The National Business & Disability Council

Highlights of Disability Resource Group Event Hosted by HSBC

The Campaign for Disability Employment (CDE) What Can You Do Campaign, in which NBDC’s Emerging Leaders Summer Internship Program for college students with disabilities is a partner, now has a Facebook fan page and a LinkedIn page. 

CDE has established this social media presence to spread the word and encourage friends and colleagues to become fans and connections.  Icons will be posted on the CDE homepage www.whatcanyoudocampaign.org , and additional information will follow about opportunities for using these social media tools to promote positive employment outcomes for people with disabilities.

Become a Facebook fan and get LinkedIn with the Emerging Leaders Summer Internship Program and the Campaign for Disability Employment! "The Emerging Leaders Summer Internship Program for College Students with disabilities"is a fan of What Can You Do? Campaign for Disability Employment!  www.emerging-leaders.com.

Tax Credits for Individuals with disabilities

Individuals with a disability who are working are now entitled to the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). In New York, the EITC is an incentive for people with disabilities to build assets and save for the future. The EITC will not affect such benefits as Social Security Insurance (SSI), Medicaid, or federally funded housing programs, nor will it be counted as income when it’s received; therefore, it will not affect any other assistance programs with income limits. For additional information on the Earned Income Tax Credit, go to its website at http://www.otda.state.ny.us/main/reform/. An additional tax resource for people with disabilities interested in accessing the EITC is available through the Real Economic Impact Tour (REI Tour)http://www.realeconomicimpact.org/REI-Tour.aspx, a national initiative that provides free tax preparation and filing assistance to low-income people with disabilities.

HIRE Act Tax Incentives for Employers

Last month, the IRS introduced two new tax benefits that are available to employers hiring workers who were previously unemployed or only working part time. These provisions are part of the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act.

Employers who hire unemployed workers this year, after Feb. 3, 2010 and before Jan. 1, 2011, qualify for a 6.2 percent payroll tax incentive, exempting them from their share of Social Security taxes on wages paid to these workers after March 18, 2010. This reduced tax withholding will not have an effect on the employee’s future Social Security benefits, and employers would still need to withhold the employee’s 6.2 percent share of Social Security taxes, as well as income taxes. The employer and employee’s shares of Medicare taxes would also still apply to these wages.

For each worker retained for at least a year, businesses may claim an additional general business tax credit, up to $1,000 per worker, when they file their 2011 income tax returns.

The Internal Revenue Services projects that these two tax benefits are especially helpful to employers who are adding positions to their payrolls. New hires filling existing positions also qualify but only if the workers they are replacing left voluntarily or for cause. Family members and other relatives do not qualify. The new law also requires that the employer get a statement from each eligible new hire certifying that he/ she was unemployed during the 60 days before beginning work or, alternatively, worked fewer than a total of 40 hours for someone else during the 60-day period.

Additional information on all that qualify to claim the payroll tax benefit in addition to revised forms and further details on these two new tax provisions will be posted on IRS.gov web site during the next few weeks.

February 2010 Disability Employment Statistics Released

As previously reported, last year, questions used to identify persons with a disability in the civilian non-institutional population age 16 and older were added to the Current Population Survey (CPS), a monthly survey of households conducted by the Bureau of Census for the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) that provides a comprehensive body of statistical data on labor force, employment, unemployment and persons not in the labor force.

The addition of these questions allowed BLS to begin releasing monthly labor force data from the CPS for persons with a disability. The collection of data is sponsored by the Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP). Publication of CPS disability data began in February 2009 with the issuance of labor force data for January 2009. Beginning with the release of the January 2010 data on February 5, 2010, information on the employment status of persons by disability status was included as part of the Employment Situation news release.

With the latest statistics released for January 2010, the numbers provided were not too promising for the disability population compared to their nondisabled counterparts. According to the BLS, in January 2010, the percentage of people with disabilities in the labor force was 21.8 compared with 70.1 for persons with no disability. The unemployment rate for those with disabilities was 15.2 percent, compared with 10.4 percent for persons with no disability, not seasonally adjusted.

In December 2009, the percentage of people with disabilities in the work force was 21.6 compared with 70.0 for persons with no disability. The unemployment rate for those with disabilities was 13.8 percent, compared with 9.5 percent for persons with no disability, not seasonally adjusted.

As one can see, comparatively speaking, although both groups percentage in the workforce had risen a small percentage, the number of people without disabilities in the labor force is over three times that of people with disabilities.

In addition, although both groups unemployment rate had raised closely, the percentage of people with disabilities unemployed is 1 ½ times that of people without disabilities. Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, February, 2010). February Disability Employment Statistics:  http://www.dol.gov/odep/index.htm. 

NBDC is pleased to be a partner in the Campaign for Disability Employment (CDE)

A collaborative effort to promote positive employment outcomes for people with disabilities by encouraging employers, and others, to recognize the value and talent that people with disabilities bring to the workplace. The Campaign has developed a public service announcement (PSA) that can be viewed from the web site homepage at http://www.whatcanyoudocampaign.org where contest winner videos and other useful resources can also be found.