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The program is working as intended

• The RTWSP has been successfully targeted to workers with more-severe disabilities.
• Program administration is efficient and rapid, with little evidence of fraud or abuse.
• The RTWSP is paid to workers in a timely manner after application: 90 percent of successful applicants are paid the RTW Supplement within three weeks of applying.
• The vast majority of applicants ultimately receive the RTW Supplement: The ultimate acceptance rate among applicants is 96 percent.

But take-up rates can be improved, and workers without legal representation were unlikely to apply

• Despite the efficiency of the application process, just over half of eligible workers apply for the RTWSP.
• Legal representation is the factor most strongly associated with take-up of the RTWSP among eligible workers. After controlling for a wide range of other factors, eligible workers with legal representation were more than 40 percentage points more likely to apply for the RTWSP than comparable eligible workers without representation were. This suggests that many workers are failing to navigate the process on their own.
• Hypothesized barriers to access, such as language or geography, were not as important as legal representation in determining which eligible workers applied for the RTWSP.
• The eligible population for the program is larger than expected when the program was established, and increasing receipt of the SJDB voucher may contribute to continued eligibility growth.

California's Return-to-Work Supplement Program (RTWSP) is a new benefit for permanently disabled workers who suffer disproportionately high earnings loss in comparison with their workers' compensation benefits. The RTWSP provides a one-time $5,000 payment to workers who cannot return to work following a permanently disabling workplace injury. RAND researchers conducted an evaluation of the program's performance and identified options for improving the RTWSP. The study included an environmental scan, stakeholder interviews, and analysis of program data. RAND also held a technical advisory group meeting with key stakeholders.

The RTWSP is performing well on several dimensions. The eligibility criteria have accurately targeted workers with more-severe disabilities, and program administration is efficient, with little evidence of fraud or abuse. However, take-up of the program is low: In a sample of eligible workers, just over half applied to receive the benefit. The most important factor predicting access to the program was legal representation, suggesting that many workers are failing to navigate the process on their own, despite the intent of the program's designers. The authors also found that the eligible population is larger than initially anticipated, a trend driven in part by rising utilization of California's vocational rehabilitation benefit (the Supplemental Job Displacement Benefit [SJDB]).

Based on these findings, the authors recommend that modifications to the RTWSP focus on increasing program take-up among currently eligible workers. Options to increase take-up include making issuance of the Return-to-Work Supplement automatic or improving outreach and notification efforts. The Department of Industrial Relations should also improve monitoring of SJDB voucher issuance to track emerging changes in the RTWSP-eligible population and to facilitate oversight of the SJDB.

• Chapter One

  Introduction

• Chapter Two

  Background and Overview of Study

• Chapter Three

  Operation of the Return-to-Work Supplement Program

• Chapter Four

  California’s Return-to-Work Supplement Program from the Perspective of Key Stakeholders

• Chapter Five

  Data Sources and Methods for Quantitative Analysis

• Chapter Six

  Targeting and Take-Up of the RTWSP

• Chapter Seven

  Eligible Population and Program Cost Estimates

• Chapter Eight

  Policy Options to Improve the RTWSP and Related Processes

• Chapter Nine

  Conclusions and Policy Recommendations

• Appendix A

  Qualitative Information

• Appendix B

  Data Sources, Methods, and Supplementary Results for Quantitative Analysis