Hey Guys,
I live in Westchester NY, and I am trying to return to the workforce after a very long absence. I have just started working with ACCESS VR & Search for Change to get a job. If you live nearby what’s your experience with them?
ACCESS VR (NY state-wide agency)
Search for Change (one of its Westchester/Putnam contractors)
Thanks!
In my experience, ACCESS VR highly prioritizes people with physical disabilities over people with mental illnesses. My friend got them to fully pay her tuition to become a social worker after a car accident left her unable to perform nursing work any more. When I went to them, they offered to help me get a sub-minimum wage job doing manual labor,and refused to help me with any schooling or training to do something with a liveable wage.
My sister works for a state run agency that places people with employment.
She said they prioritize people’s placement with their difficulties with life. She also said I’d fall in the middle of priorities. So probably people with physical afflictions get the most attention.
They also work REALLY slow. I was talking to her about working with our department of rehab in town and I got the impression of not to expect anything to happen within 6-9 months.
GL
Thanks for replying to my post. If I’m reading my Individual Plan for Employment [IPE] right, ACCESS VR & their vendor were supposed to
All between 12/01/20 & 12/31/20, does that sound right to you? Especially given they work so slow, as you say, that they take 6 - 9 months for them to get you a job?
If they said that is what you get, then I guess that is what you get. Congrats! Just a heads up though, 5 days on the job does not mean you will continue that job after 5 days, or even that you’ll get paid for those 5 days.
Ninjastar,
Thanks for getting back to me. I Google the ACCESS VR internal codes used to describe the services I’m supposed to get. In my case, they are 571x, 572x & 573x for this December. They are also 571x, 572x, 573x & 574x for next year.
What I’ve been getting and what the codes state don’t seem to match up. I’m posting here because I wanted to see if other people have had this problem too?
Yes. Laws governing disabled people and the right to work are very bad. They can pay you as little as I believe 25 cents an hour, and your employer gets a huge tax credit for allowing you to work there.
Me too jobs they gave me sucked, I think they hate schizophrenia bcz they think we’re lazy. It was an agency that finds work for the disabled. They offered me a cleaning job in Mcdonald and a physical job in a warehouse. I have a university degree in physiotherapy, I aint cleaning toilets in Mcdonald lol I left them and found a higher paying job by myself in a video games company, VR and Oculus, its fun.
Same. They wanted me to work some manual labor job for less than minimum wage. I told them where they could put their job and went and found myself a better job on my own.
Did you guys save your IPEs? The agreement between you and ACCESS VR for the services you’re supposed to get? The IPE should tell you what kind of job they’re supposed to get for you on the cover. The IPE also indicates the service/deliverable codes.
Can you guys look at your IPE [Google the job code (mine is office clerk 43-9061) and service codes] and tell me if you feel you’ve been shortchanged?!
I did not save mine. I burned it in anger.
I joined a Political Advocacy Group years ago and one time I saw a proposed law advocating that people with SSI be allowed $20,000 in assets and SSDI $30,000 in assets. So I proposed that people who worked get the high totals, and people who didn’t half in order to give people an “incentive” to work since it’s so easy to go over the limit when you do currently. A new law proposal appeared with $20,000 and $30,000 given to businesses that “hired disabled people” and the other bill apparently was killed. I quit looking at their emails afterward out of disgust.
Hey Ninjastar & Everyone,
Let me ask you did your ACCESS VR counselor explain your IPE to you. Also, did they explain to you that you had a right to a Client Assistance Program [CAP] before you signed your IPE?
The CAP is supposed to advocate for you [legally] if you have a problem.
I don’t remember much about it, because I was so angry that they wouldn’t give me what I wanted. I asked for culinary school classes so I could be a professional baker. They thought that was a lofty goal for me. Joke’s on them, because I ended up in an administrative manager position at my last job, before I quit to be a full time parent.
That’s total BS. I knew they could pay less than minimum wage, but I didn’t know it was to that extent
I guess it’s the act of working it’s better than nothing from their viewpoint: you’re contributing.
Honestly, I tried DoR and never got far: too much paranoia. They delete your case or file after a while. Same thing with disability at college after a semester, which is unrelated and is total BS.
I tried volunteering years ago and got triggered by random homeless people.
You cannot have more than 2000 in money/assests on SSI and probably would lose benefits if I tried working through DoR. SSI is way different than SSDI and I never paid into the system.
I never worked really.
I figured I would pull something like Harry Potter Author lol. You know be a self-made millionaire. You cannot rely on the government in most cases.
I figured they owe me money but won’t collect. It’s a pipe dream.
I get nervous when signing papers (I’ve been burned with surprise billing in the past) so now I read paperwork carefully before I sign. On paper the work program (Search for Change) I’m in is tremendous. Given the timeline, the fact that the agency is working remotely (due to Covid), and the economy is in the toilet it would be almost impossible for the agency to deliver what it promised.
So I’m reaching out to you guys to see if my experience is typical. If anyone has a bad experience with ACCESS VR and Search for Change specifically please speak out. It’ll help figure out what to.
Thanks.
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