Evaluation of the Ticket to Work Program Initial Evaluation Report

B.26
have made the program so costly to operate that IDR can only afford to accept Tickets from
beneficiaries who it believes can be successfully placed with very low upfront costs. IDR has
stopped accepting Tickets from SSI recipients altogether, because they are too costly to serve
and because payment for services is lower. Screening procedures now attempt to identify
SSDI Ticket holders viewed as “job ready”. IDR no longer provides vocational training or
other costly upfront services, but focuses on resume development, interview and job seeking
skills, and intensive job placement services to assist Ticket clients.
IDR is currently in the process of shifting its outreach activities away from retail clients
and towards its long term disability Ticket holders and the beneficiaries recommended by
vendors in its national network. Since January 2002, approximately 50% of Ticket
assignments have come from retail clients and the rest from clients on long-term disability.
In the coming year, IDR estimates that the mix will shift to about 25% retail clients and 75%
long-term disability clients.
Ticket Assignments and Outcomes. IDR estimated at the time of the second
interview that it has 137 Ticket assignments, and has received about $7,000 in payments for
over a dozen beneficiaries. IDR is not actively unassigning large numbers of Tickets but has
unassigned the Tickets of specific beneficiaries who did not follow through with activities
specified in the IWP.
IDR staff has not experienced significant problems actually serving Ticket holders. Staff
members indicated that the effect of the recent economic downturn on job development and
placement efforts has been negligible. For the most part, IDR feels it has been very
successful in its job placement and employment retention efforts. The agency indicated that
the services required by beneficiaries who are long-term disability cases are virtually identical
to those needed by beneficiaries considered retail cases. The differences between the two
groups primarily relate to available funding. For long-term disability clients, IDR is able to
receive funding from both an insurance company and SSA. In contrast, the agency must rely
exclusively on payments from SSA when serving retail cases.
Unlike many other ENs, IDR is still actively accepting Tickets, but it has become much
more selective in the number of Ticket assignments it accepts from retail clients. To date,
the operational costs of the program have far exceeded the revenue IDR collects through
payments from SSA. The low return on the initial investment has made it difficult for IDR
to raise additional capital from lending institutions to expand program operations. The
insurance payments for serving long-term disability clients are used to meet its cash flow
needs; IDR considers SSA payments a “bonus”. The decision to serve fewer retail cases is
based on the financial risk involved in serving these individuals, since IDR must rely entirely
on SSA payments to offset the costs of serving these individuals. If the payment process
does not change in the future, IDR may reluctantly stop serving retail clients altogether.
Program Administration. IDR staff feels very strongly that problems in the current
payment process continue to jeopardize the entire TTW program. One staff member said,
“This one issue is putting the entire program at risk.” IDR estimates that it costs the agency
$90-$120 to collect a $279 payment from SSA; approximately 40%-45% of program
revenues are devoted to pursuing pay stub issues. Program participants are annoyed that they
Appendix B: Provider-Specific Case Study Summaries