This report from the Midas Collaborative details an evaluation of their Small Business Matched Savings Program over an eight-year period from March 2007 to February 2015. During this time, the program helped 302 low-income business owners expand their businesses through a combination of dedicated savings accounts, financial education, small-business training, and matching funds.

This article from the Center for Social Development is an update and extension of a 2013 journal article regarding the financial impacts of Child Development Accounts (CDAs). The data is based on the SEED for Oklahoma Kids randomized experiment 7 years after the intervention began.

In this report from the Urban Institute, the authors identify and discuss 13 building blocks that they deem fundamental to advancing the economic mobility of low-income Americans. The building blocks include: family formation and stability; parenting skills; high-quality child care and early learning; elementary and secondary education; postsecondary education; employment and training; wages, wage supplements, and work supports; cash or near-cash safety net; asset formation and access to capital; health and mental health; criminal justice and safety; housing; and community building and social capital.

This resource from the Internal Revenue Service provides information about special tax law provisions that may help taxpayers and businesses recover financially from the impact of a disaster, especially when the federal government declares their location to be a major disaster area.

The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is a refundable tax credit given to workers with low to moderate incomes, and has been expanded over the years to become one of the country’s most effective anti-poverty policies for low-income workers with children. This brief from the MDRC provides an update on the Paycheck Plus demonstration, which is testing the effects of a more generous EITC-like earnings supplement for low-income single adults in New York City. It describes the implementation of the program during the first year and supplement receipt rates during the 2015 tax season. The brief also discusses the forthcoming test of Paycheck Plus in Atlanta, Georgia, which will provide evidence of its effects in a different context from New York City.

The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) supports millions of single parents and their children each year. Though the majority of EITC recipients are single mothers, many single fathers receive this benefit as well. In 2014, 4.2 million single fathers were eligible for the EITC. This blog post from the Brookings Institution provides more information about eligible fathers and includes a link to EITC commentaries and resources.

The Administration for Children and Families’ Assets for Independence (AFI) program recently issued $7.1 million in federal grants to 30 organizations. The AFI program provides grant funds to a wide range of eligible organizations to assist low-income individuals and families with building long-term savings through matched savings accounts called Individual Development Accounts (IDAs). Every dollar of earned income AFI project participants deposit into their IDAs is matched (from $1 to $8 in combined federal and non-federal funds) by AFI.

This report presents findings from an intervention designed to increase the number of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families recipients who “reengaged” in Los Angeles County’s welfare-to-work program.

Two behaviorally informed notices went out to different groups of participants:

• A notice highlighting the losses they might face by not attending the reengagement appointment; and
• A notice highlighting the benefits they might receive by attending.

A third control group did not receive either behaviorally informed notice.

Participants received the notice one week before their appointment. The test found that receiving a behaviorally informed notice increased the percentage of group members who engaged in the program within 30 days of their scheduled reengagement appointment, with the increase driven by the loss notice (author abstract).

For low-income families, wages may only fulfill basic needs like food, clothing, and housing that may just be temporary. This financial instability leaves the future uncertain. To help children reach their full potential, families may consider savings and assets. These assets include emergency savings, college funds, home ownership, and more. This brief from the Annie E. Casey Foundation examines the persistently wide gap in savings and assets between white families and families of color, as well as outlines practical federal policy changes that could help low-income families build savings and assets so they can move toward self-sufficiency.

The Behavioral Interventions to Advance Self-Sufficiency (BIAS) project, sponsored by the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) of the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and led by MDRC, is the first major opportunity to use a behavioral economics lens to examine programs that serve poor and vulnerable families in the United States. This report presents findings from four tests of behavioral interventions intended to increase the percentage of parents who made child support payments and the dollar amount of collections per parent in Cuyahoga County, Ohio.

Parents who owe child support and do not have their payments automatically deducted from their paychecks through income withholding typically need to actively initiate a new payment each month. The BIAS team examined the payment process in Cuyahoga County and diagnosed a number of behavioral factors potentially impeding collections. The team collaborated with the Cuyahoga Office of Child Support Services (OCSS) to design a number of behavioral interventions intended to increase collections and evaluate them using randomized controlled trials. (author introduction)