Evaluation of the Ticket to Work Program Initial Evaluation Report

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generate much of a payment stream for the EN. DI program rules allow beneficiaries to
remain on the rolls during a 9-month trial work period, regardless of the level of earnings,
which delays the start of an outcome payment stream. SSI recipients can prolong the receipt
of benefits indefinitely if their earnings are sufficiently low.
The potential implications of the problem of low EN revenues are clear and seem to
pose the most serious threat to program success. If ENs cannot cover their costs, they will
not be able to operate. Without them, some beneficiaries may find it virtually impossible to
use their Tickets, and the TTW program may become little more than a minor revision to
the traditional SVRA payment system.
SSA has recognized the issues discussed above and is trying, within the limits of its
discretion, to address them. Most important, SSA has taken steps to simplify the process for
documenting beneficiary earnings required to trigger milestone and monthly outcome
payments. More rapid payments that require simpler documentation should increase ENs’
net revenues and reduce their costs. SSA is also trying to help ENs find additional revenue
sources for financing their start-up expenses, which must be paid before they can realize
substantial revenue streams from monthly outcome payments. SSA has also started to
develop a national marketing campaign intended to improve beneficiary awareness and
understanding of the TTW program and related return-to-work initiatives. It will take some
time before the effectiveness of these changes and efforts can be assessed.
SSA is already considering more fundamental changes to the TTW program. The most
obvious change is to increase the payment amounts. Another possible change is to
restructure the payment system so that ENs are paid sooner in the process—that is, they
would get a higher proportion of their payments closer to when the beneficiary goes off the
rolls (potentially even before that point) rather than receiving payments spread evenly over
60 months after a beneficiary leaves the rolls. There are also suggestions that SSA, perhaps
in collaboration with Rehabilitation Services Administration, take steps to encourage SVRAs
to use the new payment systems and/or make a positive contribution to the development of
the EN market in the SVRA’s state. Toward this end, changes could involve the traditional
payment system as well as regulations and incentives that would encourage more balanced
SVRA-EN agreements. As the TTW program proceeds, SSA may even wish to modify the
work incentive rules governing when SSI and DI beneficiaries lose their cash benefits to
make the rules more consistent with the concepts underlying TTW and with each other.
In any event, changes should be made quickly in order to preserve the TTW program’s
current momentum. Participation rates were still rising through August 2003, the last month
for which we have data, but ENs are continuing to drop out of the program. As a result,
beneficiaries may face reduced choices and program enrollments may stagnate. The loss of
momentum is not the end of TTW, but may make it harder to SSA to provide the choices
and opportunities that TTW promises to beneficiaries.
Executive Summary