Many TANF staff are unfamiliar with the SSI Program but want to learn more. This brief describes the basic SSI disability determination process and compares and contrasts it with several procedures different TANF agencies use to identify recipients who meet TANF work-limitation criteria in states or localities. It goes on to discuss topics including different strategies TANF agencies use to assess which individuals are most likely to qualify for SSI. (author abstract)

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development recently allocated $120 million in rental assistance to State housing agencies to prevent homelessness and unnecessary institutionalization for people with disabilities. HUD's support of these State agencies is made possible through the Section 811 Project Rental Assistance program, which enables persons with disabilities who earn less than 30 percent of their area's median income to live in integrated mainstream settings.

This brief focuses on the analysis of merged national-level SSI data and TANF data from the 26 states that report to the Office of Family Assistance (OFA) on their full TANF caseload. It found, counter to popular narratives, that the overlap between the two programs was small. It also found that TANF recipients who applied for SSI were not at particularly high risk of losing their TANF benefits. Finally, it found that medical award rates among TANF recipients who applied for SSI were comparable to that of SSI applicants who had not recently received TANF, once important age differences were taken into account. (author abstract)

This brief provides an overall summary of the lessons learned from the TANF-SSI Disability Transition Project. It brings together material spread across other documents in a concise format, and it also offers new insights from state-level data analyses that largely back up the conclusions drawn from federal data. (author abstract) 

Project SEARCH, run by Cincinnati Children's Hospital, provides employability skills training and workplace internships for individuals with significant disabilities, particularly youth transitions from high school to adult life. Project SEARCH now has program sites throughout the United States and the United Kingdom, and works with youth with chronic illnesses, traumatic injuries, rehabilitation issues, and other disabilities, and generates a plan that addresses their vocational, educational, training, and employment goals.

The National Council on Disability (NCD) released their Annual Survey of Federal Disability Policy – "Strength in Our Differences." The NCD is an independent Federal agency that recommends disability policy to the President, Congress, and other Federal agencies. It released its yearly report on the nation's progress in achieving equality of opportunity, independent living, full participation, and economic self-sufficiency for an estimated 57 million Americans with disabilities.

This report from Mathematica and the Social Security Administration provides the findings of a longitudinal study of when and if Supplemental Security Income (SSI) disability recipients return to work and utilize the SSI work incentives such as Ticket to Work. Though the data varied widely across States, it was found that younger SSI recipients are more likely to return to work and forfeit benefits than older recipients. A brief history of the Ticket to Work program is provided.

The Department of Economics from Williams College released a paper in their working papers series discussing the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, a federally-funded income support program for disabled individuals. The paper uses State panel data to examine the relationships between welfare reform and SSI disabled caseloads for both adults and children. The paper also examines whether the relationship between SSI participation and other factors has been altered after welfare reform. Results are provided that suggest that welfare reform significantly increases SSI participation.

This article provides a historical look at federal policy as it relates to the employment of people with disabilities over the last 40 years. Of particular interest to TANF stakeholders is the descriptions of integrated employment and EmploymentFirst, two strategies that the Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) has promoted to help individuals with serious disabilities connect with work.