Disability Topics

At a Glance

Funder:

Social Security Administration

Project Time Frame:

2003-2011

Ticket to Work: Helping People with Disabilities Find and Keep Jobs

Mathematica is conducting a seven-year evaluation of the Ticket to Work (TTW) program, a major initiative of the Social Security Administration to increase disability beneficiaries' employment and reduce their dependence on benefits.

The TTW program increases beneficiaries' choice of employment-support providers by expanding the types of organizations that SSA will pay to assist beneficiaries' work efforts. Prior to TTW, SSA funded only state vocational rehabilitation agencies to help beneficiaries. Now, it pays a wide array of public and private providers, called employment networks (ENs). TTW also introduced a new financing system for the ENs. This system provides performance incentives for ENs because they receive full payment only when a beneficiary they served earns his or her way off the rolls and stays off for 36 months. The old system for state vocational rehabilitation agencies, which still exists, did not require beneficiaries to actually leave the rolls, only that they accrue earnings for nine months at a level consistent with SSA's definition of substantial gainful activity.

Service delivery in TTW is constrained, however, by providers' desire to limit expenditures to a level that fits within the payments they expect to receive. Service delivery is also constrained by providers' perceptions of whether the services they provide are likely to result in a beneficiary leaving the rolls. In fact, providers can refuse to serve beneficiaries they view as unlikely to leave the rolls for work. In July 2008, SSA implemented new regulations in the TTW program designed to increase participation by ENs and beneficiaries. The new regulations increased payments to ENs, reduced the time period beneficiaries must remain off the rolls for ENs to receive full payment, and allowed beneficiaries to receive services from ENs even after receiving services from a state vocational rehabilitation agency that were paid for by SSA.

Mathematica is assessing program implementation and effects on employment, earnings, and benefit receipt. Special attention is being paid to how well the program serves beneficiaries who may have difficulty finding a provider. The evaluation includes a series of surveys: one focused on a nationally representative sample of all beneficiaries and another focused only on beneficiaries who have used their Ticket to Work. In total, we are conducting more than 20,000 beneficiary interviews on a range of issues, including disability and work status, awareness of TTW and other work incentive programs, program experiences, employment services used, health and functional status, health insurance, income and other assistance, sociodemographic characteristics, and other issues.

Our 2008 evaluation report noted that TTW increased beneficiary use of employment services in 2002 and 2003, the first two rollout years. However, the increase did not appear to produce a corresponding increase in beneficiary earnings or a reduction in benefit payments. The authors noted that impacts for 2004 and later may be larger as participation rates continue to increase, and many nonparticipants say they plan to assign their TTW. Nevertheless, analysis of trends in TTW payment data suggests that the program would have to induce future shifts in beneficiary behavior that are much larger than what has been observed so far in order to generate the level of exits from the program envisioned by Congress. In particular, meeting the exit goal will require TTW participation to increase substantially and a larger share of participants to earn enough so that they no longer receive cash benefits. Future reports will assess the impact of the new regulations on beneficiary service use and employment outcomes.

Data Collection Highlights

For the National Beneficiary Surveys being conducted for the TTW evaluation, we use computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) with computer-assisted personal interviewing to follow up with those who cannot be reached through CATI and those who prefer, or need, an in-person interview to accommodate their disabilities. Both modes are fully integrated to simplify reporting and data processing.

As part of our effort to innovate and develop best practices, we introduced design features into the questionnaire to overcome communication, stamina, and cognitive barriers. We also designed data collection procedures to maximize self-response while ensuring data quality. This process included conducting specialized interviewer trainings; using assistive technologies such as teletypewriters, Telecommunications Relay Service, amplifiers, and instant messaging to enable persons with hearing or speech impairments to participate for themselves; conducing in-person followups; and permitting assisted interviews to increase self-response rates. An innovative “mini-cognitive test” is used to identify when proxy respondents are needed to complete a survey for respondents who cannot do so themselves (even with assistance). Several additional methodological experiments are built into round four to compare methods for determining the need for a proxy and evaluate potential mode effects.

In-house and in-the-field locating efforts resulted in more than 90 percent of the sample being located for each round. In 2004 7,604 interviews were completed for round one (a weighted response rate of 78 percent for the beneficiary sample and 81 percent for the TTW participant sample), 8,106 interviews were completed in 2005 for round two (a weighted response rate of 79 percent for the beneficiary sample and 81 percent for the TTW participant sample), and 6,605 interviewers were completed for round three in 2006 (a weighted response rate of 81 percent for the beneficiary sample and 82 percent for the TTW participant sample). We are also preparing analysis files, including public use files and documentation.

Public Use Data Files

"National Beneficiary Survey: Round 3 Public Use File Codebook" (January 2010)
"National Beneficiary Survey: Round 3 Public Use Data File" (January 2010)
"National Beneficiary Survey: Round 2 Public Use File Codebook" (December 2009)
"National Beneficiary Survey: Round 2 Public Use Data Files" (December 2009)
"National Beneficiary Survey: Round 1 Public Use File Codebook" (September 2009)
"National Beneficiary Survey: Round 1 Public Use Data Files" (September 2009)

Publications

2012
"The Work Experiences of New SSI Beneficiaries: A Longitudinal Perspective" Issue Brief 12-06 (November 2012)
"Longitudinal Statistics for New Supplemental Security Income Beneficiaries" (November 2012)
"Ticket to Work Participant Characteristics and Outcomes Under the Revised Regulations" (September 2012)
"Executive Summary of the Sixth Ticket to Work Evaluation Report" (September 2012)
"2010 National Beneficiary Survey: Methodology and Descriptive Statistics" (April 2012)
"Can the Ticket to Work Program Be Self-Financing?" (April 2012)
"Service Providers' Experiences Under the Revised Ticket to Work Regulations" (February 2012)

2011
"Provider Experiences Under the Revised Ticket to Work Regulations" (September 2011)
"Employment-Related Outcomes of a Recent Cohort of Work Incentives Planning and Assistance (WIPA) Program Enrollees" (September 2011)
"Evaluation of the Recent Experience of the Work Incentives Planning and Assistance (WIPA) Program: Beneficiaries Served, Services Provided, and Program Costs" (September 2011)
"Social Security Disability Beneficiaries with Work-Related Goals and Expectations" Social Security Bulletin(August 2011)
"Longitudinal Outcomes of an Early Cohort of Ticket to Work Participants" Social Security Bulletin (August 2011)
"Longitudinal Statistics on Work Activity and Use of Employment Supports for New Social Security Disability Insurance Beneficiaries" Social Security Bulletin (August 2011)
"Employment of Individuals in the Social Security Disability Programs" Social Security Bulletin (August 2011)
"Disability Benefits Suspended or Terminated Because of Work" Social Security Bulletin (August 2011)

Disability Topics

At a Glance

Funder:

Project Time Frame:

Public Use Data Files

Project Publications

Ticket to Work: Helping People with Disabilities Find and Keep Jobs

Data Collection Highlights

Public Use Data Files

Publications