Evaluation of the Ticket to Work Program Initial Evaluation Report

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46 assistance to field offices and external entities serving beneficiaries in the region, and acts as the communication link between central office and the field. Regional offices have also played a role in monitoring field processing of EN payment cases. In addition, central office staff will sometimes contact the regional office to inquire about the status of the processing of earnings issues for a particular EN payment case. With the implementation of the Area Work Incentive Coordinator position, SSA expects that regional office staff will become less involved in these activities. One of the roles of the coordinators will be to monitor the processing of disability work issue workloads in the field, both for EN payment and general workload processing purposes. Field office interviewees note that the SSA central office has placed a high priority on preparing field staff for TTW. A series of 40 interactive video training programs were broadcast to field offices on work incentive provisions. One field office manager interviewed notes that in his 20 years with SSA, he has never before seen as much training and emphasis on work incentive issues. Nevertheless, the emphasis on the training did vary from office to office, and some staff did not attend the training. In addition to the training on TTW and work incentives, field office staff have been affected by the implementation of the DCF. According to regional and field office interviewees, field staff encountered difficulties with the system when it was first implemented. Some found the interactive video training on the DCF confusing and overly detailed. Others were frustrated by the system’s limitations and the need to duplicate some data entry because of the lack of integration with MRTW. Many of the problems field staff experienced with the DCF are being addressed by the eWork initiative and other enhancements being developed. Field office staff believe that the upcoming release of the integrated system will significantly reduce the burden and complexity of work CDRs and contribute to the timely processing of this workload. At present, field office staff report that they are spending their TTW-related time gathering and documenting earnings information. Although there have been relatively few EN payment claims to date at any particular field office, the ones that have been received are often complicated and require extensive effort to address. In some offices, requests are being received from BPAOs and ENs for wage and benefit information that can be used in benefits counseling. Early in Phase 1, such requests were most notable in offices that had an Employment Support Representative. 2. Program Manager a. Implementation Challenges MAXIMUS signed a contract with SSA on September 29, 2000, and began operating as the Ticket Program Manager. As with SSA, the Program Manager had to expend a large effort to establish the infrastructure needed to administer TTW. Program Manager interviewees note several challenges associated with the initial implementation. III: TTW Early Implementation
Systems and Infrastructure. The Program Manager had about 18 months to develop and implement all the systems and procedures needed to perform its required TTW functions. During this period, the Program Manager established: ! The internal systems to administer TTW, referred to as MAXSTAR. The system includes the local area network, quality assurance systems, telephone/PBX systems, programming and data analysis for MAXSTAR, and website development and maintenance. The MAXIMUS Program Manager is completely segregated from the rest of the company, with its own server dedicated to MAXSTAR and housed off-site. System back up and duplication is located at a third, redundant site on the west coast. The Program Manager developed several databases for TTW, including a contact database, an EN database, a payment database, and a beneficiary database. ! An interface with SSA that allows the Program Manager to have essentially the same data access authority as an SSA field office, with its own field office code and SSA hardware. In conjunction with SSA, a batch-file system was tailor-made to include all the SSA administrative data elements that the Program Manager needs to administer TTW. SSA provides daily updates to the main records for the DI and SSI programs, including changes to addresses, program eligibility, benefits, and TTW eligibility. The file includes only individuals eligible for a Ticket, and does not allow the Program Manager access to CDR diaries. The Program Manager passes information back to SSA as well, including data on: Tickets mailed, Tickets assigned, active/inactive status, and terminated Tickets. This system has provided efficient data exchanges between the Program Manager and SSA, while maintaining necessary levels of security and information privacy. ! A TTW training curriculum for ENs and SVRAs, consisting of 14 topical modules. The Program Manager also conducts large group trainings when EN groups come together as well as EN web training sessions. ! A call center staffed by approximately 50 information agents, five supervisors, and one manager. The call center operates from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. (Eastern Standard Time) to answer calls from potential ENs, the general public, the media, SVRA staff, and beneficiaries. The call center has handled approximately 157,000 TTW-related calls as of early August 2003. This department also handles EN relations after a provider’s EN application has been approved. For EN contacts, specific information agents are assigned to geographic areas and to SVRAs. Beneficiaries contacting the call center, however, are routed to the first available information agent, who can pull up records for any previous calls from the beneficiary. Agents will give their names and extensions to beneficiaries if follow-up contact is desired. ! A website (www.yourtickettowork.com) that contains extensive information about TTW for ENs, SVRAs, beneficiaries, and the general public. The website contains training and information resources for ENs, and program information, including a directory of ENs, for beneficiaries. 47 III: TTW Early Implementation
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Contract No.: 0600-03-60130 MPR Ref
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A CKNOWLEDGMENTS This report benefi
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C ONTENTS Chapter Page ACRONYMS ...
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vii Chapter Page V (continued) D. C
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A CRONYMS ABIL AIDS AWICs AOI BPAO
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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 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: work period automation and tracking
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
Page 101 and 102: 83 states. This finding suggests th
Page 103 and 104: There is a strong negative relation
Page 105 and 106: C HAPTER V C ASE S TUDIES OF E IGHT
Page 107 and 108: 89 A. SERVICE MODELS AND TARGETED C
Page 109 and 110: Although the director was initially
Page 111 and 112: Clients who assign their Tickets to
Page 113 and 114: 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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Evaluation of the Ticket to Work Program Initial Evaluation Report

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