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

30next report, we will conduct more in-depth analyses using multivariate methods to morerigorously assess the factors affecting employment and TTW participation, as well as otherissues associated with the implementation of TTW.The preliminary findings indicate that TTW participants differ in many respects frombeneficiaries in general; they are younger, more educated, and healthier than otherbeneficiaries. While they also share many of the characteristics that make employedbeneficiaries also different from beneficiaries in general, TTW participants and employedbeneficiaries do differ in some respects. For instance, TTW participants are younger than allemployed beneficiaries. They are also less likely to be white, to be receiving DI only, toreport mental retardation as a reason for activity limitation, and to have private healthinsurance. But they are more likely to live alone and to rely on food stamps. Relative to allbeneficiaries, TTW participants are, as we might expect, more likely to have usedemployment-related services and to be employed. Finally, TTW participants have higherexpectations about working in the future, compared not only with all beneficiaries but alsowith beneficiaries who were employed at interview.A. SOCIODEMOGRAPHIC AND HEALTH CHARACTERISTICS1. Sociodemographic CharacteristicsWith few exceptions, TTW participants are similar to beneficiaries employed atinterview but different in many respects from beneficiaries overall (Figure III.1). TTWparticipants and employed beneficiaries are more likely than the general population ofworking-age Social Security disability beneficiaries to be male, younger than age 40, and tohave higher levels of education. They are less likely to be married and over age 55. Whilesimilar in the ways that they differ from beneficiaries in general, TTW participants do differfrom those employed at interview in several respects: they are less likely to be white (61percent compared with 77 percent), more likely to have schooling beyond high school (41percent compared with 28 percent), and are less likely to be married (14 percent comparedwith 26 percent).Household composition and living arrangements are important characteristics becausethey can affect both the desire and capacity to seek rehabilitation services and employment.While the three groups we compared are similar in these respects, TTW participants aresomewhat more likely to live alone but less likely to live with their children if they havechildren (Figure III.2). Across all groups, only a small percentage of beneficiaries (about fivepercent) have children under the age of six.III: Beneficiary Characteristics and Employment Perspectives