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

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54percentage points to 3.7 percent. Meanwhile, the proportion of DI recipients in zero benefitstatus increased by only three-tenths of 1 percentage point to 1.5 percent. These increasesmay reflect the continuation of weak propensities for program exit that existed in theabsence of TTW. On the other hand, it is also possible that TTW contributed to them.Figure IV.1. Phase 1 Ticket Recipients with Zero Benefits (Eligible for TTW on 1/12/2002)5.0%4.5%4.0%3.5%3.0%2.5%2.0%1.5%1.0%0.5%0.0%-12 -10 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14Months Since Ticket Was MailedDIAs mentioned, Section C presents outcomes separately for Ticket participants andnonparticipants. Those results are more suggestive about TTW’s contribution to theincrease in the incidence of zero benefits after Tickets were mailed, at least among SSIrecipients. However, they too do not provide convincing evidence that TTW had itsintended effect.2. Zero Benefits and Substantial EmploymentSubstantial employment, defined as working and earning in excess of the substantialgainful activity (SGA) level, in combination with receiving zero benefits is a more tellingoutcome measure for TTW than zero benefits alone. It captures both the programparticipation and employment dimensions of the principal objective of TTW. We createdthis measure from monthly indicators of zero benefit status and from annual earnings in SSAsummary earnings records. 7 Because the earnings data apply to calendar years, while thebenefit data apply to months, we had to construct the combined measure by using thesimplifying assumption that earnings were received only during months when there were nodisability benefits. We calculated average earnings during zero benefit months by dividing7 To preserve the confidentiality of beneficiary data in SSA’s summary earnings records, contractor staffdid not directly access those records. Rather, the SSA project officer for this evaluation ran analysis jobs for uson SSA’s mainframe computer.SSIIV: Early Outcomes for Ticket Recipients
earnings for a calendar year by the number of zero benefit months in that year. If theresultant value equaled or exceeded SSA’s monthly substantial gainful activity level for thatyear, then we designated the zero benefit months in that year as months of substantialemployment. All other months—those in which benefits were positive and those in whichbenefits were zero but average earnings were below SGA—were designated as monthswithout zero benefits and substantial employment. 8Almost no Phase 1 Ticket recipients received zero benefits and were substantiallyemployed (Figure IV.2). This is not surprising given that SSI, DI, and TTW rules rely on adefinition of disability that is based on the inability to perform substantial employment.Only four-tenths of one percent of both SSI and DI beneficiaries met our criteria for havingzero benefits and substantial employment when Tickets were mailed. The shallow U-shapedtime pattern that we observed for zero benefit status alone is barely perceptible whensubstantial employment is also considered because substantial employment for Ticketrecipients was extremely rare throughout the analysis period. Specifically, before DIbeneficiaries were selected to receive a Ticket, and 12 months before the Tickets weremailed, just 1.4 percent of them were substantially employed and receiving zero benefits.And for SSI beneficiaries, we know from Figure IV.1 that 3.8 percent were in zero benefitstatus at that time; however, only about one in seven of those individuals were substantiallyemployed by our definition. The resultant very low rate of combining zero benefits withsubstantial employment, just one-half of one percent, reflects the especially weakemployment histories of SSI recipients. 9Rates of combining substantial employment with zero benefits edged up almostimperceptibly for both SSI and DI beneficiaries during the six months after Tickets weremailed, by about one-tenth of one percent to about one-half of one percent. This suggeststhat if TTW did affect the rates at which Ticket recipients combined substantial employmentwith zero benefits, the impacts must have been very small. Of course, six months is notmuch time to allow impacts to materialize. Subsequent reports on this evaluation willpresent findings based on longer follow-up periods.8 Future reports on the TTW evaluation will present analyses of a more direct measure of substantialemployment combined with zero benefits—one that does not require the simplifying assumption underlyingthe current measure. The new measure will be based on SSA’s official determination that a (former) disabilitybeneficiary left the rolls due to work.9 There are several reasons why members of the target population who were not substantially employed(by our definition) at some time during the analysis period may not have been receiving disability benefits.First, they may have been ineligible for benefits at that time for reasons unrelated to their own employment,such as the absence of disability or, for SSI, disqualifying levels of income or assets from other familymembers. Second, the measure of earnings that we used to determine substantial employment has knowncoverage gaps. Most notably, many state and local government employees, as well as some long-term Federalgovernment employees, are not covered by Social Security, so their earnings are not included in SSA’s summaryearnings records, which are the source of our earnings measure. Future reports under this evaluation willpresent employment-related findings based on data from SSA’s detailed earnings records, which have fewercoverage gaps than the summary earnings records because they are not restricted to earnings in Social Securitycovered employment. Additionally, some of our future analyses of zero benefit status and substantialemployment will be based on SSA records data on the reason for exit from the benefit rolls.55IV: 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
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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 76 and 77: 52in their characteristics, levels
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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