§ 416.1715 - Effect of your rejecting vocational rehabilitation services.

(a) Ineligible for benefits if you do not have good cause. If we refer you to the State agency providing vocational rehabilitation services, you are not eligible for SSI benefits for any month that you refuse, without good cause, to accept services available to you (see § 416.1328(a) on suspension because of a refusal). In determining whether you have good cause for refusing vocational rehabilitation services, we will take into account any physical, mental, educational, or linguistic limitations (including any lack of facility with the English language) which may have caused you to refuse such services. If you believe good cause exists to refuse these services, you will be asked to submit proof showing this.

(b) Examples of good cause. If you can show good cause for not accepting vocational rehabilitation services offered to you, you will continue to be eligible for benefits. Examples of good cause include the following:

(1) The services that are offered are not designed to restore your ability to work.

(2) You are already in a program (either governmental or private) that is expected to restore your ability to work.

(3) You are regularly attending a school, college, or university or are attending a course of vocational or technical training, and the program you are attending is designed to restore your ability to work.

(4) You are physically or mentally unable to participate in the services that are offered.

(5) The services offered would interfere with a medical program provided for you.

(6) The services would require you to be away from home and your absence would be harmful to the health and welfare of your family.

(7) You are working at the present time or you will be working within 3 months.

(8) You are a member or a follower of a recognized church or religious sect which teaches its members or followers to rely solely on prayer or other spiritual means for the treatment and care of any physical or mental illness, and you refuse to accept these services solely because of your belief in these teachings.