What Have we Learned about SSA and VR Program Interactions?

Some Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients and Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) beneficiaries seek to enter or re-enter the labor force, despite having a medical condition determined to prohibit work. For these individuals, the Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) program, which assists people with disabilities who want to work, is a helpful resource. In addition, by providing services that help people with disabilities achieve or maintain employment, VR may affect applications for SSI payments or DI benefits, delaying or diverting some while possibly hastening others. Exploring the relationship between SSI, DI, and VR helps us to better understand VR’s potential role in stemming the growth in the SSI and DI caseload. This issue brief highlights lessons from studies about the relationship between SSI, DI, and VR that were funded by SSA’s Disability Resource Consortium (DRC). The studies yielded two overarching findings: (1) SSA payments to state VR agencies for assisting SSI recipients and DI beneficiaries to successfully achieve substantive work outcomes are relatively infrequent but could increase, and (2) VR service receipt is correlated with positive employment outcomes for certain transition-age youth, including former child SSI recipients and youth with mental health conditions (MHC). Both findings have implications for SSA and VR policy.