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

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110to the SVRA under the traditional payment system has recently declined. At the same time,the share of TTW participants whose cases have been closed as competitively employed hasdeclined.These declines, which started in the same year as the Phase 1 TTW rollout, raiseconcerns over whether they were related to TTW in some way. In general, it seems unlikelythat TTW caused the overall reduction in employment outcomes because the decline hasbeen consistent across all three groups of states (Phase 1, 2, and 3). The downturn in theeconomy might explain the decline, but the pattern does not hold for other SVRA clients. Ifthe economic downturn is to blame, the fact that the decline is not observed for nonbeneficiarySVRA clients suggests that the slowing economy had a much greater impact onbeneficiary clients, perhaps because they have an alternative source of income (i.e., DI or SSIbenefits) or because they have more challenging physical and medical conditions. Whateverthe cause, the trend toward decreased employment outcomes for SSA beneficiaries servedthrough SVRAs is disturbing. Future analyses will examine whether these trends continueand, if they do, will identify the underlying causes.VI: State Vocational Rehabilitation Agency Participation in Ticket to Work
C HAPTER VIIR ECENT P ROGRAM I MPLEMENTATIONThis chapter describes the recent activities of SSA and the Program Manager in rollingout and implementing the TTW program. The major topics addressed in this chapterinclude the overall status of Phase 3 program implementation; development of SSArules, regulations, and other guidance on TTW; the TTW call center; marketing and outreachplans and activities; EN enrollment; training and technical assistance; system enhancements;payment processing; the status of efforts to assess whether beneficiaries are making “timelyprogress”; and various other initiatives that relate to TTW. Most of the informationpresented in this chapter is drawn from interviews with SSA and Program Manager officials,but we also include comments from ENs where relevant.Implementation of Phase 3 of Ticket rollout is now complete. As of the end of April2005, more than 90,000 Tickets had been assigned by beneficiaries to SVRAs and ENs, andSSA had made over $1.5 million in payments (SSA 2005). The agency has also developedthe rules, regulations, and other guidance needed to operate the program. Plans to increasemarketing and outreach to beneficiaries are underway. The Program Manager has initiatednew EN capitalization resource materials to help ENs pay for the upfront costs of servingTTW clients. SSA has also significantly enhanced its management information systems, suchas eWork, to help process pay stubs and other beneficiary documentation. Because SSAreceived no special appropriation for these efforts, it implemented TTW as part of all itsother activities and priorities.Despite important progress, there are still problems to overcome. Certain regulationsrequired by the Ticket Act have not been promulgated. It has become more difficult torecruit ENs, and more and more of them are dropping out of the program. Additionalmarketing efforts under discussion since Phase 1 have yet to be implemented, and paymentprocessing is still problematic.A. ROLLOUT SCHEDULEBeginning in November 2003, Phase 3 of TTW was implemented in the final 17 statesand U.S. territories (Table VII.1). (See Appendix A for an overall timeline of Ticketimplementation and a list of states by phase.) The schedule for mailing Tickets was the sameas the one used during Phase 2. Ten percent of Phase 3 Ticket-eligible beneficiaries were mailed
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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,
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50next year and in the next five ye
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52in their characteristics, levels
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54percentage points to 3.7 percent.
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56Figure IV.2. Phase 1 Ticket Recip
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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 124 and 125: 100assigning their Tickets to ENs (
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 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
Page 174 and 175: 150Compared with other beneficiarie
Page 176 and 177: 152Like all other beneficiaries who
Page 178 and 179: This kind of mixed success in the e
Page 180 and 181: C. SVRA PARTICIPATION REMAINS STRON
Page 182 and 183: 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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