Evaluation of the Ticket to Work Program Initial Evaluation Report

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12 This description gives an overview of how the program is intended to operate. The chapters that follow describe how each element was implemented. Livermore et al. (2003) provide information about earlier implementation. A. BASIC STRUCTURE OF TICKET TO WORK This section begins with an overview of the roles and responsibilities of the major program stakeholders. It then describes the key processes and policies of the program, generally from the perspective of a beneficiary. It concludes with an explanation of the services that ENs provide and the program’s reimbursement policies. 1. Roles and Responsibilities of Major TTW Stakeholders Conceptually, TTW is a fairly simple program, as displayed in Figure II.1. It begins with the disability beneficiaries who may, with varying degrees of assistance, be able to achieve economic self-sufficiency and thus leave the SSI or DI rolls. The program then revolves around two relationships. The first relationship involves the Ticket itself, which is essentially a promise of payment from SSA to an EN for providing services that move disability beneficiaries back to work and off the SSI/DI rolls. The second relationship, between a beneficiary and an EN, is governed by a voluntary agreement about services, called an Individual Work Plan (IWP). 1 Figure II.1: Overview of Key Relationships in TTW SSA SSI/DI rules Ticket Beneficiaries Employment Networks Individual Work Plan 1 The service plan prepared by an SVRA is known as Individual Plan for Employment (IPE), the name for SVRA agreements with clients before TTW. Since IWPs and IPEs are essentially the same thing, for the sake of simplicity we hereafter use the term IWP to refer to either type of plan. II: Structure and Background of the Ticket to Work Program
In reality, however, the success of the TTW program depends on multiple stakeholders carrying out many diverse and interrelated tasks according to specific rules and time frames. For instance, as shown in Figure II.2, SSA provides a Ticket and related information to eligible beneficiaries and a list of those beneficiaries to the Program Manager. Beneficiaries take their Tickets to an EN, negotiate an IWP with the EN to specify a set of services that will get them working, and then participate in those services. Once they are employed, participants report their earnings to SSA and their EN; the earnings determine whether the beneficiary remains eligible for DI or SSI benefits and therefore help to determine the payments that ENs receive. ENs provide or arrange for services to beneficiaries and submit payment claims to the Program Manager. The Program Manager recruits ENs, notifies beneficiaries about ENs in their area, facilitates payments to ENs on behalf of SSA, and notifies SSA about any problems with EN performance. The responsibilities of the four major TTW stakeholders—SSA, the Program Manager, ENs, and beneficiaries—are identified below. 13 Figure II.2: Relationships Among Beneficiaries and the Three Types of TTW Organizations Oversight information, payment claims on ENs SSA Program Manager List of Ticket eligible beneficiaries Earnings information Payment claims Ticket and information List of ENs and program information Payments Recruit ENs, faciliate payments Beneficiaries Ticket, earnings information ENs Individual Work Plans II: Structure and Background of the Ticket to Work Program
Page 1 and 2: Contract No.: 0600-03-60130 MPR Ref
Page 3 and 4: A CKNOWLEDGMENTS This report benefi
Page 5 and 6: C ONTENTS Chapter Page ACRONYMS ...
Page 7 and 8: vii Chapter Page V (continued) D. C
Page 9 and 10: A CRONYMS ABIL AIDS AWICs AOI BPAO
Page 11 and 12: E XECUTIVE S UMMARY T he Ticket to
Page 13 and 14: Overall, we found that SSA has impl
Page 15 and 16: money on their TTW operations. For
Page 17 and 18: xvii CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS SSA fa
Page 19 and 20: C HAPTER I O VERVIEW OF THE T ICKET
Page 21 and 22: The TTW program and other elements
Page 23 and 24: A. EVALUATION COMPONENTS: GOALS, SC
Page 25 and 26: 7 ! How many beneficiaries particip
Page 27 and 28: 9 B. PURPOSE AND ORGANIZATION OF TH
Page 29: C HAPTER II S TRUCTURE AND B ACKGRO
Page 33 and 34: MAXIMUS to serve as the Program Man
Page 35 and 36: 17 4. Participate in the activities
Page 37 and 38: N Decision Reversed Request SSA Rev
Page 39 and 40: 21 c. Dispute Resolution In a progr
Page 41 and 42: Table II.1: Outcome-Only and Milest
Page 43 and 44: milestone payment is equal to 34 pe
Page 45 and 46: Unemployment Insurance (UI) wage da
Page 47 and 48: 29 3. Related Initiatives TTW has n
Page 49 and 50: SSA Demonstrations. SSA plans to im
Page 51 and 52: Protection and Advocacy. The SSA-fu
Page 53 and 54: C HAPTER III TTW EARLY I MPLEMENTAT
Page 55 and 56: 37 Table III.1: TTW Implementation
Page 57 and 58: Ticket-eligible beneficiaries were
Page 59 and 60: 41 TTW. In the past, SSA systems ha
Page 61 and 62: information in SSA’s records cont
Page 63 and 64: work period automation and tracking
Page 65 and 66: Systems and Infrastructure. The Pro
Page 67 and 68: 49 asked the Program Manager for a
Page 69 and 70: 51 • The first payment for each b
Page 71 and 72: currently being addressed relate to
Page 73 and 74: payment system. Only one SVRA (Okla
Page 75 and 76: SVRA personnel have consistently ex
Page 77 and 78: 59 • Are SVRAs permitted to requi
Page 79 and 80: Table III.4: ENs and ENs with Ticke
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Payment System. Many ENs do not bel
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example, reporting lags inherent in
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eceived only small amounts thus far
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SVRA services for Ticket clients; (
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C HAPTER IV E ARLY P ARTICIPATION P
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73 Figure IV.2: Cumulative Number o
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point in the Phase 1 rollout. For P
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77 Figure IV.7: First Assignments a
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79 Figure IV.8: Ticket Participatio
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81 Figure IV.10: Ticket Participati
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83 states. This finding suggests th
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There is a strong negative relation
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C HAPTER V C ASE S TUDIES OF E IGHT
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89 A. SERVICE MODELS AND TARGETED C
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Although the director was initially
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Clients who assign their Tickets to
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session. Those who miss their appoi
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interview. While this is time consu
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claim employer tax credits. Through
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these individuals, because they typ
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103 F. RELATIONS WITH OTHER ORGANIZ
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eneficiaries to meet that standard.
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IDR representatives said that to da
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substantiate wages, and clients are
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services? Unfortunately, for ENs to
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Manager. At present, this is only p
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stubs: the need for beneficiaries t
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C HAPTER VI A DEQUACY OF I NCENTIVE
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We have also begun to analyze admin
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viewed as lacking the productive ca
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assist in the identification of ind
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eneficiaries. In examining results
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127 E. CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS The
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C HAPTER VII C ONCLUSIONS AND I MPL
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noticeably low, and, among the very
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Act. At the same time, some ENs hav
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Another change requiring considerat
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C HAPTER VIII N EXT S TEPS FOR THE
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prior to September 2003 and had not
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R EFERENCES Adequacy of Incentives
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A PPENDIX A D ATA T ABLES C ORRESPO
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A-3 Table A.2 Cumulative Number of
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A-5 Table A.4 Percentage of Tickets
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A-7 Table A.6 Percentage of Tickets
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A-9 TABLES SHOWING CHARACTERISTICS
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A-11 Table A.10 Ticket Participatio
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A-13 Table A.12 Ticket Participatio
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A-15 Table A.14 Percentage of In-Us
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A PPENDIX B P ROVIDER-SPECIFIC C AS
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informed beneficiaries that state V
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e considerably more successful if S
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them for employment. It was during
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working but are still receiving SSI
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B.11 client over a four-year period
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B.13 placing SSA beneficiaries than
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B.15 that came in for an initial ap
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B.17 all benefits; therefore, EES d
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B.19 outreach program. As noted pre
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B.21 remained employed. 3 Because o
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B.23 estimate of the financial loss
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B.25 Social Security benefits. IDR
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B.27 have to submit pay stubs twice
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B.29 Bridges still provides the 10-
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B.31 While she used to have a polic
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B.33 8. Oklahoma Department of Reha
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B.35 Beneficiaries interested in as
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B.37 permits agency budgets to be c
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A PPENDIX C D EFINING THE F OUR A D
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B. IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUALS WITH A N
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“work and receive full cash benef
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