Using Administrative Data to Explore the Employment and Benefit Receipt Outcomes of Vocational Rehabilitation Applicants Years after Program Exit

Using Administrative Data to Explore the Employment and Benefit Receipt Outcomes of Vocational Rehabilitation Applicants Years after Program Exit

Published: Feb 21, 2017
Publisher: Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation, vol. 46, no. 2, How Individual and Environmental Factors affect Employment Outcomes, edited by Purvi Sevak, David C. Stapleton and John O’Neill
Download
Associated Project

Disability Statistics and Measurement Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (StatsRRTC)

Time frame: 2013-2018

Prepared for:

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research

Authors

David R. Mann

Todd Honeycutt

Michelle Stegman Bailey

John O’Neill

Background

Vocational rehabilitation (VR) helps people with disabilities achieve employment. VR administrative data only capture whether VR service recipients were employed at program exit, making it difficult to measure whether employment is sustained.

Objective

This study used linked administrative data from the Social Security Administration (SSA) and Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) to explore the employment, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payment receipt, and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefit receipt outcomes of VR applicants during the first seven calendar years after program exit.

Methods

The analysis sample included all VR case closures from 2004 through 2006. We linked the RSA-911 file to SSA’s Disability Analysis File and Master Earnings File to measure outcomes. Regression analysis controlled for observable characteristics.

Results

Applicants exiting with employment were most likely to be employed or have SSI or SSDI benefits suspended over the subsequent seven years. Those who did not receive services had better outcomes than those who received services but exited without employment. Interestingly, SSDI non-beneficiaries who were working at program exit were more likely than others to eventually receive SSDI.

Conclusions

The correlation between employment status at closure and future outcomes provides an opportunity to target further assistance to VR customers as they leave the program.

How do you apply evidence?

Take our quick four-question survey to help us curate evidence and insights that serve you.

Take our survey