The TANF-SSI Disability Transition Project: An Overview

The TANF-SSI Disability Transition Project was devised in 2007 to address Social Security Administration (SSA) and Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) concerns about state efforts to move applicants and recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) to Supplemental Security Income (SSI). It is intended to fulfill a commitment former SSA Commissioner Barnhart made to the Government Accounting Office regarding a joint DHHS/SSA effort to study ways to improve program outcomes for both SSI and TANF. The initiative is a unique collaboration between the SSA Office of Retirement and Disability Policy (ORDP), the DHHS Administration for Children and Families (ACF), and the Human Services agencies of participating states. Along with Eloise Anderson, I am serving as consultant to the ACF Office of Family Assistance (OFA) in development of this project. Lois Bell is OFA project director, reporting to OFA Director Sidonie Squier. Our group is working closely with our counterparts in ORDP.

The project is unfolding in three stages. The first, in which we are currently engaged, is focused on information gathering. We have limited information on the extent of program interactions and the outcomes for the TANF-related SSI applicant flow. To find out more, we have developed Memorandums of Agreement with four states selected by OFA. These MOAs specify an arrangement whereby participating state social services departments send us rosters of TANF applicants and recipients and we match these data with our own administrative records to assess the prevalence of SSI application within this group and to study outcomes of mutual interest to ourselves and our state partners. We are particularly interested in the people who do not get awards. It appears that these people receive few services while awaiting SSI determination, but they are at risk of running out their TANF “clocks,” since the federal contribution to TANF assistance is time-limited.

If the data reveal problems, in stage two we will look for ideas for change and possibly field some to assess practicality. The DHHS Administration for Children and Families has made a significant commitment to funding the effort to collect ideas and conduct trials of what appear to be promising interventions on the basis of logic, available evidence from other sources, and the data we collect in stage one.

And finally, if we come up with an innovation that really looks promising, we might go to a randomized trial in stage three. But the important thing is that we want to do nothing without data, and gathering of information is at present all of what the project is about.