Evaluation of the Ticket to Work Program Initial Evaluation Report

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22 the beneficiary off the disability rolls). The EN must submit a signed copy of each IWP to the Program Manager. The EN must also develop and implement the plan in a manner that gives the beneficiary the opportunity to exercise informed choice in selecting an employment goal. According to final program rules, an IWP must include statements addressing: 1. The vocational goal developed with the beneficiary, including appropriate goals for earnings and job advancement 2. The services and support necessary for the beneficiary to accomplish the goal(s) 3. Any terms and conditions related to providing the services and support 4. The fact that the EN may not request or receive compensation from the beneficiary for the cost of services and supports 5. The conditions under which the EN may amend the IWP or terminate the relationship 6. The beneficiary’s rights under TTW—including to privacy and confidentiality, to have a copy of the IWP, and to seek to amend the IWP—and of the remedies available to the beneficiary. Services provided under TTW could vary substantially depending on beneficiaries’ needs. A beneficiary with well-developed work skills and substantial work experience might need only short-term assistance in identifying and getting interviews with appropriate employers. For such a person, an EN would function generally as a job placement firm. Some beneficiaries might need longer-term job training or vocational rehabilitation to develop skills that would enable them to get and keep a job with wages high enough to move them off the disability rolls. Others might need an EN to provide support services such as transportation and child care to help them remain and function effectively in the workplace. When beneficiaries make progress toward and achieve approved employment objectives—that is, work for a specified numbers of months at the nonblind SGA level— ENs may be paid for those outcomes. Overall, the TTW reimbursement system marks a significant departure from the traditional cost reimbursement system for SVRAs, which is discussed later. Under the TTW program, ENs may choose to be paid under one of two payment systems: an outcome-only payment system or a milestone-outcome payment system. The former provides a potentially larger total payment, with all payments occurring only when the beneficiary is off the disability rolls; the latter provides somewhat lower total potential payments but up to four initial payments that begin while the beneficiary is still on the disability rolls but has achieved specific earnings milestones. The two plans were designed so that the maximum total amount of payments made to an EN with respect to a beneficiary under the milestone-outcome system would equal about 85 percent of the payout available under the outcome-only system. An overview of the two systems is provided in Table II.1. II: Structure and Background of the Ticket to Work Program
Table II.1: Outcome-Only and Milestone-Outcome Payment Systems, Based on 2003 Amounts % of PCB* Outcome-Only Payment System SSI Ticket- Holder SSDI Ticket- Holder Outcome achieved when: The beneficiaries’ entitlement to Social Security disability cash benefits ends or eligibility for SSI cash benefits based on disability or blindness terminates due to work activity or earnings. 40% $196 per month $328 per month Total outcome payments available (60 payments) $11,760 $19,680 Milestone-Outcome Payment System Must occur before the first outcome payment month, and is achieved when the beneficiary works: Milestone: 1. 1 calendar month above gross SGA 34% $167 $279 2. 3 calendar months above gross SGA in a 12- month period 3. 7 calendar months above gross SGA in a 12- month period 4. 12 calendar months above the applicable SGA threshold amount in a 15-month period 68% $334 $557 136% $668 $1,114 170% $835 $1,393 Total of the 4 milestone payments available $2,004 $3,343 +60 (reduced) outcome payments: Same rules apply with regard to when an outcome is achieved as under the outcome payment method Each outcome payment made to an EN will be reduced by an amount equal to 1/60 th of the total milestone payments made to that EN Estimated total available Added together, the 4 milestone payments plus the 60 available months of reduced outcome payments should equal about 85% of the maximum possible under the outcome payment method 34% Depending on the number of milestones achieved, outcome payments could range from $134 to $279 $10,044 $16,723 SOURCE: www.yourtickettowork.org/selftraining/EN_Unit6_PaymentOptions.doc. Accessed November 13, 2003. Note: The potential for outcome payments related to SSI beneficiaries may be affected by their monthly federal benefit calculation *The PCB is based on the cash disability benefits SSA paid in the prior calendar year. These formulas are updated annually. The PCBs for 2003 are $819 for SSDI and $491 for SSI. Individual payments have been rounded to the nearest whole dollar. ,,6WUXWXUHDQG%DNJURXQGRIWKH7LNHWWR:RUN3URJUDP
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 and 30: C HAPTER II S TRUCTURE AND B ACKGRO
Page 31 and 32: In reality, however, the success of
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: 21 c. Dispute Resolution In a progr
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
Page 81 and 82: Payment System. Many ENs do not bel
Page 83 and 84: example, reporting lags inherent in
Page 85 and 86: eceived only small amounts thus far
Page 87 and 88: SVRA services for Ticket clients; (
Page 89 and 90: C HAPTER IV E ARLY P ARTICIPATION P
Page 91 and 92:
73 Figure IV.2: Cumulative Number o
Page 93 and 94:
point in the Phase 1 rollout. For P
Page 95 and 96:
77 Figure IV.7: First Assignments a
Page 97 and 98:
79 Figure IV.8: Ticket Participatio
Page 99 and 100:
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
Page 135 and 136:
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
Page 147 and 148:
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
Page 157 and 158:
prior to September 2003 and had not
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R EFERENCES Adequacy of Incentives
Page 161 and 162:
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
Page 169 and 170:
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
Page 219:
“work and receive full cash benef
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