Both Republicans And Democrats Love Ticket To Work -- Why?

An excerpt from the written report of Daniel Bertoni of the Government Accountability Office (GAO), testifying at today's House Ways and Means Committee hearing:

Lack of performance measures may send the wrong message to ENs [Employment Networks -- Ticket to Work contractors], whose staff may be unclear about program goals and send mixed messages to ticket holders about expected outcomes. Of the 25 ENs we interviewed, representatives of 15 said SSA had not adequately articulated performance expectations for serving ticket holders. SSA’s EN handbook does state the ultimate goal of the program is to reduce dependence and, whenever possible, eliminate reliance on benefits. Yet, an EN, which had the fourth-largest payment amount from SSA in fiscal year 2009, stated in its last three annual periodic outcome reports that 100 percent of its ticket holders placed in jobs had earnings of less than $10,000 per year—equating to less than the SGA level [Substantial Gainful Activity  -- if the ticket holders earn over the SGA level they eventually lose their Social Security disability benefits, which is the pretty much the whole point of Ticket to Work as far as Congress is concerned], if earnings were accrued regularly over the course of 12 months. In fact, this EN’s recorded phone message states that DI [Disability Insurance] ticket holders can work part time indefinitely without reducing SSA benefits, and its Web site says most of its positions are designed so ticket holders stay below income thresholds for benefit cutoff. With assistance from our investigative staff, we found multiple ENs among those with the largest payment amounts communicating through their Web sites, recorded phone messages, or in our discussions with representatives that as long as DI ticket holders’ earnings stay below the SGA level, they can keep full disability benefits ...