Evaluation of the Ticket to Work Program Initial Evaluation Report

interview. While this is time consuming and costly, it allows the agency to further explain the
program and what is expected of participants. Once a Ticket holder has been accepted into
the program, a counselor reviews all available information and begins developing an IWP.
For some participants, IDR develop IWPs with the support of contract vendors.
Marriott’s Bridges program was distinct from the above ENs in that, although it did
receive calls out of the blue, it also pursued a targeted recruitment strategy. Specifically, it
generated some of its Ticket assignments from former clients whom staff knew to be SSI
recipients. Staff instructed these clients to request their Tickets and assign them to Bridges.
At the time of the first interview, staff were still in the process of identifying SSI recipients
from among its clients served with its WIA funds. Prior to the initial interview, the EN had
accepted about a dozen Tickets from clients not already on its caseload, and they
subsequently stopped accepting Tickets from any individuals not eligible for services under
WIA. More recently, feeling they were operating at about capacity level, staff stopped
accepting any new Tickets. Callers get a phone message describing the program but are
referred elsewhere.
The Oklahoma DRS has used an outreach and screening approach that is unlike that of
any of the other five case-study ENs. It is on the opposite end of the continuum from AAA
TakeCharge in terms of the extensiveness of its marketing, but quite similar to TakeCharge
in its willingness to serve virtually all interested individuals.
In preparation for TTW, DRS set up a toll-free number and sent letters to all
beneficiaries on the VR caseload, alerting them to TTW and describing its features. At the
time of our first interview with them, DRS was preparing to send a mailing to all
beneficiaries in the state to stimulate interest. The agency anticipated receiving 30,000 to
50,000 calls in response, but had received only 1,500 at the time of the first interview. A
special, centralized group, the “Ticket Unit,” fields and screens all TTW-related calls so as
not to burden field counselors. While Ticket Unit staff tell callers about potential program
benefits, they also invite all callers to Ticket orientation meetings, in-person presentations at
local One-Stop career centers, a format viewed as more effective than telephone discussions.
The presentation includes a slide show describing available work incentives and uses a
variety of scenarios to illustrate the potential impact of work activity on SSA benefits.
Interested beneficiaries complete an application to determine eligibility. Applications are
processed in three to five days, and Ticket assignment takes another week; the whole process
is almost one month shorter than for DRS’s usual eligibility determinations.
DRS will accept the Ticket of any eligible beneficiary who applies for services. At the
initial visit in August 2002, DRS had approximately 225 milestone-outcome clients, which
represented over 80 percent of Tickets assigned under this payment system to SVRAs in the
13 Phase 1 states. One year later, its Ticket assignment total had quintupled.
DRS does not have a policy of unassigning the Tickets of beneficiaries who do not
appear to be making reasonable progress. Due to state budget shortfalls, however, DRS was
forced to place many Ticket holders on a waiting list for services—many were on the waiting
list for up to six months and could not proceed with writing IWPs. Staff recently reported
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V: Case Studies of Eight Experienced TTW Providers