1 Ticket to Work Interim Evaluation Overview

2 Interim Report Major Findings

3 Beneficiaries National Beneficiary Survey Only about 36% of ticket eligible beneficiaries reported that they had heard of the program. TTW participants are far more likely than other beneficiaries to have employment goals and expectations Although most TTW participants clearly have employment-related aspirations, many still do not see themselves earning enough to leave disability benefits.

4 Employment Networks Increasing EN participation continues to be challenging. To break even, ENs need about 23 payments per SSI- only Ticket and 11 payments per DI Ticket. ENs average less than1½ payments in the first two years a Ticket is assigned It generally takes more than two years for SSA/VR clients to reach 0-benefit status, so we may see improvement in Ticket outcomes.

5 Vocational Rehabilitation About 90% of all assignments are with VR under the traditional reimbursement payment option.

6 Other Work Incentive Programs SSA’s Extended Period of Eligibility and Medicaid While Working (1619 a & b) provisions were both associated with higher levels of Ticket participation.

7 DATA DEMOGRAPHICS

8 Participation continues to grow steadily.

9 Participation by Months Since Rollout

10 Ticket participation rate is higher in younger age groups.

11 Participation by Age

12 Relatively few beneficiaries are in the younger age groups.

13

14 Ticket assignments rise steadily with months after ticket mailing.

15 Assignments by Months after Mailing

16 Beneficiaries with higher levels of education participate at higher rates.

17 Data includes all records with education level reported

18 Four diagnosis groups had participation rates above 2%.

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20 Participation for major disability diagnosis groups is modest.

21 Source: January 2005 extract of SSA Disability Control File

22 Gender seems to have no bearing on participation rates.

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24 As expected, the participation rate is higher based on Phase sequencing.

25 Source: January 2005 extract of SSA Disability Control File