Ticket to Work Notice Optimization project

CURRENT PRACTICE: To notify beneficiaries of their eligibility to participate in the TTW program, SSA currently mails notices to beneficiaries approximately two months after award (start-up notices) and at the 12-month and 36-month anniversary dates of their award. The notices include standard language about the TTW program and include a TTW brochure, titled “Your Ticket to Work” (available in English and Spanish), and an “inline, paper Ticket.” The inline Ticket is currently an additional page following the letter with additional TTW program information.
The intervention consists of updated communication materials that SSA sends to people with disabilities (SSDI beneficiaries and/or SSI recipients) between the ages of 18 and 55.
INTERVENTION #1 (Notice Structure): First, the project will modify both the start-up and one-year notices and eliminate the three-year letter notice. In place of the three-year notice, we are introducing a notice at two years post-award. The newly designed notices include a more succinct description of the program, which emphasizes saliency, and clear, plain-language action steps encouraging beneficiaries to call the TTW Help Line.
INTERVENTION #2 (Hardcopy Ticket): In addition to testing the amended notices, we will test the inclusion of a cardstock Ticket. These “Tickets” will be printed on 3.5” by 8” cardstock paper. The goal of the newly designed cardstock Tickets is to make the benefits of participating in the TTW program more salient and concise than the letter and, specifically, to help people think of themselves as ready to work (identity priming) and take the specific step of calling the TTW Help Line (implementation prompts). The Ticket format—small, durable, and easily posted on a refrigerator or bulletin board—also makes key information about the program easier to save and access later when necessary. Ultimately, the cardstock Ticket and notice are designed to encourage beneficiaries to consider the benefits of returning to work (or for those not ready to return to work right now, encouraging them to consider it later).

2020-09-16

2022-03-23

Ticket assignment (9 months post mailing)

Beneficiary “assigns a Ticket,” which constitutes an agreement between the beneficiary and a service provider of their choice for employment support services.

Help Line calls (9 months post mailing)

Beneficiary (or payee) calls the TTW Help Line.

We are launching three simultaneous experiments, each with one of three distinct populations. The three distinct populations represent three touch points the TTW program has with potential work participants:
Startup cohort (never been contacted),
1-year cohort (contacted once), and
2-year cohort (contacted twice).
For the first two experiments, we employ a factorial design with two main effects for each experiment, one pertaining to the inclusion of the revised language in the notice (factor 1) and one pertaining to the cardstock Ticket (factor 2), leading to the following confirmatory tests:
Experiment 1 (start-up cohort): The main effect of the optimized start-up notice, and the main effect of the cardstock Ticket among the start-up cohort.
Experiment 2 (1-year cohort): The main effect of the optimized start-up notice, and the main effect of the cardstock Ticket among the 1-year cohort.
Experiment 3 (2-year cohort): The main effect of the optimized start-up notice and cardstock Ticket together, compared to no notice at two-year anniversary.

Not available

SSA’s Office of Systems (Systems) will automate the random assignment process using data system partitions based on the last two digits of SSNs to assign eligible beneficiaries to one of the four study groups. The use of partitions ensures roughly even numbers between the experimental conditions. Systems will provide a print vendor with a file with the randomized lists; the vendor, in turn, prints and mails the notices.

Individual beneficiaries (nested in data system partitions).

No

n/a

Between 288,000 - 450,000 beneficiaries per experiment.

Between 72,000-112,500 beneficiaries for experiments 1 and 2, and between 144,000-225,000 beneficiaries for experiment 3.

Depending on sample size and baseline ticket assignment rate (between 0.57-1.14 per cent), we anticipate the MDE to range between 0.056 - 0.098 percentage point.