Social Security Administration: Better Planning Could Make the Ticket Program More Effective;Report to the Congress

摘要

The Social Security Administration (SSA) manages the two largest federal disability benefit programs and made approximately $75 billion in payments to about 8 million beneficiaries (ages 18 through 64) in 2003. Given the size of its programs, even small improvements in SSAs ability to return beneficiaries to work offer the potential for significant savings. Until recently, Social Security beneficiaries who needed help returning to work generally had to seek services from state vocational rehabilitation (VR) agencies. Few beneficiaries used these services or successfully returned to work. Therefore, Congress passed the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999 (Ticket Act, P.L. 106-170) to create a Ticket to Work and Self-Sufficiency Program (the Ticket program). The programs goals are to expand the availability of service providers and to help enable beneficiaries to return to work, become self-sufficient, and stop receiving disability benefit payments. Eligible beneficiaries can use their tickets as vouchers to request vocational rehabilitation, employment, or other support services from the traditional state VR agencies or from new SSA-approved public or private providers, which are referred to as employment networks (EN). The Congress mandated in the Social Security Protection Act of 2004 that GAO evaluate the Ticket program and provide a report to Congress by March 2, 2005. The statute requires that GAO (1) examine the annual and interim reports issued by the Commissioner of Social Security and the Advisory Panel, (2) assess the effectiveness of the activities carried out under the program, and (3) recommend legislative or administrative changes, if appropriate. To meet these requirements, our report examines: (1) the progress SSA has made in implementing and evaluating the Ticket program and achieving its goals, (2) the problems that have limited the programs ability to achieve its goals, (3) the recommendations to better achieve the goals of the program made by the Advisory Panel, researchers, and service providers, and (4) the challenges SSA faces in implementing changes to achieve the programs goals. On February 25, 2005 GAO briefed congressional staff on the results of our analysis. This report formally conveys the information provided during the briefing.