The Dubious Benefits Of Ticket To Work

     From Effects of the Ticket to Work Program: Return on Investment and Overall Assessment of Outcomes Versus Design by Paul O'Leary and Emily Roessel:

The Ticket to Work (TTW) program was established by 1999 legislation to expand access to vocational rehabilitation services for beneficiaries of Social Security Administration (SSA) disability benefit programs. We evaluate TTW and compare its outcomes with the intentions of its authorizing legislation. We also compare the program's costs with the benefit savings resulting from the reemployment of successful program participants. We analyze unadjusted descriptive statistics, then consider potential participation bias among individuals who received employment services by devising an econometric analysis that accounts for the seriousness of a participant's interest in work. We find that TTW improved employment outcomes and generated net benefit savings to SSA for many employment-service clients, but the savings did not fully offset program costs. However, these estimates should be regarded as lower bounds of TTW's positive effects because they do not account for higher service needs of TTW program participants. ...

Ticket To Work Doesn't Work

      From a recent report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO):

Disability beneficiaries participate in the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) Ticket to Work and Self-Sufficiency program (Ticket to Work) by assigning a "ticket" to service providers who, in turn, provide help with employment. SSA compensates the service providers when Ticket to Work participants achieve designated levels of work and earnings. Using SSA data from 2002, when the program began, through 2018, the most recent year available, GAO estimated that 5 years after starting Ticket to Work, participants’ average earnings were $2,451 more per year than that of similar nonparticipants. However, the majority of participants remained unemployed 5 years after starting Ticket to Work. 

Based on GAO’s analysis, the costs of Ticket to Work exceeded the savings in disability benefits to SSA by an estimated $806 million from 2002 through 2015, the most recent year with reliable savings data. Savings accrue when Ticket to Work participants receive lower benefits or leave the disability rolls due to earnings from work. GAO estimates that participants were slightly more likely to leave the rolls (9.7 percent) than nonparticipants who are similar across a range of characteristics such as age, gender, disability type, and education level (8.6 percent). A greater percentage of participants left the disability rolls due to work rather than for other reasons, such as medical improvement ...

GAO estimates that SSA incurred an additional $133 million to $169 million in costs (above the $806 million) from disability benefit overpayments to Ticket to Work participants. Overpayments can occur when beneficiaries who work do not report earnings to SSA or SSA delays in adjusting their benefit amounts. ...

     This report ignores an important reality.  No one makes claimants participate in the Ticket to Work program. Those who do participate are saying they believe they may have some capacity for work, meaning that they have better prospects for returning to work than claimants generally. Comparing the results in this group to claimants generally makes the Ticket to Work results look better than they are. Some of those who volunteered for Ticket to Work would have returned to work with or without Ticket to Work. We can't tell how many were only able to return to work due to Ticket to Work. If there were a control group, it would be some who volunteered for Ticket to Work but were arbitrarily denied Ticket to Work help but there is no such control group because none were turned away.

     Note the ridiculous level of overpayments associated with Ticket to Work even among a group of beneficiaries who told Social Security they planned to return to work. Don't blame claimants for this. Social Security's system for handling reports of return to work just doesn't work. 

     I'll make a modest suggestion. Social Security should almost completely stop relying upon wage reports from claimants because they do a poor job of reporting and Social Security does a worse job of recording what they report. We should define Substantial Gainful Activity on a quarterly basis and base work deductions on quarterly wages reported by employers. This can mostly be done by the computers. Yes, there will be problems with "wages" that are reported for work done earlier (such as sick pay, vacation pay and residual commissions) and yes, there will be problems with self-employment income but we'd be in a much better place than we're in now if those are the only problems we have to deal with.

Maximus Loses Ticket To Work Contract

      From Washington Technology:

Maximus has lost an incumbent contract at the Social Security Administration after the company saw its protest denied by the Government Accountability Office.

The company has held the Ticket Program Manager contract since at least 2015. But this time around, Cognosante won the contract and Maximus took its challenge to GAO. Maximus argued that the evaluation of proposals was not conducted properly.

According to the GAO protest docket, the Maximus protest was denied Aug. 6. ...

The Ticket Program Manager contract is worth $79.6 million and runs for five years. Cognosante and Maximus were the only two bidders on the contract, according to the Federal Procurement Data System. ...

Issuing A Directive

      A press release:

Today, House Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee Chairman John B. Larson (D-CT) and Worker and Family Support Subcommittee Chairman Danny K. Davis (D-IL) sent a letter directing the U.S. Department of Labor to halt consideration of a proposed transfer of the Ticket to Work program from the Social Security Administration to the U.S. Department of Labor. The Ticket to Work program provides services to help Social Security and Supplemental Security Income disability beneficiaries who are attempting to return to work.

“In 1999, Congress placed the new Ticket to Work and Self-Sufficiency program (Ticket program) under the Social Security Administration (SSA), because of the close coordination between SSA and program participants, including beneficiaries and service providers, that is essential to the operation of the Ticket Program. Nothing has changed to warrant a transfer to the Department of Labor (DOL),” wrote Larson and Davis.

“By law, the Department of Labor does not administer the Ticket program,” continued Larson and Davis. “We do not intend to consider legislation to remove the administration of the Ticket program from SSA and place it at DOL. We therefore expect the Department to halt any further consideration of this inappropriate and detrimental proposal.”

Allsup Got Almost $4.5 Million In Ticket To Work Money In 2019

      Social Security has made a proactive disclosure of recipients of money under the Ticket To Work (TTW) program, which pays for rehabilitation to enables Social Security disability recipients to return to work. A rehabilitation provider gets paid based upon claimants returning to work. 

     Ranked in third place on the list of largest recipients of TTW money in 2019, at $4,467,810, is Allsup Employment Services, LLC. Yep, that's part of the Allsup non-attorney group that represents Social Security disability claimants before the agency.

     Doing this actually occurred to me years ago. Sometimes you help a claimant get on benefits but you know from their medical records that they're getting better and have a realistic chance of returning to work. It doesn't happen much but it does happen. Since you already have their medical records, you're in a great place to spot these cases and to profit from providing "rehabilitation" to people who need little help anyway. I never did it because it seemed like a conflict of interest or at least it didn't seem to smell quite right. It's not illegal, though, as far as I know. Of course, I don’t know how Allsup is coming by its TTW cases.

     I wonder if there are other affiliates of entities representing Social Security claimants on the TTW list, perhaps with names that can't be so easily connected.

Ticket To Work Not Working

     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.

Festival of Acronyms: CCD Worried About TTW

     The Coalition for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) has expressed concern over language in the pending appropriations bill for Social Security concerning the Ticket To Work (TTW) program. The bill would require a report on TTW effectiveness.

     I think there is good reason to question TTW's effectiveness. However, I'm also aware that some Republicans want a more coercive approach to return to work, as in something like time limited disability benefits. That would cause enormous distress for large numbers of very sick people and it wouldn't save money but it wouldn't be all bad. It would create plenty of business for me. There would be lots and lots of people cast off benefits only to get right back on benefits after an appeal or two.

Proposed Change To Unsuccessful Work Attempt Rules

     The Social Security Administration has asked the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to approve a set of amendments to its regulations concerning unsuccessful work attempts and expedited reinstatement. Social Security does not have to release the proposal at this point. However, it does have to post a regulatory agenda in the Federal Register twice a year. Here's how the agency described this proposal last fall:

We propose to remove the additional requirements for evaluation of a Unsuccessful Work Attempt (UWA) in employment or self-employment that last between 3 and 6 months and use the current 3 month standards for all work attempts that are 6 months or less. We also propose to change the calculation for determining the amount adjusted for national wage growth for both employees and the self-employed from $530 to $700, the amount currently being used to calculate Substantial Gainful Activity (SGA). In order to avoid any unintended consequences for Ticket to Work (Ticket) holders as a result of our change to the calculation of the Trial Work Period (TWP) service month amount, we propose to change how we calculate timely progress toward self-supporting employment for the Ticket program to earnings equal to or greater than the amount representing 72 percent of SGA. Finally, we propose to allow beneficiaries to apply for Expedited Reinstatement (EXR) Eligibility in the same month they stop performing SGA. These changes would align our policies, make them easier for the public to understand, and simplify our processing procedures, thereby allowing for faster determinations.

     This proposal isn't going to be official for a long time. OMB must approve it. The proposal is then posted in the Federal Register for comments. Social Security must consider the comments. The agency may modify the proposal. If it still wants to go ahead with the proposal, it submits the final version to OMB again. If OMB approves the proposal, it is again published in the Federal Register and becomes official. The normal time frame for something like this is one to two years.

When Will They Ever Learn?

     From a "Policy Futures" paper by Kathleen Romig for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP):

The October 2015 budget agreement extended the solvency of the Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) trust fund into 2022 and renewed the Social Security Administration’s (SSA’s) authority to conduct demonstration projects, allowing the agency to test ideas to encourage work among DI beneficiaries and applicants.  This creates an opportunity to build further evidence on the efficacy of various ideas to encourage work among this population. 

New demonstrations will likely produce only limited results, however.  SSA has conducted many work-incentive experiments over the past 25 years, and none has led to a significant number of beneficiaries earning enough to support themselves and leave DI.  This result should not come as a surprise.  DI’s eligibility criteria are strict.  Few DI beneficiaries are able to work.  Still fewer are likely to be able to return to self-supporting work on a sustained basis. ...

TABLE 1

SSA Work-Incentive Experiments Have Shown Only Limited Results
Demonstration	Years	Description	Effects
Benefit Offset National Demonstration (BOND)	2009-2017	Testing a $1-for-$2 benefit offset for earnings above SGA level, with additional work supports for “Phase 2” beneficiaries	Small effects on earnings (Phase 2 only) Increased benefit payments
Accelerated Benefits Demonstration	2004-2011	Provided health care to DI beneficiaries during 24-month waiting period for Medicare, with additional medical and work supports for “AB Plus” beneficiaries	Improved health outcomes Negligible effect on employment For AB Plus, greater use of return-to-work services, but some evidence employment effects are temporary
Mental Health Treatment Study	2003-2011	Provided medical and employment supports to beneficiaries with schizophrenia or affective disorders	Improved employment and earnings Improved mental health status No impact on earnings above SGA No impact on benefits
Benefit Offset: Four-State Pilot	2003-2009	Replaced “cash cliff” with a $1-for-$2 offset for earnings above SGA level, with additional work supports	Small increase in earnings above SGA No effect on mean earnings No effect on employment Effects varied by participant subgroup
Youth Transition Demonstration	2001-2014	Waived SSI income and asset rules, provided state-designed employment and education supports for young DI and SSI beneficiaries	Little to no effect on employment and earnings SSA periodically revisiting outcomes
Ticket to Work	1999-present	Provides vocational rehabilitation and work support from employment networks (Ticket to Work is a change in law, not a demonstration)	Increased use of return-to-work services Little effect on employment Little effect on benefits
State Partnership Initiative	1998-2006	Tested variety of state-designed interventions, including Medicaid waivers and employment services for DI and SSI beneficiaries	Small and mixed effects on employment No effect — or negative effect — on earnings
Project NetWork	1991-1999	Offered intensive outreach, work-incentive waivers, and case management services to DI and SSI applicants and recipients	Small short-term effect on earnings No effect on benefits

Social Security Seeks Ticket To Work Input

     From today's Federal Register:

We are soliciting public input on whether and how we might revise the current Ticket to Work program rules. The Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999 established the Ticket to Work program to allow individuals with disabilities to seek services to obtain and retain employment in order to reduce dependency on cash benefit programs. In creating the program, Congress found that eliminating barriers to work and providing individuals with real choice in obtaining services and technology to find, enter, and maintain employment can greatly improve the short and long-term financial independence and personal well-being of our beneficiaries. We want to explore improving our Ticket to Work program as part of our ongoing effort to help our beneficiaries find and maintain employment that leads to increased independence and enhanced productivity. If we propose specific revisions to our regulations, we will publish a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) in the Federal Register.

Ticket To Work Is A Failure

     From the Social Security Bulletin (emphasis added):

The Social Security Administration (SSA) rolled out the Ticket to Work (TTW) program between 2002 and 2004, with goals of expanding employment-related services for disability program beneficiaries and increasing program exits for work. Provider and beneficiary participation were initially low and the program did not measurably increase the extent to which beneficiaries achieved earnings sufficient to forgo benefits. In 2008, SSA revised the regulations in order to make participation more attractive to service providers, but the revisions also reduced provider incentives to help beneficiaries give up their benefits for work. Using administrative data from SSA, we find that provider and beneficiary participation increased substantially after the regulations changed, but the percentage of participants forgoing benefits for work declined. The extent to which that decline reflects the effects of the recession versus an increase in TTW program use by those with a relatively low chance of forgoing benefits for work remains unclear.

Want To Save Some Real Money At Social Security?

     Even researchers at Mathematica, Social Security's prime contractor for the Ticket to Work program, could find "no consistent evidence of impacts [of Ticket to Work mailings] on the number of months in which beneficiaries did not receive benefits because of work, or on other outcomes." The researchers try to blame the failure of Ticket to Work on the recession.

Three Notices In Federal Register

     Three notices from today's Federal Register:

I. This final rule adopts, without change, the interim final rule with request for comments we published in the Federal Register on January 12, 2012, at 77 FR 1862. The interim final rule modified our rules so that we may send a Ticket to Work (Ticket) to Ticket to Work program (Ticket program)-eligible disabled beneficiaries. Under our previous rules, we mailed initial Ticket notices to all Ticket-eligible beneficiaries immediately after they began receiving benefits, regardless of whether they were likely to participate in the program. This change did not affect Ticket eligibility requirements.

II. We are extending for 2 years our rule authorizing attorney advisors to conduct certain prehearing procedures and to issue fully favorable decisions. The current rule will expire on August 9, 2013. In this final rule, we are extending the sunset date to August 7, 2015. We are making no other substantive changes.

III. We are extending our pilot program that authorizes the agency to set the time and place for a hearing before an administrative law judge (ALJ). This final rule will extend the pilot program for 1 year. The extension of the pilot program continues our commitment to improve the efficiency of our hearing process and maintain a hearing process that results in accurate, high-quality decisions for claimants. The current pilot program will expire on August 9, 2013. In this final rule, we are extending the effective date to August 9, 2014. We are making no other substantive changes.

Disabled People Who Return To Work Usually Don't Last Long

     From a study by the Center for Studying Disability Policy (footnotes omitted):

Each year, SSA publishes information about work activity among beneficiaries. Those statistics tend to show relatively little beneficiary employment; indeed, only about one percent of beneficiaries each year have had their cash benefits suspended or terminated because of work. However, the statistics do not paint a complete picture of the number who forgo cash benefits for work because they exclude beneficiaries who have worked for a long time and are therefore no longer formally connected to SSA programs. To develop a better idea of how many beneficiaries work, SSA and Mathematica Policy Research developed an indicator for “nonpayment status following suspension or termination for work” (NSTW), based on a complex set of SSA administrative data. This indicator captures all months that beneficiaries have given up cash benefits specifically because of work ...

These statistics show that considerably more beneficiaries are forgoing cash benefits because of work than those reported in SSA’s annual reports. SSA’s published statistics show that fewer than one in 100 beneficiaries in each program have their benefits suspended for work in a typical month. However, our statistics reveal that, during a typical month in 2006, about 2.5 beneficiaries were off cash benefits (with benefits either suspended or terminated) because of work for every 100 receiving a benefit payment ... TTW [Ticket to Work] participants are more likely than other beneficiaries to enter NSTW. In 2006, 3.4 percent of TTW participants had their first NSTW month versus 0.7 percent of nonparticipant beneficiaries. The NSTW indicator also allowed us to assess the incidence of NSTW after Ticket assignment for several years; by the 48th month after assignment, nearly 17 percent of TTW participants had had at least one NSTW month, compared to just under 7 percent after 12 months.

      First, even with the increased return to work numbers this study shows, there still are few disability benefits recipients returning to work. Second, while you can read the chart above as showing that Ticket to Work helps, you can also read it as evidence of selection by Ticket to Work providers or self-selection by beneficiaries. What the chart does show unambiguously is that the vast majority of those on Social Security disability benefits who attempt to return to work don't last long. This study does not confirm the common belief that there are many Social Security disability recipients who have the capacity to return to work if only they're given the right encouragement and help. Even when they really want to and even when they receive a lot of help, few of them succeed in returning to work for the long haul.
     This study is a few months old. There are reasons why you haven't seen Ticket to Work proponents touting it.

This Is The Best You Can Come Up With?

This is from the website promoting the Ticket to Work program:

Today we are featuring Terry Anderson, a single mother who celebrated one of the most important anniversaries of her life. She has been cancer-free for four years! As an active person who believes that employment is important to her health and well-being, Terry was anxious to return to work when she began to feel better.

She was also concerned about being “51 in a 20-something workforce.” It had been years since she had to apply and interview for a position. Naturally, she felt out of practice and nervous. Terry sought help from Iowa Workforce Development Center, one of many One-Stop career centers known for the array of employment support services they offer clients in a single location. Through the Ticket program, Iowa Works helped Terry coordinate career preparation and a job hunt. “They offered workshops on interview skills”, she says. “I had my resume refurbished. I learned fresh job-hunting strategies and new computer skills! At first, I was too proud to ask for help. I’m glad that I did.”

     Good for Ms. Anderson but is this the best example that Ticket to Work can come up with?  I don't know what residuals Ms. Anderson has from her cancer but this blurb mentions none. If  her residuals, like those of most cancer survivors, are only of the "different outlook on life" type she should have been cut off Social Security disability benefits at least three years ago. I'm glad she's in remission and I'm glad she got some help in redoing her resume and brushing up on her interview skills but, honestly, it's quite unlikely that the help she got from Ticket to Work was crucial to her return to work. If this is the best proof that can be mustered to show the value of Ticket to Work, it's pretty clear that Ticket to Work doesn't come close to paying for itself.

Witness List For Social Security Subcommittee Hearing

      Here is the witness list for the September 14 hearing before the House Social Security Subcommittee, with a little information about each witness:

• Richard Burkhauser, Ph.D., Professor, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, and Adjunct
  Scholar, American Enterprise Institute -- has written a book recommending raising the early retirement age 
• David C. Stapleton, Ph.D., Director, Center for Studying Disability Policy, Mathematica Policy Research -- works for a contractor which is making lots of money off the failed Ticket to Work program. 
• Marty Ford, Director of Public Policy, The Arc of the United States, on behalf of the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities Social Security Task Force -- an advocate for Social Security disability benefits recipients 
• Daniel Bertoni, Director, Education, Workforce, and Income Security, Government Accountability Office -- Believes that "the criteria the agency uses to make decisions about eligibility for benefits may not sufficiently assess the work capacity of individuals in the 21st century" but cannot give a coherent explanation of what he means. Did a report showing that the Ticket to Work program is a complete failure and then recommended "more oversight" rather than killing off the program. 
• Jill Houghton, Executive Director, US Business Leadership Network -- long history of promoting Ticket to Work.
• Nadine Vogel, Founder and President, Springboard Consulting, Mendham, New Jersey, on behalf of the Society for Human Resource Management -- mother of disabled child who speaks on special needs planning for disabled children 

     I suppose we can take it that the Subcommittee will hear extensively of the wonders of Ticket to Work despite the overwhelming evidence that Ticket to Work is a waste of money. Our representatives in Congress desperately want to hear from people who tell them that large numbers of people drawing Social Security disability benefits can be rehabilitated and returned to work. They are willing to spend great gobs of money pursuing this pipe dream so, of course, people appear who are willing to tell them what they want to hear can be found.

Maybe We've Gotten Carried Away By The Whole Idea Of Rehabilitation

     The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has put out a report with the title Employment For People With Disabilities: Little Is Known about the Effectiveness of Fragmented and Overlapping Programs. Here is an excerpt:

GAO identified 45 programs that supported employment for people with disabilities in fiscal year 2010, reflecting a fragmented system of services. The programs were administered by nine federal agencies and overseen by even more congressional committees. All programs overlapped with at least one other program in that they provided one or more similar employment service to a similar population—people with disabilities. ...[A]mong six selected programs that only serve people with disabilities—including the Department of Education’s Vocational Rehabilitation program and the Social Security Administration’s Ticket to Work program—officials cited more consistent coordination. Most (32) of the 45 programs surveyed tracked at least one employment-related outcome measure for people with disabilities, but overall little is known about the effectiveness of these programs.

      I wonder if Congressional fascination with rehabilitation is in a sense a defense mechanism. We want to believe that even if we get sick that we can find a way to make life go on as before. We are too eager to believe that there is no health obstacle too big to overcome. We desperately want to believe that illness or injury won't take away from us things that we hold dear and for many people that includes work.

The National Council On Disability Needs To Meet More Disabled People

     I have written recently about the attitudes towards the Social Security disability programs that exist within what I'll call the ADA community, a group of people, many of them in wheelchairs, who are committed to the notion that literally anyone can and should work, regardless of the severity of their disability. They believe that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) changed everything, despite the abundant evidence that it changed almost nothing. The ADA community seems to regard the existence of Social Security disability benefits recipients as a sign of a great failing, by society  They believe that all those recipients should be working and would be working if only something -- they don't know what -- were changed. The ADA community seems to think that every disability is much the same as being in a wheelchair, something that a well-motivated person who has a bit of help should overcome. If you think I'm exaggerating, take a look at these excerpts from an announcement by the National Council on Disability (NCD), an independent federal agency: 

Notice of Funding Opportunity 

NCD-02-12

NCD seeks an individual or entity to undertake a project to analyze the various options for SSDI [Social Security Disability Insurance] and SSI [Supplemental Security Income] reform, including what measures could facilitate people currently receiving SSDI and SSI benefits in being able to work, what measures could decrease the likelihood of needing such benefits, and what financing options exist to extend the life of both programs. ...

Suggested Framework for Research

The National Council on Disability is interested in answering the following questions:

1. What would a fundamental restructuring of the SSI and SSDI system require to align it with the goals of the Americans with Disabilities Act, i.e. eliminate the requirement that an SSDI applicant declare themselves unable to work in order to be eligible for benefits; provide job retention supports to working people with disabilities who are at risk of job loss as a result of their disability; assist people with disabilities who are at risk of job loss because they are not receiving reasonable accommodations.
2. Given the extremely diverse populations served by the SSI and SSDI programs, how might different reform strategies disproportionately impact – either positively or negatively – particular segments of the disability community?
3. Based on the most current evidence-based research, does the Medicaid buy-in opportunity impact work activity?  How should it be modified to promote work opportunities for people with disabilities?
4. To what extent has the Ticket-to-Work initiative been evaluated?  What lessons can be drawn from the challenges the Ticket to Work program has faced in realizing its intended goals?  If sufficient information is available to make a determination, what reforms to the Ticket to Work program are recommended?
5. Did the research reveal any changes to other federal programs that would have a positive impact on the health and effectiveness of the Social Security Programs and work opportunities for SSDI and SSI beneficiaries?
6. Could an incentive mechanism be used to encourage employers to make more efforts to accommodate employees with disabilities and to avoid employees with disabilities going on to SSDI rolls, e.g. an experience rating system whereby employers, whose employees have a lower rate of SSDI retirements, pay lower SSDI payroll taxes?
7. Could an incentive mechanism be developed to encourage states to supplement the SSI program with state funds?
8. Could an incentive mechanism be used to encourage more employers to offer private disability insurance policies that would supplement the SSDI program?
9. Are there other changes to the SSDI or SSI programs that would promote work activity, preserve benefits for those who need them, and secure the fiscal integrity of these programs?

     These proposals come despite the fact that the Congress has again and again fallen for the siren call of the ADA community and stuffed the Social Security disability programs with every imaginable incentive for recipients to return to work, so many incentives that keeping them all straight is a huge challenge. The only thing left is to stop with the incentives and try compulsion -- time limited benefits. That would be an enormous mistake but there is literally nothing left to try if you really believe that all those disability recipients should be put back to work. By this point, the ADA community is a positive menace not only to Social Security disability recipients but to the Social Security Administration and Congress. They are pulling policy making in a potentially calamitous direction.

More On Yesterday's Hearing

     I had some time today, while I did other things, to listen to yesterday's Senate Finance Committee hearing. Here are some things I heard that seemed noteworthy to me:

• Commissioner Astrue said that the technology used for Social Security video hearings before Administrative Law Judges had gotten so good that one could see the watermark on a drivers license.[That is not close to my experience. Often I can hardly recognize the people on the other end.]
• A quote from Commissioner Astrue responding to a question about the number of Social Security employees who are eligible or near eligible to retire: "I'm close to panic about holding onto our people."
• Social Security has a system which reports episodes of violence or threatened violence affecting Social Security offices. There used to be about 500 reports a year. It's now around 2,500.
• Ticket to Work is a "disappointment." The actuaries say it is not cost effective.
• Astrue said emphatically at about one hour into the hearing that it is not the law that attorneys and others who represent Social Security disability claimants are required to submit all medical evidence.
• The Commissioner is uncertain whether current law which gives Social Security Commissioners fixed terms which can overlap Presidential Administrations is a good idea. He seemed to indicate that he thinks it is a bad idea.
• Astrue said that his continuing as Commissioner after the change in the White House was not what the incoming Obama Administration wanted.
• He does not want another term as Commissioner. He wants to return to Massachusetts.

     Please listen to it yourself. It has its dull moments but also some interesting ones. It's certainly more interesting than most of these.

Trying Way Too Hard

From an e-mail I received this morning:

Social Security’s Ticket to Work Program Hosting First Disability Employment Twitter Chat on March 30th

Topic: “Career Help for People with Developmental Disabilities”

When: Friday, March 30, 2012, 1:30 p.m., EST

Where and How: Follow @chooseworkssa and the hashtag #DEChat on Twitter