25. - SSA



1. If you have an Employment Network (EN), or are the affiliate EN, can you apply for the WIPA cooperative agreement?Yes. We encourage ENs to apply.2. The Request for Application (RFA) indicates that 40% of a Community Work Incentive Coordinator’s time must be assigned to the Work Incentives Planning and Assistance (WIPA) cooperative agreement. Is that based on a 40-hour week? We have a 35-hour week, would it be proportional to our 35 hours?Regardless of your work week, we intend CWICs to provide services at least 16 hours per usual work week, and a Program Director to commit to ten hours per usual work week.3. What is the FTE minimum requirement for someone that is a CWIC and Project Director? Are both FTE minimums combined to make 0.65? Has there been discussion of any wiggle room on those percentages?Yes, 65% or 26 hours of a usual work week. We have not considered “wiggle room” to date, but we may consider it on a case-by-case basis if there is sufficient justification. 4. Does Social Security require the applicants Authorized Representative (AO) to have a favorable suitability determination?The AO will need suitability only if that person will have access to the Personally Identifiable Information (PII) of WIPA beneficiaries.5. Does training from other sources, like the Cornell training, count as training for the WIPA CWIC position?No. WIPA uses a specific service model and requires specific documentation. A CWIC must complete the training from our contractor, the Virginia Commonwealth University National Training and Data Center (), before working with beneficiaries as a CWIC. 6. To apply for the cooperative agreement, do we have to have fully trained staff already?No, we will give all projects time and opportunity to build their staff and to attend CWIC training.7. If we already have a suitability determination, will we be able to transfer it to the new cooperative agreement, or will we need to go through the process again?There is more than one suitability determination level. If you received your suitability letter because you work for an EN, you may need to request a higher level of suitability before working with WIPA clients. If you currently work for a WIPA, you may need to request a new suitability determination if your prior determination is more than five years old. If you have a recent determination at the “TIER 2,” or moderate risk level, you should not have to request another suitability determination, though you will need to request to roll that suitability letter over to the new cooperative agreement. If you have a current suitability letter at the moderate risk level, we will allow you to work with beneficiaries while awaiting any new determination on the new cooperative agreement.8. The RFA does not mention whether the narrative should be single or doubled space? We will accept single-spaced or double-spaced applications. Please remember the proposal with the best chance of being awarded is one that is clear and well-written and shows your organization’s capability to provide the services. Here are the requirements from the RFA:Length: Applications should be as concise as possible, adhere to the page length recommendations for each section, and ensure successful communication of the applicant’s proposal to the reviewers. The project narrative portion of the application may not exceed 75 pages (excluding the resume and funding appendices), equivalent to being typewritten on one side using standard (8 ?” x 11”) size paper and 12-point font. Attachments that support the project narrative count toward the 75-page limit. Attachments not applicable to the project narrative (including letters of support), do not count toward this page limit. Attachments or Appendices should only be included to provide supporting documentation. See Section IV, B. (15) above for file format requirements of attachments uploaded with award applications. 9. Will the initial CWIC training continue remotely or revert to in person, or hybrid? We anticipate offering some classes both face-to-face and some remotely in the future, once the pandemic risk ends. Until then, we will only offer distance-based training.10. Can the project director time be split between 2 people, especially if covering 2 states with a subcontract?No. The award would have one Project Director, and that person would also be responsible for the subcontract.11. Since this is being recorded will we have access to the recording?No, but we will post the transcript to the work/WIPA.html website.12. How are services for state specific and state administered benefits dealt with among two states? If a grantee is covering a new state area, we can provide the state-specific information used to program our report-writing software to facilitate familiarity with the new area. In subsequent years of the award, the new grantee will be responsible to update that information for the report-writing software, and for appropriate and comprehensive benefits counseling. 13. How do we supervise staff if we are providing services in more than one state? It is the responsibility of the successful awardee to supervise all staff and manage subcontracts within their service area. We will provide support via our training contract on the best way to manage across states. 14. In the grant application it was mentioned that the service areas were determined by the number of people with disabilities. What document did you use or formula to determine the service areas?The legislation requires that we base awards on the disability beneficiary population in a service area. We do not plan to release further details regarding the calculation, but we will work with successful grantees to revise their budgets for final awards.15. Are fees for professional association dues acceptable? How about attending related conferences like NABWIS?Yes, we do allow membership fees and conference travel on the WIPA budget.16. Are there any guidelines to how we can propose changes to service areas and the costs per state/territory since many are combined?We suggest that you apply to cover a territory we designated. If you cannot do that because of the nature of your organization, please explain that in your application narrative. Also, if you simply prefer to serve a different area, indicate the service area you prefer and how it differs from the territory outlined in Appendix A. If your application scores as the highest in the given area, we will do our best to accommodate your request as long as we can do so without compromising our ability to provide services nationally. If the service area changes from the one proposed, it is likely that the budget will also change, so you would need to submit a new budget at the time we finalize the assigned service area.17. Should we obtain letters of support from SSA, AWIC, WIL, local office? Or list in community connections attachment? Or is this detail not needed?Social Security staff may not provide letters of recommendation, or support. If you provide letters of support with your application, please acquire them from other organizations.18. Will the webinar on March 25th, cover the same information provided today?Yes, it will have the same slides, but possibly different questions from the audience.19. Can administrative support be used to facilitate mailing to beneficiaries regarding initial paperwork, confirming apt, etc., if the staff has a suitability determination?Yes. In fact, we encourage projects to use administrative staff for duties that do not require responding to technical questions from beneficiaries as long as administrative staff performing these duties has a favorable suitability determination. If staff answer any questions about benefits, they must also have completed CWIC training and certification. 20. If a WIPA is also an Employment Network, does the CWIC who works in the WIPA and the Employment Specialist who works in the Employment Network need to be two different people?Yes.21. How do we find out who the current WIPA provider is in our service area?Go to and you will find a Frequently Asked Question document that lists the projects currently with SSA funding. 22. Will WIPAs continue to use secure Jump Drives for PII Storage?Yes, and we are investigating cloud storage from certain approved services.23. Is there an educational requirement for CWIC staff?We do not have a specific educational requirement for CWIC staff. We do have training requirements. Go to for more information.24. Is there a requirement for how many CWICs are required under the grant and does the Project Director have to be a certified CWIC?We do not specify the number of CWICs. The Project Director must attend training if he or she is not a certified CWIC, or have not recently attended initial CWIC training, but does not have to achieve CWIC certification. 25. Is there information available as to the number of referrals currently being served annually in the service areas?No, we do not have that data.26. Must an applicant serve the entire designated service area? The current application map shows that our service area has increased from two states to four states, with only a slight increase in funding amount.Yes, an applicant must serve the entire area for which they apply. If they limit their application to only part of the service area, the cooperative agreement award will also decrease, depending on the beneficiary population in the revised service area.27. Will the next round of funding have any limitation on awarded projects engaging in fee-for-service activities?We do not intend to limit fee-for-service activities. The awardee must keep the WIPA service hours separate from other funding streams—no double-dipping!28. Knowing that School Transition fairs are not typically advertised until Spring, if we place a number of school outreach activities (transition fairs) in the budget for the year, do we need to have the project officer approve each transition fair actively (since it would accrue outside the first 6 months of the grant) or will identifying the activity in an approved grant be acceptable.If awarded, you should discuss that with your assigned Project Officer at the time of award. If you had to commit in advance to these events, however, you will be able to fulfill the commitment you made. 29. Will SSA provide a list of approved distance-based technologies WIPA projects can use to provide distance services? Will VCU provide a review on these?To date, we have not endorsed any specific distance-based technology. If we do release a list of approved services in the future, it will be Social Security’s responsibility, not our training contractor.30. Will WIPA benchmarks, such as the ones from the FY 2015-2018, be reinstated?We will have performance measures for the new awardees, but they will be different from the benchmarks used previously. 31. For new awarded projects that lose a service area, what will be required of that WIPA in relation to beneficiaries on the current caseload that will need to be transferred to the new WIPA?We will provide full guidance on transferring cases at the time of award.32. What if your plan is to hire a person for the CWIC if funded? Candidate requirements/job could be provided but not a resume. Is that allowable?Yes, applicants should indicate those positions as “to be hired”.33. I would like to have clarification on whether being an approved WIPA service provider with VR would result in a conflict of interest to this cooperative agreement?It would not, as long as the time staff spend on WIPA is separate from the time spent providing fee-for-service work incentives counseling. 34. Would JAWS be needed to be placed under equipment or would it be under supplies?JAWS or other adaptive technology costing less than $5,000.00 would be considered a supply.35. Can you give more information about the firewalls that are needed between the WIPA project and the EN if an organization is providing both services? Up until very recently the guidance was that the same person could not simultaneously oversee WIPA and the Ticket to Work EN staff. Has this changed? If so can you point to something in writing?Yes, it will change with the new awards. See the section below from the current RFA:“WIPA awardees may have a parent organization serving as, or housing an EN under P.L. 106- 170, the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act. In these situations, the applicant must include the following in their application:A description of the separation of all direct service duties of the WIPA cooperative agreement and the EN contract staff and services, including assurances that the same individuals are not providing direct services for both the WIPA cooperative agreement and the EN Ticket Program Agreement. Direct service staff includes any staff person with direct contact with beneficiaries beyond initial reception or intake services. We do permit administrative and supervisory staff to serve under both programs; An organizational and workload chart with clear documentation of roles and responsibilities;A detailed explanation of how the parent organization will resolve issues when a beneficiary or other stakeholder files a conflict of interest complaint against a CWIC or WIPA;An assurance in the form of an affirmative statement that the WIPA will provide the beneficiary comparable information on all available public and private service providers, including all ENs, in their community;An assurance in the form of an affirmative statement that the applicant will not automatically refer or unduly influence beneficiaries to assign their tickets to the awardee’s EN; andAn assurance in the form of an affirmative statement that beneficiaries receiving services from the WIPA will receive advice about all available work incentive programs, even if those programs could have an impact on milestone or outcome payments under the Ticket to Work program for the EN housed within their organization.”36. Is there a way to share some expectations on demands in each service area? How many individuals would we need to expect to serve per month or year based on previous history... Is that something you can share?We anticipate that full-time CWICs will have at least 100 individualized work incentives counseling clients in a year. 37. If we are an existing WIPA project and have experienced staff/CWICs and Project Manager all with current suitability, if any staff have suitability more than 5 years old, can we begin the suitability process through our project officer now before we even put in our new application?No, the suitability determination would need to be under the new grant number. If the person has the correct level of suitability on the current cooperative agreement, however, we would let them work on the program while awaiting the new decision.38. Is the award amount in Appendix A for one year, or for all five years?The financial award is for one year’s services. Successful applicants will need to request funding annually after the initial award. If awarded the maximum of $300,000.00 a successful grantee would receive 1,500,000.00 over the five years of the cooperative agreement.39. Can a CWIC also do job development/job coaching?We separate the services of CWIC and EN staff. They cannot be the same person.40. In some grants, letters of support have a value to the point system in influencing the tally, there was not much discussion on these in the application or presentation. What is the preference here as to letters and how many given the size of this proposal already?We do not assign additional points for letters of support, though they indicate an investment in the community you wish to serve.41. You said referrals can only be from the Ticket to Work Help Line? Can we get referrals from schools and veterans?You may receive referrals and serve them from other sources. You must use the Ticket to Work Help Line call number on outreach materials, however. 42. In your RFP pages 14-15 you discuss Match Commitment Letters and say that (page 15) "Letters must be dated between October 30, 2020, and December 16, 2020." Since the RFP was issued after that time, and the application deadline is April 19, 2021, are those dates for the commitment letters correct?No, that section is in error, both in reference to the dates, and in reference to a cost-share or match. We will not have a cost-share with this cooperative agreement. The date to submit a letter of intent for the current RFA has passed, but you may apply whether or not you submit a letter of intent to file.43. If we purchase equipment as part of the cooperative agreement, who owns it?Please remember that we define equipment as something that will last more than two years, and costs more than $5,000.00. Equipment ownership reverts to the government at the end of your cooperative agreement. We have never had a WIPA grantee purchase equipment, instead, we would consider most purchase as “supplies”. Most computers, for example, would be considered supplies and would belong to the grantee. (Refer to 2CFR200.313 and 2CFR200.314 for more information about supplies.) 44. Is grouping pens, pencils, papers, basic supplies under the office supplies allowable? Would you prefer printing and postage to be separate or included?If an expense is not part of your indirect costs, please outline it individually.45. Is there a sample WIPA Award budget that we can refer to or use as a guide?No, we do not have examples to share, but has a Community Blog with articles on developing budget narratives. Some examples of typical expenses would be: staff, fringe benefits, travel for training, membership to professional organizations, office supplies, etc.46. If a potential grantee is part of a larger organizational system that serves people across multiple residential areas, can that organization apply for a listed coverage area in Appendix A plus the total number of WIPA eligible clients of that organization? For example, a University system asking to service the total number of students with disabilities plus the proposed service area even if the student resides outside one of the proposed service area?We will offer more flexibility to serve beneficiaries in this situation than in earlier cooperative agreements. We will allow you to serve beneficiaries who come or call your agency even if they are outside of your service area if you choose to do so. However, we will not be able to?award a larger funding amount in order to serve a specific population in addition to the population from the service area.47. The budget worksheet still has missing formulas and broken linksWe have posted a revised worksheet to the application site. You may amend the worksheet you have as long as the numbers work out correctly.48. Is there a preferred format for the budget narrative/justification document that needs to be submitted with the (preferred) detailed budget worksheet?The budget narrative is usually submitted as a Word document. It should support the items you have on the worksheet. ................
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