Evaluation of the Ticket to Work Program Initial Evaluation Report

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SSA, and this will substantially delay payment. 5 EN and SVRAs are encouraged by the
Program Manager to meet the requirements for primary evidence because it will expedite the
payment process (SSA wants primary evidence because it will be used to make decisions
about an individual’s continued eligibility for benefits; secondary evidence is acceptable when
decisions only affect the benefit amount). With respect to primary earnings evidence, one
issue that often must be addressed is the fact that pay stubs may not contain all of the
information necessary for SSA to process the claim. The evidentiary requirements differ
depending on the program in which the beneficiary is entitled (DI and/or SSI) and the type
of payment claim. For DI, SSA requires information on the period in which the wages were
earned. For SSI, SSA needs information on the date that the wages were paid. Also, for all
milestone payments and for outcome payments after benefits terminate for work or
earnings, SSA requires information about the date that the wages were earned. These subtle
differences, and the fact that employer pay stubs do not always reflect both pieces of
information, complicate the EN payment process even when ENs have been diligent about
collecting the earnings information from beneficiaries.
Upon receipt of a payment claim, the Program Manager must inspect the claim (ensure
that it complies with primary or secondary evidence of earnings requirements) and submit
the information electronically to SSA. During the development of TTW, staff approximated
Program Manager claim processing time at three and a half hours per claim. According to
Program Manager staff, actual processing time early on was closer to eight hours per claim.
At interviews in October 2002, Program Manager staff responsible for processing EN claims
were hoping to reduce their processing time to about five hours by the following year. This
will be achieved through better education of ENs regarding claim requirements and
stabilization of the process at the SSA.
Program Manager staff note that the payment process was initially slow for several
reasons:
• The first 100 payment claims underwent a full review by SSA. For these 100
payment requests, only SSA could authorize the payment. For future payment
requests, the Program Manager will be able to authorize payment.
• The first claims submitted by an EN are generally difficult because of the EN’s
inexperience with the process and lack of knowledge of SSA’s primary evidence
requirements.
5 Some SVRAs acting as ENs complained that they wanted to continue using third-party
reporting information to process earnings for Ticket clients. SVRAs were initially required
to submit the same earnings documentation as other ENs. Later, SSA allowed SVRAs to
submit third-party earnings information; e.g., from state Unemployment Insurance data, in
lieu of pay stubs. However, if SSA must wait for primary evidence to become available via
IRS, the delay in payment can be up to two years.
III: TTW Early Implementation