Evaluation of the Ticket to Work Program Initial Evaluation Report

C.4
C. IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUALS WHO EARN A SUBMINIMUM WAGE
The evaluation design assumes that most beneficiaries in this category will be working in
sheltered workshops, but others might be working in competitive employment situations
through a subminimum wage certificate. We anticipate that identifying these individuals will
be very challenging, because SSA administrative data do not contain wage data. For SSI
recipients, monthly earnings are available, but hours worked are not. Reports of annual
earnings subject to FICA taxes are routinely reported, but again do not contain wage
information and are only available after a 14-month time lag. The evaluation design
proposes to develop a prediction equation for subminimum wages for beneficiaries with
earnings, using detailed wage and hour data from the Survey of Income and Program
Participation that have been matched to SSA’s administrative data. The resulting prediction
model could subsequently be applied to the administrative data to predict the hourly wage
rates for beneficiaries with earnings and begin to identify individuals who have a high
probability of earning subminimum wages. Another option is to identify the similar group
that has monthly earnings that fall well below what would be earned by a full-time worker
who was paid the federal minimum wage.
D. IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUALS WHO WORK AND RECEIVE PARTIAL
CASH BENEFITS
In any given month, many SSI recipients may be working and earning wages, even
above the level designating substantial gainful activity, yet not sufficient to reduce their cash
benefit to zero. 2 Because a Ticket holder must be in zero cash benefit status to generate an
outcome payment for an EN, Congress was concerned that these individuals might have a
particularly difficult time locating an EN willing to accept their Ticket and provide them the
services necessary to increase their earnings and ultimately reduce their cash benefit to zero.
Individuals who receive partial cash benefits can be identified through SSA administrative
data. These individuals may actually be earning wages that might, in some situations, reduce
their benefit to zero, yet continue to receive a benefit payment through the use of various
work incentives (e.g. Plan for Achieving Self Support, subsidies, Student Earned Income
Exclusion, etc.).
In the next evaluation report, we will identify SSI beneficiaries who receive partial
benefits because of work by focusing on their reported earnings during the prior 12 months.
In particular, we will analyze those who have (1) some earnings in at least one month, and
(2) earnings above the individual’s minimum disregard in one or more months. While the
concept of partial cash benefits does not apply to DI-only beneficiaries on a monthly basis,
on a longer term basis it does apply to those DI beneficiaries that have intermittent
employment experiences that cause them to cycle in and out of payments during their
Extended Period of Eligibility. Specifically, we will focus on DI beneficiaries that (1) receive
FICA-covered earnings in a given year and (2) experience an interruption in benefit
payments during at least one month of the year. We will also identify DI beneficiaries who
2 DI beneficiaries receive either the full cash benefit for which they are eligible or no
payment at all.
Appendix C: Defining the Four Adequacy of Incentive Groups