Statement of Martin H. Gerry, Deputy Commissioner, Disability and Income Security Programs, Social Security Administration
Testimony Before the Subcommittee on Social Security of the House Committee on Ways and Means March 18, 2004
Mr
Mr. Chairman and Members of the
Subcommittee:
Thank you for inviting me today to discuss implementation by the Social
Security Administration (SSA) of the Ticket to Work and Self-Sufficiency
Program (the “Ticket to Work program”)
authorized by The Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999
(the “Act”), PL 106-170.
As you know, Mr. Chairman, SSA administers both the Social Security
Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs.
These programs provide benefits to about 10.5 million Americans with
disabilities. The Ticket to Work
program allows these beneficiaries greater flexibility and expanded choice in
obtaining the rehabilitation, employment and other support services that they
need to go to work and attain their employment goals.
I would like to express my thanks to you, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Matsui, and
members of the Subcommittee, for your hard work and support in making the
Ticket to Work program a reality. I
know we will continue to work together closely to strengthen the program in a
way which will build on our early successful experience and expand the
participation we have already seen in the program.
Commissioner Barnhart and I have been fortunate to participate in Ticket
to Work program activities throughout the nation. I know that she has
especially fond memories of kicking off the Ticket to Work program in February
2002 alongside the late Senator William Roth.
Among the other Ticket events she attended that year was one in Representative
Hayworth’s district. In addition,
senior agency staff have traveled throughout the country to help introduce this
program to the American people. Today I
would like to provide an update on the implementation of the Ticket to Work
program, and touch on a few related issues.
An Overview of the Ticket to Work Program
First,
let me briefly describe how the program works.
SSA currently provides benefits under the SSDI and SSI programs to
approximately 10.5 million Americans with disabilities. Under current agency
regulations, an SSDI or SSI beneficiary with a disability receives a Ticket to
Work if he or she is between the ages of 18 and 64 and has a
medical condition that is not expected to improve in the near future. Approximately 9.1 million, or over 85
percent, of all beneficiaries with disabilities meet this standard.
Under the Act, SSA enters into agreements with Employment Networks (ENs)
and with State Vocational Rehabilitation Agencies (“State VR Agencies”). ENs are qualified State, local, or private
organizations that offer employment support services. These organizations include One-Stop Career Centers established
under the Workforce Investment Act of 1998; single providers of services; or
groups of providers organized to combine their resources into a single entity.
A beneficiary who receives a Ticket to Work can choose to assign it to
any EN that provides services within the community or to the State VR
Agency. Together, these organizations
are referred to as “Ticket Providers.” An EN may decide whether or not to
accept the assignment of a Ticket. The Act requires that an EN accept a measure
of risk whenever it agrees to provide services to a beneficiary. ENs may only
be paid based on their success in assisting beneficiaries to secure and
maintain employment and move off the disability benefit rolls. An EN might
never be paid if a beneficiary’s cash benefits do not stop as a result of
work. State VR Agencies are receiving
approximately $2.6 billion from the Department of Education for the primary
purpose of providing employment services to individuals with significant
disabilities. VR agencies are therefore
better capitalized than small or new ENs and incur less financial and actuarial
risk than ENs serving smaller numbers of individuals.
Once a Ticket is assigned by a beneficiary to a Ticket Provider, the
beneficiary and the Provider jointly develop and implement a plan of
employment, vocational, or other support services designed to lead to and
maintain employment. Providers may
provide these services directly or by entering into agreements with other
organizations or individuals to provide the appropriate services at no cost to
the beneficiary.
Ticket Providers may be paid based only on their success in assisting
beneficiaries to secure and maintain employment and move off the disability
benefit rolls. Where this occurs, an EN may elect to receive payment under one
of two systems. Under the Outcome
Payment System an EN will be paid for each month, up to sixty months, in which
a beneficiary it is serving does not receive cash benefits due to work or
earnings. Under the Outcome-Milestone
Payment System, an EN will receive payment when a beneficiary it is serving
reaches one or more milestones toward self-supporting employment. Under this second
payment system, the EN will also receive reduced outcome payments for
each month, up to sixty months, that a beneficiary does not receive cash
benefits due to work or earnings. The
agency has provided up to four milestones for which an EN can be paid.
The Ticket to Work Act provides three additional incentives to encourage
work activity by beneficiaries. First,
SSA will not schedule a periodic continuing disability review (CDR) for a
beneficiary who is receiving services from a Ticket Provider. Second, work
activity by an SSDI beneficiary will not trigger a CDR if the beneficiary has
received benefits for at least 24 months.
Finally, an individual whose benefits terminated because of work
activity can request that benefits start again without having to complete a new
application for benefits.
Implementation of the Ticket to Work Program
SSA
is implementing the Ticket to Work program in three phases. During the first
phase of the program, from February through October 2002, about 2.4 million
beneficiaries with disabilities in 13 states received Tickets to Work. During
the second phase, which ran from November 2002 through September 2003, we
mailed Tickets to approximately 2.6 million beneficiaries in 20 additional
States and the District of Columbia.
Then beginning in November 2003, we started releasing Tickets to the
approximately 4.1 million beneficiaries in the remaining 17 States and the U.S.
Territories during the third and final implementation phase.
Through February 2004, Tickets have been mailed to over 6.9 million
disabled beneficiaries. By September
2004, the remaining 2.2 million eligible beneficiaries will have been mailed a
Ticket to Work, and any eligible beneficiary who has yet to receive a Ticket to
Work in the mail can obtain one by asking for it. To date, we have certified
almost 1,100 ENs to participate in the Ticket program.
The Act calls for the Commissioner to enter into agreements with Program
Managers to assist the Agency in administering the Ticket to Work program. Among the duties of our Program Manager,
Maximus , Inc. , are recruiting, recommending, and monitoring the ENs selected
by SSA to provide services; facilitating beneficiary access to the ENs; facilitating
payment to Ticket Providers; and resolving disputes between beneficiaries and
Ticket Providers under the program.
Ongoing Operation of the Ticket to Work Program
As of the beginning of this month, 40,441 SSDI and SSI beneficiaries who
had received Tickets to Work (“Ticket Holders”) had assigned them to Ticket
Providers. Of this total, 36,525 (90%)
were assigned to a State VR Agencies and 3,916 (10%) were assigned to other
ENs. Approximately 30 percent of ticket
assignments have been made in the last 5 months.
The
first milestone payment was made by Maximus during May 2002. The first outcome payment was paid in July
2002. Through February 2004 we have
made more than 1,600 payments to nearly 120 ENs totaling over $530,000 based on
the work of 450 beneficiaries.
Our early experience shows us that the Ticket is already proving it can
provide beneficiaries with more opportunities to obtain employment support
services to help them reach their employment goals. It is our mission to see that the ticket lives up to its
potential to return people to work
Evaluation of the Ticket to Work Program
Section 101(d) of the Ticket to Work Actrequires the Commissioner to submit periodic evaluation reports of
the Ticket to Work program to Congress. SSA has contracted with Mathematica
Policy Research, Inc. (“Mathematica “) to evaluate the impact of the Ticket to
Work program. Mathematica has provided
a draft of its first in a series of evaluation reports. I will be happy to provide the Subcommittee
with a copy of the final version of this report which we expect to be available
shortly, and will also be happy to brief you on its findings.
Mathematica’s preliminary findings are generally consistent with our
experience with the program. Most
beneficiaries who use Tickets to Work have assigned them to traditional State
VR agencies. Ticket assignments to ENs
have been concentrated among a few ENs, and the ENs as a group feel that SSA
needs to move quickly to make the process friendlier to providers.
As Mathematica notes in the draft report, overall, it is clear that SSA
has made great progress in developing such a system to assist individuals with
disabilities to find work and remain in the workforce. This undertaking, which required SSA to
develop new capabilities to integrate information
from the SSI and DI programs, so that beneficiaries work could be
appropriately considered in determining theirs and their service providers
eligibility to benefits.
The Work of the Adequacy of Incentives Advisory Group
The Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement
Act of 1999 identified four groups of people with disabilities as potentially
"at risk." These groups are: 1) individuals with a need for ongoing
support and services; 2) individuals with a need for high-cost accommodations;
3) individuals who earn a sub-minimum wage; and 4) individuals who work and
receive partial cash benefits.
The Act requires the Commissioner to study the
adequacy of incentives to Employment Networks in the Ticket to Work program for
serving these four groups of beneficiaries. SSA formed an Adequacy of
Incentives Advisory Group to help determine the best approach for conducting a
targeted, in-depth analysis of the “at risk” groups. The Advisory Group
has been meeting quarterly, and will complete its work this spring 2004.
Last fall, the group issued an interim report, “Recommendations for Improving
Implementation of the Ticket to Work and Self-Sufficiency Program (Regulatory
and Administrative Changes).” The group will also issue a final report,
which will propose projects to evaluate the effectiveness of adjusted
incentives and recommendations regarding the most promising adjusted
incentives.
Recommendations of the Ticket to Work Advisory Panel
The Ticket to Work Advisory Panel has been a valuable partner in
studying the program and making recommendations for improvements. They too have been concerned about the
balance between State VR agencies and other ENs, and about ways in which we can
encourage more beneficiaries to assign their Tickets to ENs. They also advise us on ways to improve our
public education of the program and how to market the program to both
beneficiaries and potential ENs.
We have carefully considered the recommendations of the Panel with
respect to establishing a corps of work incentive specialists, who will be
available to advise beneficiaries on the effects of work on benefit payments,
and on ways to reduce the incidence of overpayments caused
by work. They recognize, as do
we at SSA, that the fear of creating overpayments is a powerful disincentive to
returning to work that our beneficiaries face.
The $1 for $2 Benefit Offset Demonstration
The Ticket to Work legislation required SSA to test a DI
benefit offset similar to what is provided in the
SSI program. Generally, SSI benefits
are reduced $1 for every $2 earned over the $65 earned income monthly exclusion. Because there is no parallel provision for
the DI program, DI beneficiaries are often reluctant to attempt work because of
the abrupt loss of all cash benefits faced if they engage in substantial
gainful activity.
Therefore,
we plan to conduct a national demonstration project to test a $1 reduction in
benefits for every $2 in earnings over a certain level in the DI program in
combination with interventions that offer a range of ongoing employment
supports, which may include some combination of employment services, health
care services, transportation assistance, training, and other similar supports.
In
addition, we plan to conduct a small-scale process demonstration of the benefit
offset in four sites. We expect this
project to begin enrolling participants this fall.
Program Improvements
I would now like to discuss a number of initiatives we have already put
in place on a number of fronts to improve our return to work services based on
all the information that we have received.
They include simplifying the payment process for ENs, increasing the
pool of ENs, improving our wage reporting process, and jointly funding with the
Department of Labor a new position to help people with disabilities increase
their employment opportunities. I will
discuss these in more detail.
Work Incentive Specialists
Section
1149 of the Social Security Act, as enacted by Section 121 of the Ticket Act
requires SSA to establish a corps of specialists devoted to issues related to
work incentives. We have worked closely
with Subcommittee staff to develop and implement this concept.
Commissioner Barnhart has expanded the pool of field employees who would
be available to answer questions relating to return to work, while establishing
a dedicated number of employees in each area of the region who will serve full
time as Area Work Incentive Coordinators (AWICs), for a total of 58 employees
nationwide. I want to thank the
Subcommittee for its advice and guidance as we worked closely with you to
develop this approach.
AWICs are the focal point of contact for advocates area-wide, and serve
as ombudsmen. They monitor the area
employment support workloads and work with the Area Directors to ensure that we
effectively manage work incentive workloads. In addition, we have trained all
of our public service employees, including staff in all local Social Security
offices, on SSA employment support
programs. AWICs work with other staff
to develop any area training needs to maintain the level of expertise on work
incentives for all direct contact employees and they are a ready resource for
providing accurate information to those employees when questions arise.
An Improved EN Payment Process
Because many ENs found the payment process too cumbersome, we have
developed a new, simpler process for paying them. Under the new process, SSA
will pay ENs upon receiving a certification from the EN that a Ticket Holder is
still working, provided that the EN initially submits return to work
evidence. Prior to this change, ENs
were required to send in evidence of the work, such as pay stubs, monthly. Now ENs have several options for requesting
payments on either a monthly or quarterly basis without needing to submit pay
stubs.
Expanded Choice of Employment
Networks
In order to attract sufficient providers of employment services and in
concert with Maximus, we have conducted 90 Employment Network Opportunity
Conferences across the country. We did
this so beneficiaries will enjoy the degree of choice when selecting an EN that
the Congress envisioned when the Act was passed. These events were attended by more than 8,000 individuals,
representing 6,100 organizations. To
date, 483 conference attendees have applied to become employment networks. In addition, Maximus has made presentations
about the Ticket to Work program at nearly 300 events nationwide and delivered
the message to 20,000 different organizations and 50,000 individuals through 250,000
distinct contacts. We will continue to
seek out EN recruitment opportunities and process improvements so we may offer
more choices for our beneficiaries who want to work.
Because we learned that the lack of upfront funding was a barrier to EN
participation, SSA has developed an EN capitalization initiative that helps ENs
locate and apply for additional funding to support their efforts.
Eliminating Barriers and
Disincentives
Overpayments to beneficiaries with disabilities attempting to work are a
major barrier to participation in the Ticket to Work program. Disability recipients who try to return to
work deserve to know that their work information will be processed right away
to prevent large overpayments that are a burden to the recipient as well as an
important program integrity issue.
Accurate and prompt wage report processing is critically important.
The Social Security Protection Act of 2004 (P.L. 108-203) imposes a
requirement for a work report receipt, and we expect that our current software,
known as the Modernized Return to Work, or MRTW, and our PC-CDR processes that
field offices have been using, should be able to fulfill that requirement. The issue of handling work reports is a
major priority of Commissioner Barnhart, and we expect several new processes to
have a positive impact on the problem, reducing both overpayments and the work
disincentives caused by the threat of such overpayments.
In January 2004, we began a phased rollout of our eWork application for
controlling and processing disability work activity and work CDR
workloads. It replaces the stand-alone
MRTW and PC-CDR that I have just mentioned.
The eWork system automates and simplifies the processing of work issues
in Title II disability cases; its key functional areas are workload management
and control, case development, adjudication and decision-making, notices and
forms, and automated mainframe systems inputs.
In summary, eWork connects all of the separate pieces to the whole
through an electronic interface usable by authorized personnel nationwide and
work to minimize the occurrence of overpayments due to work. .
Expansion of Work Opportunities
Over the last 18 months, SSA has worked closely with the Department of
Labor's Employment and Training Administration and its State and local partners
to jointly fund the establishment of a new position, the Disability Program
Navigator. Approximately 110 Navigators
have been hired to work in DOL One-Stop Career Centers in 14 states. A key role for Navigators is to help people
with disabilities to increase their employment opportunities. Locating of the
Navigator in the One-Stop Career Centers provides an important link to local
employers in fulfilling this role.
Navigators will also facilitate access to programs and services that
impact
successful entry or reentry into the workforce. This includes access to housing,
transportation, health care, and assistive technologies as needed to
effectively participate in training services or for successful placement in
employment.
SSA is also continuing to use the Employer Assistance Referral Network
(EARN) managed by the Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment
Policy and the Ticket to Hire, a specialized subunit of EARN that matches
employers with job ready candidates from the Ticket to Work program.
Conclusion
Finally, I thank you, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Matsui, and all the members of
the Subcommittee, for showing continued dedication to the Ticket to Work
program. Thanks to that commitment, we
look forward to providing more beneficiaries with the additional opportunities
and tools they need to enter or reenter the workforce.
In addition, I would like to thank you for
your work to pass H.R. 743, the Social
Security Protection Act of 2004(P.L. 108-203).
Because of the provisions in the bill regarding SSA demonstration
projects, including ensuring that projects can continue to move beyond this
December, we can move forward with our agenda of projects designed to provide
alternative return to work services.
I would also like to acknowledge the
valuable input we have received from the Ticket Advisory Panel and the Social
Security Advisory Board. We are
committed to achieving the goal set by Congress to improve access to jobs for
Americans with disabilities. I believe,
and I am sure you will agree, that the nation benefits greatly when all of its
citizens have the opportunity to make the most of their talents. We look forward to working with you as we
continue our efforts to make the Ticket to Work program a success.
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