Evaluation of the Ticket to Work Program, Implementation ...

86• A third EN received 50 calls since rollout in the state; about 20 or 30 potentialclients were invited to the office for intake appointments; the EN had acceptedone Ticket as of the interview.Some EN officials were disappointed that such a small percentage of beneficiarycontacts resulted in Ticket assignments. They were bothered by the effort and resourcesthey expended in the screening process for so little yield. But they also understood theeconomics of the program and were quite pragmatic about not serving Ticket holders whoeither did not buy into the program’s objectives or were unlikely to achieve the desiredemployment outcomes. As one EN representative said with regard to potential clients whowant to work only part time, “I can’t get any money out of that, so I can’t invest a dime inthat.” If Ticket holders do not understand that the program goal is to achieve earningsabove the SGA level, another official said, “There’s no point in us taking them as a client.”3. Ticket UnassignmentsAfter Tickets are assigned, beneficiaries and providers are not inextricably linked to oneanother. In the market-oriented, flexible design of TTW, Ticket unassignment represents away for Ticket holders to officially sever relations with an EN, and vice versa. A majority ofthe EN representatives we interviewed reported that some of the Tickets they accepted hadbeen unassigned. In most cases, the number was very low, typically one to three, andrepresented a relatively small proportion of the total number of Tickets the ENs hadaccepted, although there were exceptions. 8In some cases, Ticket unassignment was initiated by clients and, in other cases, by theENs themselves. EN officials did not always know why clients had unassigned their Tickets(clients are under no obligation to inform them), but a few reported that clients wereapparently unhappy with the services they received and thought that they might end up inbetter jobs if they took their Tickets elsewhere. According to EN representatives, theirorganizations initiated unassignments for three primary reasons: (1) clients either did notmake enough of an effort to get or keep a job or failed to maintain contact with the EN; (2)clients with special problems made placement and continued employment very difficult—examples include not being able to get along with anybody or having a past felonyconviction; and (3) an EN lost money on the program.It seems likely that some of the ENs that had never unassigned a Ticket will eventuallydo so at least once. One EN representative said she was about to unassign 2 of her 21Tickets. Two other officials, one with over 100 Tickets, said that until our interview, theywere not aware that they could unassign a Ticket.8 One EN had unassigned 12 of its 13 Tickets, a second had unassigned 15 of its 74 Tickets, and a thirdhad unassigned 31 of its 42 Tickets. These unassignments were initiated by the EN or the beneficiary.V: EN Participation in Ticket to Work