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

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100assigning their Tickets to ENs (Kregel and Revell 2003). The Phase 2 SVRAs weinterviewed, however, were less likely to establish call centers or extensive marketingprograms. They also dedicated fewer resources to obtaining Ticket assignments frombeneficiaries already on their caseloads, so-called “pipeline cases,” that receive their Ticketafter signing an Individual Plan for Employment (IPE) with an SVRA. Their approach toTicket holders—which may be correlated with the reduced participation rates in the Phase 2states described in Chapter II—could be a result of at least three factors. First, these Phase2 SVRAs may have learned from the experiences of the Phase 1 states, realizing that existingclients were unlikely to assign their Tickets elsewhere. Second, caseworkers may have cometo see Ticket assignment merely as an administrative step that would not affect the servicesdelivered to pipeline clients. Third, it could reflect longstanding (pre-TTW) differences intheir approach to dealing with clients; one of the criteria for including states in Phases 1 and3 was that they were more “market proactive,” thereby causing Phase 2 SVRAs to appearless active as compared with their Phase 1 counterparts.Figure VI.4. Percentage of Competitively Employed SSA Cases Versus non-SSA Cases,FY 1997–200335%34%% Competitively Employed33%32%31%30%29%28%27%26%1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003SSANon-SSASource: RSA 911 (Case Service Reports) Public Use File.Recent interviews with eight Phase 1 and Phase 2 SVRAs also reveal that Ticketassignments from new clients—those who receive a Ticket before signing an IPE with anSVRA—continue to be a controversial issue. Transmittal 17 of the “Social SecurityProvider’s Handbook” (SSA 2002) allows SVRAs to submit a Ticket Assignment Form(Form 1365) without the beneficiary’s signature—that is, without his/her express consent—as long as the SVRA in question also submits the first and last pages of the IPE signed byboth the beneficiary and an SVRA representative. Six of the eight SVRAs we interviewedVI: State Vocational Rehabilitation Agency Participation in Ticket to Work
indicated that they sometimes file Ticket assignment requests for new cases that have notsigned Form 1365, with several SVRAs reporting that as many as 10 percent of allassignments may fall into this category.SVRAs appear to be unsure what to do regarding unsigned Ticket assignment requestsfor new cases. Some say they are “not really comfortable” with this practice, and manyindicate that they would strongly prefer that SSA forbid it. Yet, many SVRAs submitunsigned Ticket requests anyway because current SSA regulations require that they do so inorder to recoup their costs under the traditional payment system and to prevent beneficiariesfrom assigning their Ticket to an EN without the SVRA’s knowledge.Despite the fact that SVRAs have been seeking Ticket assignments for some new caseswithout the beneficiary’s signature, they believe that consumer choice is important, and theyare doing their best to provide new clients—and others—with enough information on theirrights and choices under the TTW and VR programs. SVRAs identified several practicesdesigned to ensure choice in the context of current SSA procedures and regulations. SomeSVRAs said they have trained their rehabilitation counselors to give clients information onboth the consequences of signing an IPE and their rights and protections under TTW. Tothis end, four SVRAs reportedly modified their IPE forms. In addition, two SVRAsencouraged beneficiaries to meet with the local BPAO so that they would fully understandthe effects of TTW participation and employment on their disability and health care benefits.One SVRA has worked with the Protection and Advocacy (P&A) program in its state todevelop a consumer-oriented fact sheet on TTW that is used as an information guide forbeneficiaries during their discussions with rehabilitation counselors about Ticket assignment.101C. USE OF NEW TTW PAYMENT OPTIONSAlthough SVRAs can assign each Ticket under either the traditional payment system orone of the new payment systems, most SVRAs continue to rely almost exclusively on theformer. As discussed in the initial evaluation report, only 4.5 percent of all Tickets assignedto SVRAs in Phase 1 states and 8.9 percent of Tickets assigned in Phase 2 states by the endof August 2003 were assigned under one of the new payment options. More recent datacovering the period from initial rollout through March 2004 show that the percentage ofTickets assigned to SVRAs under the new systems continues to be low. Only 6 percent ofall SVRA Ticket assignments nationwide were made under the new systems (Table VI.1).Phase 2 SVRAs continue to use these systems more often than Phase 1 SVRAs, but only 12SVRAs have assigned more than 10 percent of their Tickets under one of the new systems.VI: State Vocational Rehabilitation Agency Participation in Ticket to Work
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A CKNOWLEDGMENTSThe Ticket To Work
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viiiChapterVI(CONTINUED)PageF. SUMM
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xChapterPageAPPENDIX A: TICKET TO W
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xiiTableVIII.3IX.1IX.2IX.3IX.4IX.5I
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xivFigureIII.5III.6III.7III.8III.9P
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xviIX.3EARNINGS OF BENEFICIARIES WI
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xviiiMIENBSNPRMOAGPABSSPSUSGASSASSI
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xxIn Phase 3, which began in Novemb
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xxiigroups of beneficiaries that Co
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xxivimprove TTW, therefore, is to f
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2of disability beneficiaries, and i
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4country. Phase 2 began in November
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Page Is Intentionally Left Blank to
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8Only a few beneficiary characteris
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10Figure II.2.Participation Rate, b
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12Figure II.4.First Assignments at
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14before Ticket, it is perhaps surp
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16was selected for Phase 3. This ma
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18All of the statistics in this sec
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Table II.2. Beneficiary Groups with
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22In all Phase 1 and Phase 2 states
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24Figure II.8. Ticket Participation
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26Adjustments for all other charact
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28In general, provider and payment
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30next report, we will conduct more
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32Figure III.2.Living Arrangements
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34• Less likely to have reported
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36Figure III.7.Prevalence of Diffic
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38are more likely than all benefici
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40Table III.1.Income and Program Pa
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42coverage through their own employ
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44sizable percentage of TTW partici
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46Overall, 9 percent of working-age
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48leave the rolls in the next year,
Page 74 and 75: 50next year and in the next five ye
Page 76 and 77: 52in their characteristics, levels
Page 78 and 79: 54percentage points to 3.7 percent.
Page 80 and 81: 56Figure IV.2. Phase 1 Ticket Recip
Page 82 and 83: 58situation described in the preced
Page 84 and 85: 60the end of the follow-up period w
Page 86 and 87: 62Figure IV.6. Average Monthly Bene
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Page 90 and 91: 66ENs were reluctant to expand serv
Page 92 and 93: 68As of July 2004, there were about
Page 94 and 95: 70But most EN representatives saw T
Page 96 and 97: 72Figure V.2. Number of EN Terminat
Page 98 and 99: 74received a total of just about $2
Page 100 and 101: 76Relatively few ENs have received
Page 102 and 103: 78According to their representative
Page 104 and 105: 80Five EN officials recognized that
Page 106 and 107: 82This was particularly true for so
Page 108 and 109: 84• Another EN representative fou
Page 110 and 111: 86• A third EN received 50 calls
Page 112 and 113: 88resolve administrative issues suc
Page 114 and 115: 90• Raise payments for SSI benefi
Page 116 and 117: 92Finally, the real and perceived w
Page 118 and 119: 94efforts to obtain Ticket assignme
Page 120 and 121: 96SSA payments to SVRAs under the T
Page 122 and 123: 98Figure VI.3. Total SSA Payments t
Page 126 and 127: 102Table VI.1. SVRA Ticket Assignme
Page 128 and 129: 104case, the counselor selects the
Page 130 and 131: 106• Most of the agreements requi
Page 132 and 133: 108needs of SSA beneficiaries and,
Page 134 and 135: 110to the SVRA under the traditiona
Page 136 and 137: 112Tickets each month from November
Page 138 and 139: 114about submitting virtually ident
Page 140 and 141: 116To make EN recruiting efforts mo
Page 142 and 143: 118E. EN ENROLLMENTThe Program Mana
Page 144 and 145: 120beneficiaries who have achieved
Page 146 and 147: 122quarterly basis if they have rec
Page 148 and 149: 124SSA’s approval of systems spec
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Page 152 and 153: 128have accepted. But even at that
Page 154 and 155: 130For beneficiaries who express an
Page 156 and 157: 132rehabilitation counselors (Burea
Page 158 and 159: 134generated a payment to an EN gen
Page 160 and 161: 136the milestone-outcome payment ge
Page 162 and 163: 138system is used so infrequently t
Page 164 and 165: 140One option is for ENs to try to
Page 166 and 167: 142approximations. Our planned anal
Page 168 and 169: 144Figure IX.1. Ticket-Eligible Ben
Page 170 and 171: 146Table IX.2.TTW Participation Rat
Page 172 and 173: 148Figure IX.3. Earnings of Benefic
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150Compared with other beneficiarie
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152Like all other beneficiaries who
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This kind of mixed success in the e
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C. SVRA PARTICIPATION REMAINS STRON
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serving beneficiaries who are simil
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observe changes in their employment
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Mashaw, Jerry L., and Virginia P. R
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A-2Table A.1 (continued)Time Period
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Table B.1. DefinitionsB-2Variable D
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Table B.1 (continued)B-4Variable De
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Table B.1 (continued)Variable Defin
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B-8Table B.3. Participation Rate by
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B-10C. PARTICIPATION RATES BY BENEF
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Table B.6. Participation Rates by C
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Table B.6 (continued)Group Definiti
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Table B.6 (continued)B-16Group Defi
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C-2survey. Whenever possible, the i
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C-4given the large number of benefi
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C-6• Young SSI recipients who are
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C-8beneficiary may have had with EN
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C-10Table C.2. Overview of the Nati
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C-12Sample completes (n=1,178) and
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C.14Table C.3 (continued)AllIntervi
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C.16Table C.5. Final Weighted and U
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C.18Table C.7. Sociodemographic Cha
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C.20Table C.9. Health Status (Figur
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C.22Table C.11. Program Participati
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C.24Table C.14. Awareness of TTW (F
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C.26Table C.16. Employment Expectat
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D-2Table D.1. Selected Characterist
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D-4information from two pretest int
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