New Report: Reforms to Increase Effectiveness of Ticket to Work Program

The experience of America Works points to opportunities for improvement

NEW YORK, NY  — A new Manhattan Institute report shows that a few modest policy reforms to the federal Ticket to Work program could enable more disability-insurance (SSDI) beneficiaries to return to the workforce while also reducing federal spending. Between 1970 and 2015, American disability rolls grew from 1.8 million to 10.2 million. In 2004, in part to help counter this trend, the federal government launched the Ticket to Work, providing disability-insurance (SSDI) beneficiaries with a “ticket” or voucher to obtain free vocational rehabilitation and employment services from public, private, and nonprofit agencies or companies.

While the Ticket to Work has been found to have a positive, if limited, effect in helping individuals on disability reenter the workforce, the picture is complicated. The authors of the report, Columbia University’s William Eimicke, Steven Cohen, and Alison Miller, propose several policy reforms to the SSDI system that they argue could amplify the performance of the Ticket to Work program:

1. Employer engagement: Employers currently have an incentive to encourage an employee to apply for SSDI rather than making accommodations for that worker. Instituting an employer-paid disability insurance would increase firms’ incentives to keep workers employed.
2. Early workforce intervention: By screening disability applicants early, support could be targeted to those who appear likely to be eligible for disability but also have the potential for significant work activity. These applicants could be offered services, including work and health interventions or even a wage subsidy, in exchange for not enrolling in SSDI.
3. More effective administration: The Social Security Administration (SSA) backlog of about 900,000 continuing disability reviews (reassessments). For each additional $1 spent to expedite these reviews, the SSAs estimates that $9 is saved over next ten years.
4. Matching benefits to degree of disability: Instead of SSDI’s current a one-size-fits-all approach, restructure the program to vary benefits based on degree of disability. Reforming how benefits are calculated could help reduce SSDI’s expected $256 billion shortfall over the next decade.

The report also profiles the experience of America Works—one of hundreds of employment networks that participate in Ticket to Work—as a way of examining the program’s successes and shortcomings. Since the 1980’s, America Works’ founders Peter Cove and Lee Bowes have found jobs for hard-to-place individuals. From 2011 to 2015, of those hired as part of the company’s New York Ticket to Work contract, 75 percent reached at least 12 months of employment.

Click here to read the full report.