[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 189 (Tuesday, September 29, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 61032-61034]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-21533]


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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Office of Disability Employment Policy

[Agency Docket Number: DOL-2020-0006]
RIN 1230-ZA00


Request for Information on Proposed Transfer of Ticket to Work 
Program From the Social Security Administration to the U.S. Department 
of Labor

AGENCY: Office of Disability Employment Policy, U.S. Department of 
Labor.

ACTION: Request for information.

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SUMMARY: The Social Security Administration's (SSA) Ticket to Work and 
Self-Sufficiency Program (Ticket program) is intended to assist adult 
disability beneficiaries in becoming employed, yet relatively few 
disability beneficiaries have successfully participated in the program. 
In order to strengthen the Ticket program, the President's Budget for 
Fiscal Year 2021 includes a legislative proposal to improve program 
structure and coordination and transfer administration of the program 
to the Department of Labor (DOL), in order to better integrate the 
program into the public workforce system and better serve disability 
beneficiaries who want to work. This request for information (RFI) 
seeks public input regarding how the proposed changes to the Ticket 
program would impact disability beneficiaries who want to work and the 
systems that currently serve their employment and related needs, and to 
identify critical considerations for designing and implementing an 
improved program.

DATES: Comments must be received by November 13, 2020.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments via the internet. Please visit the 
Federal eRulemaking portal at http://www.regulations.gov. Use the 
``Search'' function to find docket number DOL-2020-0006. The system 
will issue a tracking number to confirm your submission. You will not 
be able to view your comment immediately because we must post each 
comment manually. It may take up to a week for your comment to be 
viewable.
    Caution: In your comments, you should be careful to include only 
the information that you wish to make publicly available. We strongly 
urge you not to include in your comments any personal information, such 
as Social Security numbers or medical information.

[[Page 61033]]


FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jennifer Sheehy, Deputy Assistant 
Secretary, Office of Disability Employment Policy, U.S. Department of 
Labor, 200 Constitution Avenue NW, S-1303, Washington, DC 20210, (202) 
693-7880, or visit https://www.dol.gov/dol/contact/contactphonecallcenter.htm (TTY), for information about this notice.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Purpose

    In order to streamline and strengthen employment services for 
Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) beneficiaries and 
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients seeking employment, the 
President's Budget for Fiscal Year 2021 includes a legislative proposal 
to transfer the Ticket program to DOL given its capacity to promote 
innovative workforce development and disability employment. Better 
integrating services for SSDI beneficiaries and SSI recipients into the 
core workforce system should result in a more effective and efficient 
system to support them in achieving and sustaining employment. A key 
challenge in transferring the program to DOL will be to reduce program 
complexity and overall administrative burden, rather than to simply 
recreate complexity or transfer the burden to other entities. Given the 
complexity of the current program and the significance of the proposed 
changes, public input is necessary to help ensure the success of the 
reformed program.
    This RFI offers interested parties--including state and local 
governments, nonprofit and community-based organizations, philanthropic 
organizations, research experts, employers, health care providers, 
private disability insurance providers, vocational rehabilitation 
specialists, and members of the public--the opportunity to inform the 
development of a redesigned Ticket program aimed at increasing the 
employment and labor force participation of SSDI beneficiaries and SSI 
recipients.

Further Information

    SSA's Ticket program is intended to assist adult disability 
beneficiaries in achieving and sustaining employment.\1\ Under the 
Ticket program, SSA notifies beneficiaries of their eligibility to 
participate in the program, which allows them to obtain services from 
SSA-approved public or private providers, referred to as Employment 
Networks (EN), or from traditional state Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) 
agencies.
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    \1\ The Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act of 
1999. Public Law 106-170, 101, 113 Stat. 1860, 1863-73 (codified as 
amended at 42 U.S.C. 1320b-19).
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    The Ticket program has helped thousands of disability beneficiaries 
return to work since it was established in 1999. Yet, despite the 
availability of the program, significant numbers of beneficiaries have 
not achieved levels of sustained employment that result in economic 
self-sufficiency and reduced reliance on disability benefits. Despite 
improvements over the years, the Ticket program faces fundamental 
challenges in attempting to meet its objectives. First, the program 
falls outside SSA's core mission of administering the Old Age, 
Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) and the SSI programs. 
Second, the program duplicates administrative structures and services 
where robust state and local workforce systems already exist. Finally, 
while the program is designed to promote beneficiary choice in 
accessing employment services and to incentivize providers by paying 
for successful individual outcomes, these features entail significant 
administrative burden for beneficiaries and service providers.
    As designed, the Ticket program is largely separate from the 
broader workforce system. In contrast to when the program was created, 
the workforce system now provides similar services and is directed by 
the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) to prioritize 
services for recipients of public assistance and low-income 
individuals, including persons with disabilities, and to ensure 
accessibility for all persons. In addition, the milestone/outcome 
payment structure currently used in the Ticket program is complicated 
and delays reimbursement to service providers for many months, which 
may limit provider participation.
    The rationale for transferring the Ticket program to DOL is to 
create a more integrated, effective, and efficient system for 
supporting disability beneficiaries in obtaining and sustaining 
employment. The ultimate goals of program redesign include the 
following:
     Increasing the number of disability beneficiaries who 
participate in the program, succeed in employment, and achieve economic 
mobility, while decreasing reliance on disability benefits and other 
forms of public assistance;
     Improving the experience of individual program 
participants;
     Reducing program fragmentation and duplication;
     Establishing national uniformity in essential program 
features while allowing opportunity for local innovation;
     Restructuring funding mechanisms and performance metrics 
to align with WIOA;
     Providing financial incentives to states in order to 
reward performance;
     Better integrating services for disability beneficiaries 
into the broader workforce system; and
     Leveraging DOL's expertise and capacity in promoting 
innovative workforce development and employment of persons with 
disabilities.
    Although DOL and SSA have attempted to increase workforce system 
participation in the Ticket program, the workforce system historically 
has not served large numbers of SSA beneficiaries.\2\ In order to drive 
changes on the scale necessary to improve economic mobility for 
disability beneficiaries, the President's Budget proposes to 
significantly reform the Ticket program through transferring 
administration of the program and redesigning key elements. 
Specifically, the proposal is to transfer the administration of the 
Ticket program to DOL's Employment and Training Administration (ETA). 
This would empower ETA's American Job Center (AJC) network to provide 
Ticket services in concert with other workforce programs. It would also 
simplify Ticket program rules, including the payment model used to pay 
ENs and other providers for services, in order to improve the structure 
and outcomes through a performance-based funding allocation. Program 
redesign would include aligning Ticket performance measures with WIOA 
core performance measures, improving the capacity of state public 
workforce systems to serve persons with disabilities, and changing the 
payment structure from individual vouchers to one in which states 
receive base administrative funding based on a formula and additional 
payments that reflect level of performance. State and

[[Page 61034]]

local workforce entities would receive funding and technical assistance 
from ETA in order to better serve disability beneficiaries, with a 
portion of Ticket funding reserved for rewarding strong performance and 
program innovation. States and localities would be allowed greater 
flexibility in tailoring services to fit local circumstances. The 
redesigned program would retain key features of the current program, 
such as benefits counseling and suspension of SSA medical Continuing 
Disability Reviews (CDRs) while program participants pursue 
employment.\3\
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    \2\ After several years of sharing information on the Ticket 
program with the workforce system, the commitment to increase the 
number of workforce ENs resulted in multiple Training and Employment 
Notices (TENs), beginning in 2012 with TEN 14-12, Receiving Ticket 
to Work Payment as an Employment Network, which explained the 
Payment Agreement process. This was updated in 2014 as TEN 02-14, 
Receiving Ticket to Work Payment as an Employment Network, which 
explained a new process for public workforce entities to become ENs. 
In 2018, DOL published TEN 16-18, New Administrative Processes for 
Public Workforce Employment Networks under the Social Security 
Administration's Ticket to Work Program, to support DOL's goal of 
expanding the capacity of the American Job Center network to serve 
persons receiving disability benefits. The 2018 TEN notified the 
workforce system regarding the Ticket program's new administrative 
processes for public workforce ENs and alternative EN models.
    \3\ Medical CDRs are periodic reviews of an individual's medical 
impairment(s) to determine continuing eligibility for SSI and/or 
SSDI.
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    In close coordination with SSA and ETA, DOL's Office of Disability 
Employment Policy (ODEP) will provide policy analysis and guidance to 
support the transfer and improvement of the program.

Request for Information

    Through this RFI, we are soliciting feedback from interested and 
affected parties on the potential benefits and challenges in 
transferring the Ticket program to DOL and serving program participants 
through the public workforce systems, in order to enable them to 
increase employment and earnings and maximize self-sufficiency. We are 
also interested in evidence supporting or challenging the assumptions 
underlying this proposal. Responses to this RFI will inform decisions 
regarding the development, design, and implementation of the redesigned 
program. As such, responses supported by substantial evidence and 
careful reasoning will be afforded greatest weight. This RFI notice is 
for internal planning purposes only and should not be construed as a 
solicitation or as an obligation on the part of DOL or any 
participating federal agencies.
    We ask respondents to address the following questions in the 
context of the preceding discussion in this document. Respondents do 
not need to address every question and should focus on those that 
relate to their expertise or perspective. To the extent possible, 
please clearly indicate the question(s) addressed in your response. We 
ask that each respondent include the name and street address of his or 
her institution or affiliation, if any, and the name, title, street 
address, email address, and telephone number of a contact person for 
his or her institution or affiliation, if any.

Questions

Workforce System Capacity
    1. How might state workforce systems use new Ticket program funding 
to increase capacity to effectively serve SSA disability beneficiaries, 
given that the number of SSA disability beneficiaries who will seek 
services in a particular locality is unknown?
    2. How might state workforce systems integrate the provision of the 
Ticket program with other existing WIOA services? What opportunities 
and challenges will arise in doing so?
    3. How could DOL's ETA help prepare state workforce systems for a 
potentially significant increase in SSA disability beneficiaries 
seeking services?
    4. What ongoing federal support would be most helpful to state 
workforce systems as they administer the Ticket program?
    5. How could state workforce systems provide quality remote 
services, when necessary, to serve SSA disability beneficiaries 
regionally or nationwide?
    6. What are key considerations in transferring SSA's Work 
Incentives Planning and Assistance (WIPA) services to state workforce 
agencies?
Participant Experience and Outcomes
    7. What specific program changes could improve experiences and 
outcomes for persons accessing the redesigned Ticket program services 
through the workforce system?
    8. What is the capacity of the workforce system to effectively 
serve young adults or transition-age youth (i.e., ages 14-18) under a 
redesigned Ticket program? What capacity and coordination issues would 
arise in serving transition-age youth?
Employment Networks and Vocational Rehabilitation
    9. What lessons can be taken from current EN models (e.g., 
community-based, nonprofit, workforce ENs) or collaborative AJC program 
models that can inform the new Ticket program?
    10. How can VR entities partner with state workforce systems to 
support SSA disability beneficiaries in the redesigned Ticket program?
Funding Structure, Performance Metrics and Performance-Based Payments
    11. What payment structures and which WIOA performance indicators 
(if any) would encourage state workforce systems to provide robust 
employment and training services to persons with disabilities, leading 
to job placement and ongoing support to ensure job retention?
    12. Which of the WIOA performance indicators (if any) could serve 
as potential interim measures to trigger partial performance-based 
payments?
    13. What are appropriate intervals (medium- and long-term) for 
performance-based payments?
    14. How would workforce entities and DOL track and measure program 
success? Would workforce entities require access to new administrative 
data sources?
General
    15. What challenges within the current Ticket program would 
potentially remain in a redesigned program administered by state 
workforce entities, and what could DOL do to address or mitigate them?
    16. What strengths of the current Ticket program contribute to the 
success of individual Ticket holders, and how could these be preserved 
in the redesigned program?
    17. Are there current or recent state examples of integrated 
systems that offer lessons for successful implementation of the 
redesigned Ticket program?
    18. What are the implications of the current COVID-19 pandemic for 
redesigning the Ticket program at this time, such as employer demand, 
workforce system capacity, and remote services?
    19. Are there additional considerations in transferring the Ticket 
program from SSA to DOL?

    Signed at Washington, DC, this __th day of September, 2020.
Jennifer Sheehy,
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Disability Employment Policy.
[FR Doc. 2020-21533 Filed 9-28-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4510-FK-P