Demonstrations

The DO-ABLE demonstration will conduct a three-phased randomized controlled trial among targeted Illinois and Michigan SSI recipients to evaluate the impact of promoting the take-up and use of Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) accounts on employment outcomes. The evaluation will also include a cost-benefit analysis to determine whether the benefits of helping people enroll and save in ABLE accounts exceed the costs of doing so.

ICAP allows SSA to enter into cooperative agreements to collaborate with States, private foundations, and other non-federal groups and organizations who have the interest and ability to identify, operate, and partially fund interventional research related to the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs.

This is a 5-year joint project between SSA and the Department of Health and Human Service’s Administration for Children and Families. Seeking to evaluate early intervention programs and employment support models designed to produce favorable economic outcomes among low-income individuals who have little work experience and ties to public assistance programs. Primary interests include evaluations of programs that support individuals with disabilities who may apply for SSI as well as people facing opioid and other substance abuse issues.

RETAIN, a joint project with the Department of Labor (DOL), tests early interventions to help workers stay at work or return to work quickly after experiencing the onset of a work-threatening injury, illness, or disability. The policy goals involve reducing long-term disability, including reliance on SSDI or SSI benefits, while increasing employment retention and labor force participation among those individuals. DOL awarded cooperative agreements to states to implement RETAIN projects, and SSA will evaluate the project.

The purpose of this project is to conduct a feasibility study of the implementation of the SSI/SSDI Outreach, Access, and Recovery (SOAR) model in county jails with inmates with serious and persistent mental illness across the state of Georgia. The SGCJP project will recruit inmates from four county jails and help them apply for SSI/SSDI benefits if they are eligible. The evaluation will include a process study and a study of participant outcomes.

The purpose of this demonstration is to provide an employment intervention for adults who have experienced a brain injury or spinal cord injury. VRFD focuses on providing early vocational support to neurotrauma patients to help them enter, return, or stay in the labor force. The goal of the randomized controlled trial is to provide the best possible evidence on the replicability, sustainability, and effectiveness of VRF services.

We are conducting YTED in partnership with Mathematica, the Pennsylvania Office of Vocational Rehabilitation (OVR), and the Center for Transition and Career Innovation at the University of Maryland (CTCI). YTED will test whether intensive employment training services—like Job Corps and Year Up—improve employment and other outcomes for youth with disabilities who are transitioning to adulthood and strengthen cooperation and coordination among organizations that serve youth with disabilities.

In this demonstration, we tested whether providing medical benefits sooner to SSDI beneficiaries would improve health outcomes and result in less long-term dependency on cash benefits.

The purpose of the Benefit Offset project was to determine the effect of various interventions, in combination with a benefit offset, on employment outcomes including wages, benefits, hours worked, and job retention. We tested a $1 reduction in benefits for every $2 in earnings over substantial gainful activity levels, in combination with benefits counseling, with the goal of helping beneficiaries with disabilities return to work.

The goal of this project was to facilitate services for people with disabilities; improve access to programs and services; facilitate links with the employer community; develop strategies to meet employers’ recruitment and retention needs; increase employment and self-sufficiency for people with disabilities; and develop ongoing partnerships to take full advantage of all resources.

The HOPE initiative focused on assisting eligible, chronically homeless individuals in applying for SSI and SSDI benefits. We developed the project to test the effectiveness of using skilled medical and social service providers to identify and engage homeless individuals with disabling conditions and assist them in filing for benefits within current policy.

MHTS evaluated the impact that better access to treatment and employment support services would have on outcomes such as medical recovery, functioning, employment, and benefit receipt for SSDI beneficiaries with a primary impairment of schizophrenia or affective disorder.

POD tested simplified work incentives and a benefit offset in the SSDI program to determine its effects on outcomes such as earnings, employment, and benefit payments. Section 823 of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 directed the agency to carry out POD.

PROMISE was a joint project with the Departments of Education, Labor, and Health and Human Services to promote positive outcomes for children who receive SSI and their families. The goal of PROMISE was to improve the provision and coordination of services to promote education and employment outcomes resulting in long-term reductions in the child’s reliance on SSI.

SSA partnered with the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) to fund eighteen State demonstrations to develop innovative projects to assist individuals with disabilities in their efforts to reenter the workforce. These awards helped States develop State-wide programs of services and support for their residents with disabilities that increased job opportunities for them and decreased the dependence on benefits, including SSDI and SSI.

The Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2015 (Pub. L. 113-235) appropriated funds to design, develop, and implement an early intervention demonstration to test innovative strategies aimed at helping people with disabilities remain in the workforce.

TEPs provided a forum for stakeholders and other experts to provide interactive feedback on a proposed demonstration.

YTD assisted youths, aged 14 to 25, with disabilities to successfully transition from school to economic self-sufficiency. The beneficiaries who participated in this demonstration were youths who were receiving SSI or SSDI payments based on their own disability, or who were at risk of receiving SSI or SSDI benefits.