Evaluation Design for the Ticket to Work Program: Preliminary Report on Evaluation Design
August 2002
Social Security Administration
The Ticket to Work program (TTW) was established by the 1999 Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act (Ticket Act). The program will provide eligible Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income disability beneficiaries with a Ticket, which can be used to obtain vocational rehabilitation or employment services through an Employment Network. The program is intended to increase access to, and the quality of, rehabilitation and employment services available to disability beneficiaries. TTW is designed to provide beneficiaries with greater freedom and choice of service providers, create competition among providers to provide high quality services that are responsive to beneficiary needs, and give providers incentives to deliver services in the most efficient and appropriate manner to achieve desired outcomes.
The Social Security Administration (SSA) contracted with The Lewin Group to design a comprehensive evaluation of TTW. The Lewin Group teamed with Cornell University, Westat, and a number of independent consultants to conduct the project. The evaluation design developed under this project specifies the methods to be used to compare the net outcomes of TTW to outcomes under the current system, including level of benefits received by beneficiaries, work participation, earnings, duration of benefit receipt, and departures from the disability rolls. The evaluation was also designed to assess the total and net costs of the program, characteristics of ENs and beneficiaries who do and do not participate, factors that affect return to work, employment outcomes for participants, and beneficiary satisfaction with the program.