Evaluation of the Ticket to Work Program Initial Evaluation Report

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H. THE BIG ISSUE: FINANCIAL VIABILITY
Fundamentally, to be successful, ENs must cover their costs. But all eight of the casestudy
ENs, despite their diversity on numerous characteristics, had one thing in common:
they all were losing money on their TTW operations. Despite the development of various,
apparently well-functioning service models and the ENs’ generally positive expectations in
summer and fall of 2002, TTW has not proven to be financially viable—thus far, at least, for
these eight ENs.
It would be difficult to overestimate the seriousness of this matter for the future
participation of these ENs—and possibly many others—in the TTW program. At the time
of the fall 2003 interviews, 12 to 18 months after they started operating under TTW, the
ENs’ situation looked rather bleak.
CCSA’s director believes he has a viable service model. Although he has received few
payments thus far, he believes that in the near future, greater than 50 percent of his
receivables will come from TTW. The program has the potential to be a major source of
revenue for CCSA, with revenues ultimately outweighing costs, but he felt that the
administrative issues associated with the program (described below) must be addressed.
EES is no longer accepting Tickets and plans to fully withdraw from the program. It is
still submitting claims for payment for a few beneficiaries, but no longer considers itself to
be participating in TTW. Before deciding to withdraw from TTW, EES tried several
strategies to reduce costs. For example, EES downsized from two to one line staff members
and also began providing services to groups, rather than individuals. Even with this added
efficiency, however, EES corporate was subsidizing TTW services at an unacceptable level.
The director estimated that EES spent $80,000 on the program, but brought in less than
$10,000 in revenue. This EN would likely reactivate its program if changes are made that
enable the organization to cover its costs.
At the time of the first interview, Glick and Glick representatives optimistically
projected making a profit by January 2003, five months ahead of their original estimate. By
August 2003, however, those profits had never materialized. The firm was expending a lot of
resources on TTW and not recouping much of its costs—“shoveling money out the door,”
according to one interviewee. Glick and Glick was forced to substantially reduce its
involvement in TTW. It is now serving only beneficiaries who reside in the state of Florida,
retaining that state as a TTW service area because a large number of its Tickets were from
Florida, and some of those clients had been showing success. In May 2003, the EN
unassigned the Tickets of all beneficiaries not residing in Florida, including a number that
Glick and Glick had placed in employment. The EN concomitantly reduced the number of
TTW case workers from four to one. Like the EES director, Glick and Glick officials
expressed hope that the program will be changed in a way that will make it profitable.
Should that occur, Glick and Glick would be willing to participate once again as a national
EN. They do not believe TTW will be successful, however, unless the requirements for
submitting earnings information are significantly altered to reduce the EN’s administrative
burden.
V: Case Studies of Eight Experienced TTW Providers