Striking while the iron is hot: The effect of vocational rehabilitation service wait times on employment outcomes for applicants receiving Social Security disability benefits

Abstract

BACKGROUND: State vocational rehabilitation (VR) agencies play a significant role in supporting the employment goals of people with disabilities, but delays in the receipt of vocational services could adversely affect employment outcomes of applicants for services. OBJECTIVE: We explore how exogenous variation in the duration to service receipt for VR applicants receiving Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits affects their employment outcomes. METHODS: We constructed a data set for an annual cohort of SSDI applicants for VR services and followed them for 48 months after their application month using VR and Social Security Administration (SSA) administrative records. We then estimated multivariate models to predict employment-related outcomes based on agency order of selection characteristics and a measure of the usual wait time experienced by all SSDI applicants to the same agency in the same month. RESULTS: Having wait lists for services and experiencing longer wait times for services are associated with lower employment outcomes at VR closure and employment outcomes observed through SSA administrative data. CONCLUSIONS: Longer wait times harm the economic well-being of SSDI VR applicants, reduce VR agency revenues, and increase SSA benefit costs. An experimental test of the effect of accelerating the pace of service delivery seems worthwhile.