Boosting the Earned Income Tax Credit for Singles: Final Impact Findings from the Paycheck Plus Demonstration in New York City

While the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is a popular anti-poverty and pro-work policy that provides a refundable tax credit to low-income Americans, most of its dollars go to families with children. Because there are significantly fewer resources for workers without children, New York City and Atlanta piloted a “Paycheck Plus” program to give single workers more generous benefits. This report by MDRC finds that this program reduced extreme poverty and modestly increased employment rates, particularly for women and the lowest-income men. The researchers speculate that increasing people’s knowledge of employment services may increase the employment effects of the program, which could be an area of expansion for similar interventions going forward. Paycheck Plus also had additional social benefits like increasing tax filing rates and increasing child support payments, leading MDRC to conclude that work-based safety net programs have measured effects on poverty and employment for low-income Americans.