Evaluation of the Ticket to Work Program Initial Evaluation Report

Unemployment Insurance (UI) wage data to prove that a beneficiary achieved the required
level of income. If the quarterly wages divided by three are at least $100 above SGA ($200
over SGA if no information on impairment-related work expenses is available), SSA
considers the SGA criterion to be satisfied in each of the 3 months. If the evidence does not
meet the $100/$200 tolerances, SSA submits a request to the beneficiary’s field office to
further develop the earnings report. If SVRAs are unable to submit any evidence of
earnings, quarterly new hire wage data are used for SSI and concurrent cases. These data are
also based on UI records and are submitted by states primarily for purposes of enforcing
child support orders. By law, SSA is not permitted to use these data for DI cases. If new
hire data cannot be used and the claim appears to be at SGA but does not meet the
tolerances, the claim sits in a wage holding file until annual wage information is obtained
from the IRS.
An examination of SVRA claims and payments (Livermore et al. 2003) reveals that the
number of claims allowed grew substantially and more or less steadily from about 2,200 in
1984 to over 11,000 in 1999. As the number of approved claims rose, so too did SSA’s
payments, from just over $4 million in 1984 to over $100 million during each of the four
most recent years for which data are available (1998-2001). In 2001, the average cost per
claim allowed was $12,668. Note that this amount falls between the total amount of
payments available for serving SSI and DI clients under both of TTW’s payment systems
(Table II.1). Thus, SVRAs can receive more money for providing assistance to certain
beneficiaries under TTW than under the traditional payment system (assuming the
beneficiary’s work activity generates all possible milestone and/or outcome payments).
Moreover, the government will be assured that the beneficiaries actually leave the disability
rolls rather than just working at SGA for nine months.
For many years, SVRAs remained the only real option that SSA disability beneficiaries
had for rehabilitation services. Until 1996, SSA could only refer disability beneficiaries to
non-SVRA providers if an SVRA declined to participate in the program or terminated or
limited its participation. But because all SVRAs participated in the program, there were
effectively no alternatives.
New regulations implemented in 1996 attempted to give SSA more flexibility in the
referral process by initiating the Alternate Participant Program. An alternative participant is
any public or private agency (except a participating SVRA), organization, institution, or
individual with whom SSA entered into a contract to provide vocational rehabilitation
services. Under this program, the option of serving an SSA beneficiary is still offered first to
SVRAs, but if the SVRA does not respond within a given time period, an alternative
participant can take the case. For various reasons, however, such as limited marketing of the
program to beneficiaries and the difficulties that providers have had in tracking beneficiary
employment and earnings, the Alternative Participant Program never successfully served a
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II: Structure and Background of the Ticket to Work Program