Navigating and Improving Employment Related Policies for People with Disabilities: An Emerging WorkWORLD Knowledge Based Decision Support (WW-KBDS) System

Abstract

Current disability benefit, employment, and welfare programs interact in complex ways that often discourage beneficiaries from seeking employment and increased earnings. The complexity of such “incentive incompatibilities” or “perverse incentives” serves as barriers not only to the employment of individuals with disabilities but also to the efforts of policy makers to improve the policies and remove the disincentives. A Knowledge Based Decision Support (KBDS) system can: (1) help individuals to navigate the current system as successfully as possible; and (2) help policy makers and disability advocates to develop “incentive compatible” policies that reward beneficiaries for going to work rather than punish them. The Employment Support Institute (ESI) has been working under contract with the Social Security Administration (SSA) to develop the WorkWORLD decision support system and software that can help both beneficiaries and policy makers. Because many of the programs operate differently in different states, however, the full development of the software will require the cooperation of every state. A model for that cooperation has been developed and is presented.