To increase employment for individuals with disabilities, provide alternatives to cash assistance through the TANF program, and improve eligibility processing for SSI benefits, ACF and SSA jointly commissioned the TANF-SSI Disability Transition Project. MEF was a subcontractor to MDRC on this task order. Under this task order contract, MEF provided technical assistance and worked with sites to develop innovations in the process of assessing TANF applicants and recipients for disabilities, referring the appropriate applicants to SSI, and engaging individuals with disabilities in work activities. Examples of tasks performed by MEF staff included designing and conducting pilot tests of strategies pursued by the sites and developing recommendations for future research questions and evaluation options, including the use of experimental designs.
