Ticket To Work Works?

The Ticket to Work program has such an insignificant effect upon the Social Security disability program that it's tempting to think it must be a failure. Social Security estimates in its 2006 Performance Plan that the Ticket to Work program will return only 4,360 disability benefiaries to work in FY 2006. The program is not inexpensive. Maximus Corporation administers the Ticket to Work program on a contract basis for SSA. Maximus' Ticket to Work contracts with SSA for FY 2006 total about $52 million. That is real money. However, when you work it out, the average cost for a job placement under the Ticket to Work program is only $11,697, not including SSA's direct expenses, which are probably minor. That has to be far less than the costs of even a year of cash disability benefits and Medicare. Although the number of claimants being placed is tiny and the whole program is not worth nearly the attention it has received, Ticket to Work is cost effective.