Welcome to a how to video on My Vault's benefits planning path.
In the planning paths area in your My Vault account,
you'll find a benefits planning path
called "What happens to my benefits when I work?"
The purpose of this path is to help people with disabilities make informed choices
about work through step-by-step activities.
When you click this button,
you'll see the activities in the path are organized in sections
that you can open and close.
You can complete these activities on your own
or with the help of another person.
You can stop and save your work at any point to come back and finish later.
There are seven activities in this path.
The first activity is Start a Benefits Plan.
It has three quick questions to help you see where you are
in the benefits planning process and recommends relevant articles,
videos, and activities for you to try.
After you finish each activity, you can view your results as a PDF
or share your results with people you trust.
The second activity is called Get a Benefits Lookup.
This activity is a simple request form that provides a way for you
to find out information about your current benefits,
including which ones you get and the amounts of those benefits.
Doing this activity sends a request for a benefits lookup
to the Minnesota Department of Human Services, also known as DHS.
DHS looks up your records and sends the results back
to your My Vault account within two days.
The third activity is Do a Quick Budget.
Using this activity, you can get a picture of your income and expenses
and how your financial picture might change when you work
or change your expenses.
Doing this activity can help you set a goal
for how much you need to work and earn.
It's especially helpful if you're not sure about working or how much you should work,
or if you have financial concerns outside of benefits.
The fourth activity is called Make a Work Plan.
This is an easy tool to help you think about and set work goals
by answering some simple questions and by starting a plan for a specific job.
When you're done, check out the activity results.
You can share them with others on your team like case managers,
guardians or parents, school transition staff,
and employment service providers,
so that they're all on the same page about your work goals.
The fifth activity is See How Work and Benefits Work Together.
This activity launches an estimator session directly from My Vault
and prefills any information from the Get a Benefits Lookup
and Make a Work Plan activities.
The estimator is most effective when you have an idea
of what you want to do for a job
and know how much money you will or would like to make.
The results of the estimator will help you see what would happen
to your benefits if you worked and earned that amount.
The sixth activity is called Manage Benefits.
Here you can create a checklist of what you need to do each month
to manage your benefits.
You should first complete the benefits lookup,
and then this activity will pull in your benefits information automatically.
The final activity in the path is Build a Benefits Planning Team.
This activity helps you organize your contacts
and know who can help you with understanding your benefits
when you work.
You can look through the list and add people in your contacts
like your counselor, claims representative,
case manager, financial worker, and more.
At the bottom of the page,
you can see your results from each activity as separate PDFs,
or you can download them all together as a combined Benefits Planning Plan.
Start exploring the benefits planning path "What happens to my benefits when I work?"
to discover your options and how you can reach your goals for work and benefits.
If you have questions or need support, contact an expert at the Hub.
Hub experts are available at live chat, phone, or email.
The phone number is 1-866-333-2466.
At the Hub, we're here to help you plan your best life your way.