The Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR) within the Department of Health and Human Services had a budget of $128.5 million for FY2006-07. DVR provides counseling, training, education, medical, transportation and other support services to persons with various disabilities. The aim of DVR is to help handicapped people become self-sufficient.
One of the main DVR programs is Independent Living, which assists people with disabilities in finding, establishing and maintaining the greatest possible degree of independence in their own home and daily routines. For FY2005 the Independent Living program had a budget of $17 million, which was used to serve 2,341 clients. This amounts to $7,262 per individual. In FY2006, the number of clients served dropped to 2,271 while the cost per individual increased by 4 percent.
Privatizing the Independent Living program along federal guidelines, however, would enable taxpayers to help more people at a lower cost. Since 2004, for example, the Social Security Administration has implemented a Ticket to Work program for people with disabilities. The program provides eligible individuals with a ticket that entitles the individual to vocational rehabilitation and job training, among other services, from private providers. The idea here is that private entities and employers are better suited to create the right solutions for Ticket to Work holders than is the government. Initially, 13 states participated in this program to privatize vocational rehabilitation. North Carolina was not one of those states. North Carolina has thus far not joined the Ticket to Work program, which could help lower the costs of vocational rehabilitation in the state.