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

site. The relatively few ENs we interviewed that had carefully reviewed the material hadgenerally positive comments about the manual. One person, for example, said, “The manualis well put together and contains standard, good information one needs” to seek additionalfunding. Other ENs, however, were more skeptical about its usefulness or had not evenheard of it. For more information on this issue, see Chapter V.119G. SYSTEMS ENHANCEMENTSSSA has made significant progress in improving its automated systems during the pastyear, particularly in the areas of tracking and verifying earnings, administering continuingdisability reviews, and determining when benefits become zero for EN payment purposes.During the past year, SSA completed its conversion to the Integrated Disability ManagementSystem (IDMS), which houses the Disability Control File (DCF). 4 The DCF is the file formanaging disability benefit post-entitlement activity. It contains a complete history of SSI andDI beneficiary records, including medical information, monthly earnings, work and medicalcontinuing disability review information, and relevant information about TTW eligibility. Onepractical implication of the IDMS is that if a Ticket is shown to be in use and a medical CDR isscheduled, the CDR is automatically rejected, since such reviews are suspended forbeneficiaries who use their Tickets.A new web-based initiative known as the eWork System interfaces with the IDMS andautomates the documentation of all SSI and DI earnings information. The eWork System isa management tool that enables SSA field office staff to enter beneficiary earnings data onlyonce and have it populate all other relevant administrative data system fields. It processeswork reports, initiates CDRs, and tracks the number of months remaining in the trial work period.It also enables SSA field office staff and Telephone Service representatives to generate a receiptwhen a beneficiary receiving SSI, SSDI, or concurrent benefits reports earnings. When SSIrecipients report monthly income, eWork records that information, prints receipts for therecipients, and posts a message to the field office that action is needed (e.g., a reduction inthe monthly payment amount). In addition to eWork’s other advantages, staff expect it toreduce the incidence of overpayments because it automates the processing of earnings information.The eWork System is also available to the AWICs to monitor the progress of field office staff inprocessing work CDRs; the AWIC can view a list of pending work CDRs in a particularoffice to check the date on which any given CDR was requested and what information isoutstanding. The field offices have been pilot testing eWork throughout the past year, and it wasfully rolled out to all field offices in November 2004. According to an SSA staff member,“Overwhelmingly, field office staffs absolutely love the eWork application because it cutsdown the number of key strokes and handoffs per case.”In August 2004, SSA staff indicated that there were still “bugs” to be resolved in theIDMS and eWork System. The most frequent and serious problem was erroneousterminations of Tickets. The IDMS has been incorrectly terminating the Tickets of4 For background information on the creation of the DCF, see the initial evaluation report.VII: Recent Program Implementation