BOND-Implementation-and-Evaluation-Third-Year-Snapshot-of-Earnings-and-Benefit-Impacts-for-Stage-1

“As part of the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999, Congress asked the Social Security Administration (SSA) to test alternative Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) work rules designed to increase the incentive for SSDI beneficiaries to work and reduce their reliance on benefits. In response, SSA has undertaken the Benefit Offset National Demonstration (BOND), a random assignment test of variants of SSDI program rules governing work and other supports” (p.i).

“The BOND project includes two stages. Stage 1 is designed to examine how a national benefit offset would affect earnings and program outcomes for the entire SSDI population. Stage 2 is designed to study impacts for those most likely to use the offset (recruited and informed volunteers) and to determine the extent to which significant enhancements to counseling services affect impacts” (p.i).  The overall purpose of the Bond Offset project is to establish the SSDI intervention effect on employment outcomes by examining what happens when SSDI benefits are gradually reduced.

“This report, the third in a series of Snapshot Reports, documents Stage 1 impacts on earnings and benefit outcomes during the third calendar year of implementation (2013)….[The authors] estimate impacts by comparing earnings and benefit outcomes for all Stage 1 treatment subjects (T1) with those for all control subjects (C1). Future annual reports will track Stage 1 impacts through 2017” (p.i).

(Abstractor: Author and Website Staff)

The report highlights findings from the third year of implementation in 2013 and describes how the SSDI offset affected participant earnings and benefits received. The authors note that findings are preliminary and that subsequent reports will tell a more complete story. Current findings include: • “The benefit offset, as administered under BOND, did not have a statistically significant impact on total earnings in 2013—similar to previously reported findings for 2011 and 2012” (p.i). • “[The report finds] no evidence of an increase in the proportion earning above the BOND Yearly Amount (BYA)—the annualized substantial gainful activity amount” (p.i). • “As in 2012, there was a positive impact on total SSDI benefits paid in 2013…It is not possible with existing data to assess the size of impacts on benefits paid for 2013, but the absence of an impact on the percentage with earnings above BYA noted above suggests that the impact on benefits paid for 2013 will be positive. The offset can reduce benefits paid for a given year only by inducing beneficiaries to earn above BYA when they would not otherwise have done so” (p.i). • “Several factors suggest that positive impacts on earnings may yet emerge, including growth in the number of treatment subjects whose benefits have been adjusted under the offset. These factors do not guarantee positive impacts at any point, however. Future reports will continue to document annual earnings and benefit impacts” (p.i). (Abstractor: Author and Website Staff)

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2015
• Author(s): Wittenburg, David; Mann, David R.; Stapleton, David; Gubits, Daniel; Judkins, David, et al.
• Organizational Author(s): Mathematica Center for Studying Disability Policy; Abt Associates
• Funding Source: U.S. Social Security Administration
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Laura Aron
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies