Evaluation of the Ticket to Work Program Initial Evaluation Report

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assessment will be made in 2004 when we have completed the full round of EN and SVRA
site visits, including interviews with providers in Phase 2 states. The quantitative
information, in contrast, is more current and covers all TTW Phase 1 and Phase 2 states.
This section focuses on the operational developments SSA has made during the past 12
months. The early experience of creating the TTW rules and procedures and the initial
rollout in the Phase 1 states was covered in the preliminary process analysis (Livermore et al.
2003). Using that report as background, we focus on the issues that remain in flux,
particularly the system for making Ticket payments and the improvements SSA continues to
make in the administrative data systems required to manage the program. Overall, it is clear
that SSA has made great progress in developing a system that diverges dramatically from
past agency practice. TTW has required SSA to develop new systems to integrate
information from the SSI and DI programs on a scale never before attempted. In doing so,
SSA has not only made the TTW program fully operational (although some rough edges
remain), but it has also begun to produce a new way of seeing things at SSA that could have
long-term effects on the way the agency deals with its disability beneficiaries.
In reviewing the rollout experience, we begin with the schedule. We then turn to the
early experience with the TTW operational systems from the perspectives of SSA, the
Program Manager, the SVRAs, and ENs. We also present monthly participation statistics for
the Phase 1 and 2 states. Statistics on participant characteristics appear in Chapter IV.
A. ROLLOUT SCHEDULE
The Ticket Act was passed and became P.L. 106-170 on December 19, 1999.
Throughout 2000 and 2001, SSA prepared to implement the program (Table III.1) in phases.
Phase 1 was implemented in 13 states beginning in February 2002, and Phase 2 in another 20
states plus the District of Columbia beginning in November 2002 (Table III.2). Phase 3 of
the program will be implemented in the remaining 17 states and the U.S. territories
beginning in November 2003. TTW was initially to be rolled out in early 2001, but the
actual rollout was substantially delayed because the final program rules were delayed in
publishing. Tickets were released gradually in the Phase 1 states. Based on the terminal digit
of the eligible beneficiaries’ Social Security numbers, Tickets were mailed to eligible
beneficiaries according to the following schedule:
• February 2002 10% of eligible beneficiaries
• April 2002 20% of eligible beneficiaries
• May 2002 30% of eligible beneficiaries
• June 2002 40% of eligible beneficiaries
III: TTW Early Implementation