The West Coast Poverty Center released a short summary about a study that explores matched savings programs and low-income people's ability to accumulate assets depending on individual desires to save and ability to act on those preferences. The paper defines "time preference," a concept that describes how present- or future-oriented a person may be, and discusses the ways in which variations in time preferences are important for understanding individual financial outcomes. The researchers used data from a 2002-2009 matched savings program to conduct factor analysis, and found that persons with lower future orientation had significantly lower average savings deposit amounts in their first year in the matched savings program.

The National Center for Children in Poverty released a policy report offering a summary of the various approaches States are taking or propose to take to balance their budget. The report highlights revenue and spending side approaches that are protective of low-income families and endeavor to identify some best practices that other States might adopt. The report closes by drawing some lessons in fiscal management that may help States better weather future downturns without putting their most vulnerable populations at risk.

The Center for Law and Social Policy released a policy brief detailing certain additions to the recently passed 2014 Farm Bill that reauthorized the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Under the updated legislation, low-income college students are eligible for SNAP benefits. Even after accounting for all financial aid, many low-income college students have thousands of dollars of unmet need, even when they attend low-cost institutions such as community colleges. This need often leads students to drop out of college, or to work so many hours that it interferes with their attendance and success in classes. SNAP benefits will now help low-income college students meet their basic needs so they can afford and focus on their education.

Interest in the quality of provider-family relationships in early care and education (ECE) settings has sharpened the focus on defining and measuring elements of these relationships across settings for program improvement purposes.  In this brief, authors examine the alignment of research-based elements of family-provider partnerships with professional and performance standards from three national ECE organizations as well as selected professional competencies and Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) family partnership indicators from two states. The purpose is to inform the development of common definitions, expectations about what providers need to know and do, and measures that more closely capture quality in this domain across systems. (author abstract)

The Institute for Research on Poverty released an article discussing a new policy being tested in New York City that adopts the conditional cash transfer principle and that is extended to a broader set of family efforts to build human capital. Opportunity NYC-Family Rewards seeks to boost family income in the short-term while building families' capacity to avoid poverty in the long-term without increasing their reliance on government assistance. In this article, a summary of the results of a published random assignment evaluation is provided, showing that the program had more modest effects than had been anticipated.

The Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE), Administration for Children and Families released a report outlining their portfolio of research related to welfare and family self-sufficiency projects for the fiscal year 2013. OPRE's research focuses on four major areas: TANF and the Safety Net, Employment and the Labor Market, Education and Training, and other relevant cross-cutting research.

This study examines how child support arrears affect fathers’ labor force participation. It relies on longitudinal data from the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study. Findings from analyses of these data suggest that child support arrears result in declines in average weeks worked in the formal labor market in subsequent time periods. These findings are driven by the behaviors of fathers who had relatively high amounts of arrears and no income in the previous year and are mostly robust to tests for selection into no work or low levels of work by fathers. Findings also suggest that arrears obligations that are low relative to income result in increases in the probability that fathers engage in any formal work. Arrears are not statistically significantly related to informal labor force participation. This study highlights both intended and unintended consequences of the growth in arrears under current child support enforcement policies. (author abstract).

The United States Interagency Council on Homelessness released this public document announcing their commitment to end family homelessness by 2020. The document outlines the key areas of action to achieve this goal, including collaborating with federal partners to develop a centralized entry system with the capacity to assess needs, ensure interventions and assistance are tailored to the needs of families, help families connect to the mainstream resources, and develop and build upon practices for serving families experiencing and at-risk of experiencing homelessness.

The National Poverty Center released a working paper bibliography that summarizes research on the structure and effectiveness of workforce development programs. The paper covers evidence on the overall effectiveness of job training and other active labor market programs, several proposals to improve them, and the impact of the Great Recession on workforce development in the U.S. It also discusses the growing skills and earnings gaps between rich and poor Americans, and provides evidence on training and advancement programs.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities released an article suggesting that EITC's benefits extend well beyond the limited time during which a family typically claims the credit. The article indicates that children of EITC recipients do better in school, are more likely to attend college, and earn more as adults. The Child Tax Credit (CTC) is discussed, which is a related credit that is designed to help offset the cost of child-rearing, and also plays a major role in helping low-income working families.