From Contract With Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., For Services To Evaluate Youth Transition Demonstration Projects, a report by Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG):
SSA contracted with Mathematica to support the development, implementation, and evaluation of the Youth Transition Demonstration (YTD) interventions designed to help youth with disabilities maximize their economic self-sufficiency as they transition from school to work. ... The contract period of performance was September 30, 2005 to September 29, 2014. As of September 2008, there were nine modifications to this contract (see Appendix D), and SSA had expended approximately $17.1 million of the $46.8 million contract award. ...
For the first 3 years of the 9-year contract period, SSA received the goods and services for which it contracted. However, a lack of tangible results achieved to date through this and previous YTD projects funded by SSA raises concerns as to whether additional expenditures on YTD projects will yield significant benefit to SSA. ...
Work performed under this contract was intended to build on background research, conceptual frameworks, measurement strategies, and evaluation findings from ongoing and previous SSA evaluation projects conducted since 1999. To date, SSA has received little tangible benefit from approximately $42.4 million spent on YTD-related projects since 1999. In addition to $17.1 million expended under this contract through September 2008, SSA spent approximately $25.3 million on three previous YTD-related initiatives. ...
A senior Agency official indicated that predecessor YTD-related projects conducted over the past 10 years encountered significant problems that diminished their effectiveness. While these setbacks could reasonably have resulted in reconsideration of continued project funding, SSA instead increased funding and expanded the projects. Given the history of setbacks and the substantial costs expended, SSA should have established clear expectations, including cost-effectiveness, with measurable results and interim assessments to inform decisions on continued funding. Instead, Agency officials plan to perform a cost-benefit analysis only after the contract is completed. SSA strongly disagreed with our conclusion and stated the outcome of this contract is not policy changes or monetary savings to the Agency but rather a report that answers whether the interventions successfully help youth transition into adulthood, which informs SSA about the costs or savings to the Agency should such a program be implemented. ...
Based on the lack of results achieved from the $42.4 million in YTD expenditures made from Fiscal Years (FY) 1999 through 2008, we believe a substantial risk exists that spending the $29.7 million remaining on this contract will provide little or no actual benefit to SSA.
More often than not, the folks I talk to filing for disability, tell me that they are interested in getting on a disability check. . .So that they can STOP WORKING.
ReplyDeleteUmmm. What in the wide,wide world of sports does this project have to do with the programs we administer? That's a lot of money!! On the one hand, COSS wants a medal for hiring a relatively small number of FTE relative to the need for new employees. And, on the other, SSA wants strategies for employing young people. And, we're paying WHAT for it? Either it's too early to read this otherwise wonderful blog or it's way too late for this old dinosaur to understand the modern world. Don't say what you're thinkin'! Nancy Ortiz
ReplyDeleteYes, Nancy, there is an SSA that is not part of Operations. I was part of this for a long time. There are plenty of good ideas to test in the real world, but during the Barnhart/Gerry years the projects just got ridiculous. Now they are too political to stop, apparently.
ReplyDeleteWhile we're at it, why not take a hard look at Ticket to Work? Who has really benefited from this complicated mess except for private "employment networks"?
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