.ssa.gov/work/ServiceProviders/BPAODirectory.html
American Indian Disability Technical
Assistance Center
The University of Montana Rural Institute:
Center for Excellence in Disability Education, Research and Service
52 Corbin Hall
Missoula, Montana 59812-7056
http://aidtac.ruralinstitute.umt.edu
This Resource Guide is supported by a grant from the National Institute on Disability Rehabilitation Research's Rehabilitation Services Administration (#H235K000002-02).
It was prepared by Joyce Brusin and Kathy Dwyer and is available in alternative formats on request.
