Absence of conflict of interest.
Citation
Highlights
- The study's objective was to examine the impact of the Youth Transition Demonstration (YTD) project on public benefits receipt, employment, and earnings outcomes. This profile focuses on the study conducted in Erie County and the City of Buffalo in New York. The authors investigated similar research questions for other sites, the profiles of which can be found here:
- The study was a randomized controlled trial that assigned eligible youth to the treatment or control group. The primary data sources were a baseline survey and administrative data sets from governmental agencies. The author used a series of statistical tests to compare differences in outcomes between treatment and control group members.
- The study found that YTD program participants had significantly higher rates of SSI program participation and larger average SSA payments two years after randomization than control participants.
- This study receives a high evidence rating. This means we are confident that the estimated effects are attributable to the Youth Transition Demonstration (YTD) project, and not to other factors.
Intervention Examined
The Youth Transition Demonstration
Features of the Intervention
The Youth Transition Demonstration (YTD) aimed to help youth with disabilities manage their transitions to adulthood and identify interventions to improve educational and vocational outcomes for youths receiving or potentially qualifying for Social Security Income (SSI) or Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) benefits. The Social Security Administration (SSA) implemented the YTD at several sites in the United States.
Erie County Transition WORKS operated one YTD program. The program served youth between the ages of 16 and 25, who were receiving SSI or DI benefit payments, and who lived in Erie County and the City of Buffalo in New York. The Erie County Transition WORKS YTD program provided youth with person-centered planning, self-determination workshops, and employment and education-related services. Youth worked with a counselor to establish benefit plans and create goals for a transition plan. Youth then worked with job developers to conduct vocational assessments and set up paid employment and internship opportunities. Youth interested in continuing their education were connected with resources to help further their education according to their interests. Youth were eligible for these services for 18 months with the option to receive some continuing employment supports afterwards.
Features of the Study
The study was a randomized controlled trial. Between January 2007 and March 2008, 827 youth were recruited for the study. Of the eligible youth, 454 were randomly assigned to the treatment group and 373 were randomly assigned to the control group. The treatment group received the full Erie County Transition WORKS YTD program for the duration of 18 months with the option to receive some continuing employment supports afterwards. Additionally, treatment group youth were eligible for certain waivers allowing them to keep more of their earnings without affecting their SSI payments. Youth in the control group were subject to standard SSA earnings rules and received standard employment services that would normally be available to SSI or DI recipients. Study participants were predominantly male (62%), age 18 or older (76%), with a primary disability of other mental disorder (36%) or intellectual disability (37%). The primary data sources were a baseline survey on the background characteristics of youth, SSA Master Earnings File for W-2 derived earnings, Supplemental Security Record and Master Beneficiary Record for program participation histories for SSI and DI recipients, and the Numerical Identification System file for dates of death. The author used a series of statistical tests to compare differences in outcomes between treatment and control group members.
Findings
Public Benefits Receipt
- The study found that a significantly higher proportion of youth in the treatment group than control group participated in the SSI program or either the SSI or DI program.
- The study found that neither treatment nor control group youth earnings exceeded the substantial gainful activity (SGA) limit that would result in a reduction of benefit receipt.
- The study found that youth in the treatment group averaged significantly larger SSA program payments 24 months after random assignment than youth in the control group.
Employment
- The study found that there were no significant differences in employment rates between the treatment and control group youth 24 months after random assignment.
Earnings and Wages
- When comparing annual earnings among all participants, the study did not find any significant differences in the dollar amount earned by youth in the treatment group when compared to the control group.
- When comparing annual earnings among only participants with earnings, the study did not find any significant differences in the dollar amount earned by youth in the treatment group when compared to the control group.
Considerations for Interpreting the Findings
There are a few things to consider when interpreting the results from the current study. First, the author estimated many related impacts on earnings and public benefit receipt outcomes. Performing multiple statistical tests on related outcomes makes it more likely that some impacts will be found statistically significant purely by chance and not because they reflect program effectiveness. The author did not perform statistical adjustments to account for the multiple tests, so the number of statistically significant findings in these domains is likely to be overstated. Additionally, the study reports a less stringent statistical significance level for some findings, considering p-values of less than 0.10 to be significant, though it is standard practice to consider statistical significance if the p-value is less than 0.05. Only results that demonstrate a p-value of less than 0.05 are considered statistically significant in this profile.
Causal Evidence Rating
The quality of causal evidence presented in this report is high, because it was based on a well implemented randomized controlled trial. This means we are confident that the estimated effects are attributable to the Youth Transition Demonstration project, and not to other factors.