From the Washington Free Beacon:
The Social Security Administration has spent $3 billion on programs designed to incentivize disability recipients to go back to work over the past 16 years. So far, less than 3 percent of beneficiaries have signed up, with "no consistent evidence" the program has helped participants find a job.
The inspector general for the agency released an audit last week calling for Congress to evaluate the "viability" of the programs
including Ticket to Work and Self-Sufficiency (TTW) and Achieve Self-Support (PASS)."SSA has spent about $3 billion administering two ongoing congressionally mandated return-to-work programs and a time-limited demonstration project designed to determine whether a policy change would help beneficiaries return to work," the inspector general said. "However, these programs and demonstration project enticed a small percentage of disabled individuals to return to work." ...
Since it began in 2000, the TTW program has cost $2.8 billion and enrolled 1.2 million disabled welfare recipients, a participation rate of only 2.6 percent. Those beneficiaries have saved the government approximately $5.9 billion. For each beneficiary served, the government spent $2,300 through the program, as opposed to the average $5,000 benefits forgone. ...You might say that this shows that even though TTW is only minimally successful that it still more than pays for itself but the problem is that it is more than possible that the vast majority of those “helped” by TTW would have gone back to work on their own. To what extent are TTW providers helping people who wouldn’t otherwise get back to work and to what extend are TTW providers just profiting from people who don’t need their help? We just don’t know. Any advantage from TTW is, at best, unproven. The problem with all the efforts to get Social Security disability recipients back to work is that they are premised upon a deep seated belief that it’s easy to get on benefits. It’s not. It’s terribly difficult to get on disability benefits. As sick as people have to be to get on Social Security disability benefits, we shouldn’t expect many to go back to work.
11 comments:
Just signing up has been used in Florida as proof you do not deserve Social Security disability. The no being reviewed while on TTW is not true here. The keep your benefits and Medicare while you appeal being denied disability while in TTW is not true in Florida...While appealing being dropped from disability and Medicare for using TTW I was told I had to prove that my decades long Lupus was NOT curable......When I asked my medical providers to help me prove Lupus was incurable, they are thought I was punking them...Where I am the fastest way to lose all long term and very badly needed benefits is to sign up for TTW.
You want it work? Want people to try. More carrot, less stick. More rewards, less risk. Not to difficult to explain why this program doesn't work.
I strongly believe, after years looking into it, that ANY action that you take while on SSDI can lead to a cessation of benefits. If you work part time under the SGA, work with he TTW program, or anythings else. If you want to keep your benefits and be left alone from the added stress that your only income may be shut off, then stay quiet.
Sorry, but that's the way I see it.
Carrot take care of your damn self. Stick be homeless. Not the governments job to take care of you it is yours. Must be a Boomer.
Apparently some people assume that if you do qualify for Social Security disability that you will never recover from whatever is disabling you. There would be no need for expedited reinstatements if your thinking was correct.
@10:31
It is the government's job to take care of the disabled. That's what the Social Security Act requires.
If you are suggesting the Social Security Act is unconstitutional, under Article 1, section 8, Congress is empowered to provide for general welfare.
You are incorrect.
The issue is is simple. These people are already on ssdi/ssi and the government wants them to try to be independent. IF you want them to try, the reward HAS TO BE GREATER than the RISK. Period.
I think it is great that there is some assistance available for those with disabilities who want to attempt a return to work. However, SSA has badly destroyed its own brand with these return to work programs.
In my job I read many ALJ decisions denying benefits to claimants. One very common thread running through the decisions is an explicit punishment of claimants who have tried to return to work. It is almost always cited as proof that the claimant can do more than they say, in justification of the denial. This is true even in cases where the claimant was fired from a job due to (surprise, surprise) their disability. Based on how many I have seen, I would not be surprised if such decisions numbered in the tens of thousands. Claimants receive and read those decisions, and sometimes are not shy about talking about them especially if they are angry about them and feel wronged.
So, if you are a person with a disability contemplating whether it is prudent to attempt work that you aren't sure you can do, do you believe a slick brochure describing SSA return to work programs, or someone you know who describes how they received a decision denying them benefits due at least in part to their work attempt? SSA has been its own worst enemy when it comes to marketing these programs, which as others have indicated, will only be useful to a small percentage of beneficiaries.
@2:54, Self Reliance. Try reading it.
If Karma worked the Ayn Rand cultist would all end up needing disability and we would learn in a hurry how many of them really believe that juvenile, anti-Christian religion of worship of the almighty dollar and glorification of self of others.
I have a friend whose mother is on disability. She would like to move out of her small rural town and closer to her doctors and family. To do this she needs to replace her car that has no value beyond scrap and runs about as reliably as scrap and money for deposits and first month rent.
The owner of a local store she used to work at was willing to let her work 4 hours per day, four days a week and would gladly hire her back full-time if she could work 40 hours a week. With the offset it is unlikely she will achieve her goal any time soon and if her POS car breaks down between now and then it will take even longer. She clears more per month by not filling all of her meds (take it every other day instead of once a day is almost as good, right?) than she gains from working.
@1:15 Interesting. If she is making so little, depending on the state, she should qualify for Medicaid for medical and prescription assistance. Depending on her age she may be able to get assistance through her state department on aging for prescriptions. She should reach out to the resource centers and find what is already available to her. Many prescription drug companies have an assistance program and there is even the RxOutreach arm of Express Scripts that has a very decent prescription assistance program with very generous income allowances. They can be found at rxoutreach.org
Resources are available, you have to use them and learn about them, nobody is going to knock on the door and fix the situation, individuals have to help themselves and become aware of the programs and utilize the resources.
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