By Rob McInnes
“She's got a ticket to ride, but she don't care,” was in
the chorus of the Beatles’ 1965 song “Ticket to Ride”. Forty
years later, the American version should be “She’s got a
Ticket to Work, but she don’t care.” Why would I say that?
Because there are almost 11 million Americans with
Disabilities who have been issued Tickets to Work… and only
about .8% of those folks have used them. That’s right. Over
99% of Ticket holders aren’t taking the ride!
TICKET TO WORK
Most people reading this are likely to be familiar with
the Ticket to Work (TTW) program, as it has been highly
successful in achieving visibility within the disability
community. Briefly, however, the TTW program was designed to
both overcome a major employment barrier that the disability
community had been drawing attention to – and to save the
government money by decreasing the number of people who are
receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI). Enacted in
1999, the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act
was intended to:
1. Remove the barriers that require people with
disabilities to choose between health care coverage and work
– enabling people with disabilities to retain the health
care benefits of SSI when they secure employment.
2. Increase beneficiary choice in obtaining
rehabilitation and vocational services to help them go to
work and attain their employment goals – by creating a host
of new organizations to deliver employment-related services
to recipients who want to get back into the workforce.
(Prior to this Act, these services were provided exclusively
through State Vocational Rehabilitation programs.)
Under the program, qualified Social Security and
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients receive a
"Ticket" in the mail. They may use this Ticket to obtain
vocational rehabilitation, employment or other support
services from an approved provider of their choice to help
them go to work and achieve their employment goals. The
program called for the establishment of a large number of
approved service providers (called Employment Networks)
throughout the country.
A recent phone call from a friend prompted me to look
more closely at the achievements of the TTW to date. About a
year ago, his organization’s application to become an
Employment Network (EN) in the Social Security
Administration’s TTW program had been approved. At that
time, he was thrilled and excited. An entrepreneur with a
disability himself, he was full of optimism both for the
potential of his new business venture and for the wonderful
employment opportunities that he would be able to open to
other folks with disabilities. Now, a year later, he was
totally discouraged and throwing in the towel. He bitterly
explained that the way the TTW program actually funded the
Employment Networks was impossible for him to work with. He
was also concerned that many of the “Ticket holders” that
contacted him were very poorly informed about how the
program would affect their future eligibility for disability
benefits. If not being purposefully misled, he felt that
they were at least b eing irresponsibly informed.
His phone call stirred up some personal disquiet that I
had already harbored about TTW, and caused me to do a little
more investigating. This isn’t an exhaustive scholarly
analysis of the program. As you will read, someone else is
being paid to do that. Coupled with my own observations and
anecdotes, this article is a summary of some of the
information that I have been able to piece together in
recent weeks. While there is a plethora of information on
what the TTW program is and purportedly does, it wasn’t easy
to find any critical analysis of the program’s success. It
is quite possible, therefore, that there are facts and
figures I didn’t come across that will contradict the
impressions that I have formed. If someone can provide them,
I will be quite happy to publish them in the next edition of
this newsletter. For now, here is a summary of what I have
come across:
MAXIMUS - Late in 2000, the Social Security
Administration awarded a 5-year, $56 million contract to
Maximus Inc. Under the contract, they are to recruit and
manage 4,500 nationwide Employment Networks, coordinate
services to 13 million Ticket recipients and assist in
processing payments to Employment Networks. As any of you in
the disability & employment field know, Maximus has
definitely been busy. According to one progress report, by
March 2004 they had conducted 90 EN Opportunity Conferences
across the country, made presentations about the TTW program
at nearly 300 events nationwide and “delivered the message”
to 20,000 different organizations and 50,000 individuals
through 250,000 distinct contacts. Their prevailing message
is how wonderful the Ticket to Work program is, how great it
is to become an Employment Network, and what a great
opportunity it is for people with disabilities to get back
into the workforce.
But how effective has the program been? Behind all the
hype, what is happening where the rubber hits the road? Is
TTW working? Is it great to be an Employment Network? Is it
helping more people with disabilities to become part of the
workforce? I was only able to find a few reports that were
helpful in gaining some real perspectives on these
questions. The most comprehensive was by a company called
Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. In October 2003,
Mathematica was awarded two five-year contracts totaling $21
million to evaluate the success of the TTW program. (Their
219 page Initial Report was released in February 2004.)
EMPLOYMENT NETWORKS - As of May, 2005, SSA reports that
there are about 1300 approved ENs across the country.
However, the 2004 Mathematica Report indicated that less
than 40% of approved ENs were actually taking Tickets (many
determine, after they are approved, that the program really
isn’t going to work out for them) and that all of the active
ENs that they contacted directly were losing money and most
were considering withdrawing from the program. Unless things
have changed dramatically in the past year, we can assume
that there are possibly only about 500 currently-active
Employment Networks in the country. By the way, there is
also great disparity amongst them. It is actually a
relatively small nucleus of those who are handling the
lion’s share of Tickets.
TICKETS ISSUED - As of May 2005, just over 90,000 Tickets
have been assigned in the TTW program – 90,000 people with
disabilities who want to work have assigned their Ticket to
a service agency. However, only about 7500 of those Tickets
were assigned to Employment Networks. The rest were assigned
to State Vocational Rehabilitation agencies. As they stand,
these numbers aren’t appreciably different than those in the
pre-TTW era. Similar numbers of people were using the
services of State VR agencies and leaving SSI.
Given these outcomes, I have to readily agree with the
statement from Mathematica’s 2004 report: “We can reasonably
conclude that TTW, as initially implemented, has had, at
most, extremely small effects on beneficiary exits due to
work.”
Now for the big question about Ticket to Work… “Who is
going to fix it?”
There are many people with disabilities receiving SSI who
would still prefer to be working. The government would still
like to reduce the number of SSI recipients and save money.
The current Ticket to Work plan isn’t working. Many of its
weaknesses have been identified – and remedies have been
recommended. We know that millions of dollars are still
being spent to entice agencies and individuals with
disabilities to participate in a system that isn’t working.
Are similar resources being dedicated to repairing it?
To my friend and others who have failed in their efforts
to develop a successful Employment Network – Take heart. It
wasn’t your fault. Many others have tried and failed too.
You are in good company. To SSI recipients who have not been
able to find a suitable Employment Network to invest their
Tickets in – You too are not alone. The truth, it seems, is
that there just aren’t that many out there.
And to all of us - Maybe, just maybe… there will be a
better “ride” coming.
© Rob McInnes, Diversity World, May, 2005
(If not used for commercial purposes, this article may be
reproduced, all or in part, providing it is credited to "Rob
McInnes, Diversity World - www.diversityworld.com". If
included in a newsletter or other publication, we would
appreciate receiving a copy.)
The Social Security Administration's Ticket to Work
Website... 
