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

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52in their characteristics, levels of impairment, and attitudes toward work. They also may havebeen partly a result of the TTW program itself. At this time, we are reporting just thedifferences without making firm judgments about what caused or influenced them. Ournext report will attempt to identify the causal factors and, in particular, to assess TTW’sinfluence. Nevertheless, the observed differences in outcomes between participants andnonparticipants after Tickets were mailed are at least consistent with the principal objectiveof TTW, and it is hard to imagine that the program could have its intended effects withoutgenerating these sorts of differences.A. TARGET POPULATION AND OUTCOME MEASURESOn January 12, 2002, SSA selected from its beneficiary rolls all individuals in Phase 1states who satisfied the Ticket eligibility criteria. 1 SSA mailed Tickets to these beneficiarieson a staggered schedule beginning in February 2002 and ending in October of that year. 2Beneficiaries who became Ticket eligible after the initial selection date were mailed a Ticketsoon after achieving eligibility but no earlier than if they had been eligible on that date. Weconducted separate program-specific analyses of the 1,511,299 DI beneficiaries and the940,876 SSI beneficiaries who were selected by SSA on January 12, 2002 3 and were still aliveand under age 65 at the end of the analysis period, 15 months after Tickets were mailed. 4These beneficiaries constituted the target population for our analysis. Included among themwere 11,565 DI recipients and 7,757 SSI recipients who had assigned their Tickets.This chapter describes time trends in three key outcomes for DI and SSI beneficiaries:(1) the receipt of zero benefits, (2) the receipt of zero benefits combined with substantial1To be eligible for TTW, a disabled individual must be at least 18 years old and less than 65 years old andreceiving a positive DI or SSI benefit. The disability may be either permanent (improvement is not expected)or nonpermanent (improvement is either expected or cannot be accurately predicted). Two small groups,accounting for about six percent of those satisfying the former criteria, are ineligible: (1) SSI beneficiaries whohad been entitled to benefits under the childhood regulations but who have very recently turned 18 and havenot undergone the process to determine whether they are disabled under the adult eligibility criteria and (2) SSIor DI beneficiaries for whom medical improvement was expected at the time of benefit award but who havenot passed at least one medical continuing disability review.2 Readers who would like more information on the rollout of TTW can consult Thornton et al. 2004,Chapter III.3 We do not present findings for the Phase 1 beneficiaries who became eligible for TTW after January 12,2002 (“newly eligibles”), for three reasons. First, many of them were mailed Tickets after the initial group ofTicket eligibles, so fewer months of postmailing data on outcomes are available for them. Second, newlyeligibles differ dramatically from existing eligibles in the pre-mailing values of the outcome measures, so wewere reluctant to analyze both groups together. Third, there are only about 10 percent as many newly eligiblesas initial eligibles; consequently, the numbers of newly eligible Ticket participants are small (1,131 DI and 844SSI). Thus, summary measures of outcomes would be much less reliable when computed on newly eligibleparticipants than when computed on existing-eligible participants.4 The requirements that beneficiaries be alive and under age 65 at the end of the analysis period ensurethat the trends in outcomes presented in this chapter do not reflect the influence of the attainment of age 65—when many beneficiaries stop receiving disability benefits and begin receiving retirement benefits—or of death.IV: Early Outcomes for Ticket Recipients
employment, and (3) the combined SSI and DI disability benefit amount. The time coveredranges from 12 months before the Tickets were mailed to either 6 months or 15 monthsafter they were mailed. 5 We selected these outcomes because they are useful indicators ofwhether TTW has been successful in moving beneficiaries into employment and off therolls, and they will be the focus of the evaluation in future reports.53B. OUTCOMES BY PROGRAMThis section describes outcomes before and after Tickets were mailed for all Ticketrecipients who satisfied the criteria to be included in the analysis, as noted in the previoussection. Findings are presented separately for DI and SSI beneficiaries. 6 Section C presentsoutcomes for the same Ticket recipients, but the findings are further disaggregated bywhether or not they were TTW participants by virtue of having assigned their Tickets toENs or SVRAs.1. Zero BenefitsWe classified individuals as being in “zero benefit status” (or receiving “zero benefits”)if they were not eligible for disability benefits under either the DI or the SSI program. IfTTW is successful in terms of its principal objective, then we would expect it to increase theincidence of zero benefits among Ticket recipients.Before Tickets were mailed, the incidence of zero benefits among those in the targetpopulation who ultimately received them was falling. This was an artifact of the Ticketeligibility criteria. Individuals who were mailed Tickets had varying benefit starting dates inthe months leading up to the mailing date, with all of them being on the rolls as of theJanuary 12, 2002, selection date. Among those who were selected, a few were no longerreceiving positive benefits when their Tickets were subsequently mailed. Figure IV.1 showsthat 1.2 percent of DI recipients and 2.2 percent of SSI recipients were in zero benefit statusin the Ticket mail month. Under TTW program rules, these individuals were prohibitedfrom assigning their Tickets until they returned to positive benefit status. Twelve monthsearlier, 3.1 percent of DI beneficiaries and 3.8 percent of SSI beneficiaries were in zerobenefit status.Outcomes after Tickets were mailed are central to the evaluation of TTW. If TTW iseffective in moving beneficiaries off the program rolls, then we would expect the percentageof Ticket recipients in zero benefit status to increase following the mail month. Figure IV.1shows that the percentage of both DI and SSI beneficiaries in zero benefit status did, in fact,increase after the mail month, but the increases were small. During the 15 months afterTickets were mailed, the proportion of SSI recipients with zero benefits increased by 1.55 The postmailing follow-up period is shorter for employment outcomes based on data from SSAsummary earnings records, which are posted only after a considerable time lag.6Concurrent beneficiaries, who were receiving DI and SSI benefits, were included in the DI analysis andthe SSI analysis.IV: Early Outcomes for Ticket Recipients
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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
Page 26 and 27: 2of disability beneficiaries, and i
Page 28 and 29: 4country. Phase 2 began in November
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Page 32 and 33: 8Only a few beneficiary characteris
Page 34 and 35: 10Figure II.2.Participation Rate, b
Page 36 and 37: 12Figure II.4.First Assignments at
Page 38 and 39: 14before Ticket, it is perhaps surp
Page 40 and 41: 16was selected for Phase 3. This ma
Page 42 and 43: 18All of the statistics in this sec
Page 44 and 45: Table II.2. Beneficiary Groups with
Page 46 and 47: 22In all Phase 1 and Phase 2 states
Page 48 and 49: 24Figure II.8. Ticket Participation
Page 50 and 51: 26Adjustments for all other charact
Page 52 and 53: 28In general, provider and payment
Page 54 and 55: 30next report, we will conduct more
Page 56 and 57: 32Figure III.2.Living Arrangements
Page 58 and 59: 34• Less likely to have reported
Page 60 and 61: 36Figure III.7.Prevalence of Diffic
Page 62 and 63: 38are more likely than all benefici
Page 64 and 65: 40Table III.1.Income and Program Pa
Page 66 and 67: 42coverage through their own employ
Page 68 and 69: 44sizable percentage of TTW partici
Page 70 and 71: 46Overall, 9 percent of working-age
Page 72 and 73: 48leave the rolls in the next year,
Page 74 and 75: 50next year and in the next five ye
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 124 and 125: 100assigning their Tickets to ENs (
Page 126 and 127:
102Table VI.1. SVRA Ticket Assignme
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104case, the counselor selects the
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106• Most of the agreements requi
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108needs of SSA beneficiaries and,
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110to the SVRA under the traditiona
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112Tickets each month from November
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114about submitting virtually ident
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116To make EN recruiting efforts mo
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118E. EN ENROLLMENTThe Program Mana
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120beneficiaries who have achieved
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122quarterly basis if they have rec
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124SSA’s approval of systems spec
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Page Is Intentionally Left Blank to
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128have accepted. But even at that
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130For beneficiaries who express an
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132rehabilitation counselors (Burea
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134generated a payment to an EN gen
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136the milestone-outcome payment ge
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138system is used so infrequently t
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140One option is for ENs to try to
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142approximations. Our planned anal
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144Figure IX.1. Ticket-Eligible Ben
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146Table IX.2.TTW Participation Rat
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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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