Journey to Financial Independence: Encouraging Work as a Path to Health and Wellness for People with Disabilities

According to a 2000 World Health Organization report, employment can promote mental well-being by providing structure, social contact, purpose, identity and activity. These benefits, along with financial benefits, make working valuable to people with disabilities. Social Security’s Ticket to Work program provides access to employment support services to 13.6 million Americans who receive Social Security disability benefits and want to work. The Beneficiary Access and Support Services contract provides outreach to those who might benefit from the Ticket program.

As part of a multi-modal outreach program, we developed “The Journey to Financial Independence,” an email drip campaign intended to provide beneficiaries the information they need to make an informed choice about participation in the Ticket program. The campaign is divided into four phases based on the beneficiaries’ position within the Ticket program continuum. This program is structured on a behavioral economic model and provides participants the information they need when they need it to make informed choices about working as a path to financial independence and wellness.

This session will describe the initial results of this program, launched in February 2014 to an initial cohort of 106,000 potential participants, including:

• How we developed our messaging based on a behavioral economic model
• How we measured campaign success
• How we integrated the campaign into our digital outreach strategy
• How we addressed accessibility challenges.
• How we plan to use micro-targeting by beneficiary characteristics and demonstrate outcomes by connecting to program participation data
• What lessons we learned using drip campaigns for behavior support