Evaluation of the Ticket to Work Program Initial Evaluation Report

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Several ENs noted beneficiary characteristics that they look for in deciding whether or
not to accept a Ticket. Such characteristics include: a desire for full-time employment, the
ability to earn above $8 per hour, the ability to be quickly placed in employment (few
significant barriers to entering employment), and needs consistent with the services offered
by the EN.
Some EN interviewees described approaches they had developed to minimize the
burden of educating beneficiaries about TTW and identifying appropriate candidates. These
approaches include the following:
• Developing key screening questions and criteria, which are applied prior to
spending time educating beneficiaries about the program. For example,
ascertaining whether beneficiaries are willing to work full time, are immediately
available for job interviews, and the number of job interviews they are willing to
do per week. Responses consistent with a strong desire to work are indicators of
appropriate candidates.
• Holding group orientation sessions for those meeting initial screening criteria to
describe the purpose of the program and to emphasize how the EN will be paid,
or not paid, based on beneficiary work outcomes.
• Developing specific criteria for unassigning Tickets and incorporating those
requirements into the individual work plan agreement with the beneficiary.
Examples of criteria used by ENs to unassign Tickets include missed
appointments or job interviews, being a no-show for a job, and losing contact
with the counselor.
Ticket Assignments. Early in TTW implementation, a few ENs were accepting a
substantial number of Tickets and appeared to be experiencing some success. These ENs
had several traits in common: they had established processes for selecting motivated and
seemingly employment-ready Ticket holders; they were very selective about whose Tickets to
accept, indicating that only 10 to 30 percent of Ticket holders screened resulted in an
assignment; they offered very limited services and focused on interview skills, resume
writing, and job placement; and they adhered to policies for unassigning the Tickets of
beneficiaries who did not appear to be actively engaged in the program.
d. Early EN Experiences with Employment and Payment Outcomes
At the time of the initial site visits (2002), few ENs had placed beneficiaries in
employment or had received payments. As of early August 2003, a total of 673 outcome or
milestone payments had been made to 70 ENs in both Phase 1 and 2 states, on behalf of
240 Ticket holders. Most ENs serving Ticket holders working at levels that make the ENs
eligible for payments have only a small number of such clients, and just a few have a
substantial number of clients that make them eligible for payments (Figure III.2). Of the 67
ENs that received a payment, 35 had received payment for only one Ticket holder and 60
had received payments for five or fewer Ticket holders. One had over 30 Ticket holders
working at levels that generated EN payments. In summary, most ENs with payments have
III: TTW Early Implementation