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Evaluation of the Ticket to Work Program Initial Evaluation Report

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C HAPTER III<br />

TTW EARLY I MPLEMENTATION<br />

The <strong>Ticket</strong> <strong>to</strong> <strong>Work</strong> program is now a reality. SSA has developed all <strong>the</strong> required<br />

systems and <strong>the</strong> program has been fully rolled out in 33 states and <strong>the</strong> District <strong>of</strong><br />

Columbia. It will be rolled out in <strong>the</strong> remaining states and <strong>the</strong> U.S. terri<strong>to</strong>ries starting<br />

in November 2003. As <strong>of</strong> September 2003 SSA had mailed over five million <strong>Ticket</strong>s, and<br />

more than 2,600 <strong>Ticket</strong>s were in assignment. Most assignments were <strong>to</strong> state VR agencies<br />

(SVRAs) under <strong>the</strong> traditional payment system (84 percent), and many <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se assignments<br />

are from beneficiaries who were existing SVRA clients prior <strong>to</strong> TTW. Remaining<br />

assignments were <strong>to</strong> about 250 <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> almost 800 participating Phase 1 and Phase 2 ENs or,<br />

in a small share <strong>of</strong> cases, <strong>to</strong> SVRAs acting as ENs, predominantly under <strong>the</strong> miles<strong>to</strong>neoutcome<br />

payment system (13.1 percent <strong>of</strong> all assignments, versus 3.4 percent for outcome<br />

only). As <strong>of</strong> early August 2003, 70 ENs and SVRAs acting as ENs have received payments<br />

under <strong>the</strong> two new payments systems <strong>to</strong>taling about $220,000, on behalf <strong>of</strong> 240 beneficiaries.<br />

In this chapter, we describe and discuss <strong>the</strong> early experience <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>Ticket</strong> rollout. The<br />

discussion is based on:<br />

• Site visits and interviews conducted between July and November <strong>of</strong> 2002 with<br />

SSA staff, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Program</strong> Manager, ENs, and SVRAs in Phase 1 states (previously<br />

reported in Livermore et al. 2003)<br />

• Site visits <strong>to</strong> SSA conducted in August and September 2003<br />

• The findings from an EN Summit, convened by SSA’s <strong>Ticket</strong> <strong>to</strong> <strong>Work</strong> and <strong>Work</strong><br />

Incentive Advisory Panel in May 2003, as summarized in Livermore (2003)<br />

• Analysis <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> SSA Office <strong>of</strong> Information Management (OIM) <strong>Ticket</strong> Universe<br />

file<br />

• <strong>Ticket</strong> payment data provided by SSA’s Office <strong>of</strong> Employment Support<br />

<strong>Program</strong>s<br />

• EN and <strong>Ticket</strong> assignment data reported by <strong>the</strong> <strong>Program</strong> Manager<br />

The qualitative process information available for this report provides a good indication<br />

<strong>of</strong> overall activities, but is not fully representative <strong>of</strong> all recent experience. A more detailed

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