Testing Approaches to Helping People Who Receive Disability Insurance Reenter the Workforce
U.S. Social Security Administration
Both Congress and the U.S. Social Security Administration are interested in increasing the number of people receiving Social Security Disability Insurance who rejoin the workforce. Congress mandated that the Social Security Administration (SSA) conduct a study to determine whether recipients of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits will increase their work effort and earnings if they are able to retain more of their benefits while doing so. Abt Associates designed the policy test — called the Benefit Offset National Demonstration (BOND) — and recently was awarded the contract to implement the demonstration and evaluate its effects.
This major effort draws heavily on Abt Associates’ management expertise: it spans nine years and involves 17 subcontractors and expert consultants. Also of vital importance are Abt Associates’ research design and evaluation capabilities for large-scale studies of employment initiatives.
Currently SSA’s program’s rules reduce SSDI benefits to zero after the person’s earnings reach the threshold of Substantial Gainful Activity (SGA), following a trial work period and grace period. This “cash cliff” creates a financial disincentive to work. BOND will test the effects of continuing to pay benefits after the recipient reaches the threshold, reducing these benefits by only $1 for every $2 of the person’s earnings above the threshold.
In addition to offering this positive financial incentive, the demonstration will also test whether offering BOND participants enhanced counseling — to help them understand the rules changes and take advantage of them — will lead to higher earnings than would be the case by only eliminating the SGA cash cliff.
After a pilot period to test important implementation procedures, the full demonstration is scheduled to be launched in April 2011.
Approximately 90,000 participants will be recruited in 10 large, randomly selected sites around the U.S.
SSDI beneficiaries will be randomly assigned to treatment and control groups.
The study has two treatment groups, both of which are permitted to keep a portion of their benefits after reaching the SGA threshold as specified above, and one of which will also receive the enhanced counseling. Each of these treatment groups will be compared to a “business as usual” control group and to each other.
The results will be followed over the course of the nine-year study, with demonstration impacts measured over a four and five-year follow-up period.
Because of its complexity, this project requires a diverse collection of skills and capabilities, including experience designing and executing large-scale random assignment impact studies, expertise in disability and employment policy, and ability to implement secure data systems and manage complex data collection.
The project also involves designing a communications strategy, operating a call center, and providing training and technical assistance to local agencies.
The project is divided into two teams — Implementation and Evaluation — which are staffed separately. The teams will include staff from: Mathematica Policy Research; Cherokee Information Services; HTA Technology; LionBridge Technologies, Inc.; Convergys; the Virginia Commonwealth University Rehabilitation Research and Training Center; Palladian Partners; the Center for Essential Management Services; MEF Associates; Institute for Public & International Affairs (University of Utah); Proia & Associates; TransCen; and deFriesse Consulting.
