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

C HAPTER IVE ARLY O UTCOMES FOR T ICKETR ECIPIENTSThe principal objective of the Ticket to Work program is to move SSI and DIrecipients into employment and off the beneficiary rolls. This chapter presentsfindings from our initial analyses of outcomes for Ticket recipients that directlypertain to this objective: benefit receipt, benefit amount, and employment. We report onthese outcomes both before and after Tickets were mailed. However, even though werestricted the analysis to the Phase 1 states where TTW was rolled out first, the follow-upperiod was relatively brief—we have data on beneficiaries for at most 15 months afterTickets were mailed. This timeframe may be too brief to observe meaningful changes inoutcomes for participants. For example, prior studies indicate that the average SVRA clientreceives services for 25 months (Gilmore 2004). Findings are presented for all Ticketrecipients and separately for Ticket participants (beneficiaries who assigned their Tickets toENs or SVRAs) and nonparticipants (beneficiaries who received Tickets but did not assignthem).Some of the most interesting findings presented in this chapter are from comparisonsof outcomes between TTW participants and nonparticipants. Outcomes were oftendifferent for these two groups even before Tickets were mailed. Some of these differencespersisted virtually unchanged in the postmailing period, while others changed substantially.Whether the latter occurred because of TTW is an open question that will be addressed infuture reports under this evaluation.The previous two chapters reported that Ticket participants are distinguished by anumber of characteristics—they are younger, have more education, and are less likely to bemarried than Social Security disability beneficiaries in general. Our analysis of outcomesrevealed that participants are distinctive in other dimensions as well. For most of the yearbefore TTW was rolled out in Phase 1 states, the beneficiaries who ultimately received andassigned their Tickets were more likely than nonparticipants to have zero benefits and to besubstantially employed. Following the rollout, there were only small changes in benefitreceipt and employment among all Ticket recipients; however, employment and programexits did appear to increase slightly among beneficiaries who assigned their Tickets relative tothose who did not, at least among SSI beneficiaries. These small differences may have beenthe result of several factors, including the documented differences between the two groups