Work Incentive Planning and Assistance (WIPA) Service Model Analysis

Objective

We contracted with Abt Associates to develop evidence-based recommendations for potential changes to the WIPA program service model that would help us enhance our service to people receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) within funding limitations while offering a service model that is reasonable and attractive to potential applicants for WIPA cooperative agreements.

Status

This project was completed in November 2020.

The research team gathered information to answer the following four questions:

  1. What specific approaches to benefits counseling are most likely to result in successful, longer-term employment outcomes for beneficiaries?
  2. Are there methods of providing services that would be more effective than the current delivery model; and if so, what are they?
  3. Does literature or existing data support SSA’s assumption, based on anecdotal experience, that it is better to serve beneficiaries at the point when they begin to work, rather than at other times such as when they are first considering work, or later once they are working and changes begin to occur in benefits due to their work earnings?
  4. What does the evidence indicate is the beneficiary population most likely to succeed in their work attempts with support?
To answer these questions, Abt Associates used three information gathering activities:

  • Review of relevant rehabilitation, motivation, and adult learning literature (addressing all four of the research questions);
  • Interviews of WIPA and state vocational rehabilitation (VR) directors (addressing all four research questions); and
  • Secondary analysis of data from SSA’s Benefit Offset National Demonstration (BOND) and Promoting Opportunity Demonstration (POD) evaluations (addressing the third research question).

The report offers sixteen recommendations that combine strategies SSA has considered in the past; is currently using and might continue, expand, or emphasize; and has not previously explored.

Overall, interviewees were generally satisfied with the fundamentals of the WIPA program, calling the WIPA model the “gold standard” for benefits counseling. Their suggestions for how the WIPA program could be changed were mostly small in scale. When the informants suggested larger-scale changes, such as expanding the number of beneficiaries supported through the WIPA program or the kinds of support provided, they acknowledged that such change would require additional funding beyond the budget available for WIPA cooperative grants.

Not applicable.

We publish public use data on QDD/Fast Track Processes. To access these files, see the following page: https://www.ssa.gov/disabilityresearch/fasttrackpuf.html.

Compassionate Allowances

Employee Operating Instructions