Some employment coaching programs and other human services programs offer financial incentives to reward desired behaviors such as engaging in specific activities or achieving certain goals. Employment coaching involves trained staff working collaboratively with participants to help them set individualized goals, directly or indirectly related to employment, and providing motivation, support, and feedback as participants work toward those goals. By addressing financial needs, the incentives can reduce some of the stress related to having low income and thus help participants focus on reaching their goals. This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation brief highlights lessons learned from studying the experience of two employment coaching programs serving adults with low incomes that offered financial incentives: (1) LIFT and (2) MyGoals for Employment Success.

The Office of Family Assistance and Children’s Bureau have announced the 10 sites selected to participate in the FAST-LC. The FAST-LC is a 12-month initiative operating from September 2023 through September 2024. The Learning Community will focus on promoting innovative prevention strategies to mitigate and reduce families’ involvement with the child welfare system through partnerships between TANF and Child Welfare programs. Site teams will benefit from a robust suite of individualized training, technical assistance, and coaching support, as well as regular opportunities for collaborative learning and sharing across site teams.

The states and tribes participating in the FAST-LC are:
• Arizona Department of Child Safety and Department of Economic Security;
• Arkansas Department of Human Services;
• California Department of Social Services;
• Chippewa Cree Tribe of the Rocky Boys Reservation (Montana),
• Iowa Department of Health and Human Services;
• Kentucky Department for Community Based Services;
• Michigan Department of Health and Human Services;
• Oregon Department of Human Services;
• Pascua Yaqui Tribe (Arizona); and
• West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources.

The U.S. Department of Labor, Women's Bureau protects the interests of working women, advocates for their equality and economic security, and promotes quality work environments. In recognition of National Domestic Violence Awareness and Prevention Month, the Women’s Bureau is hosting a virtual conversation on October 17, 2023, from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. ET about domestic violence (DV) awareness and how it relates to the principles of gender-based violence and harassment (GBVH). Participants will learn innovative ways employers can approach their response to DV and GVBH in the workplace.

A benefits cliff may occur when an increase in income (e.g., from working more hours, getting a raise, or taking a new position) pushes a worker above the income eligibility limit for one or more public assistance programs, and the loss of assistance is greater than the value of the increase. This forces people to choose between their family’s immediate financial best interest and their own longer-term wage growth and career advancement. The Federal Reserve is hosting a Connecting Communities webinar on October 12, 2023 from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET to explore this economic challenge. Participants will learn about tools developed by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta to identify and inform mitigation strategies, as well as innovation pilots including Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Washington D.C. that can inform state and community leaders working to develop solutions to the benefits cliff.

Interest in the career and technical education (CTE) field has experienced a resurgence over the last decade, as the global economy has grown increasingly competitive while students have continued to leave school unprepared for well-paying twenty-first century jobs. Working both together and separately, the education and workforce sectors have sought to address these challenges and better prepare students for viable economic futures. The results have been new, innovative programs at both the secondary and postsecondary education levels that aim to give students technical training, general training, and work-based learning opportunities where they can develop connections to the workforce. This MDRC paper captures the evidence that has emerged and identifies areas where there is more evidence as well as areas where gaps in evidence still exist.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Administration for Children and Families (ACF) proposes to improve the effectiveness and integrity of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) regulations. This Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) would help families experiencing the greatest economic hardships benefit from the services that Congress intended for the TANF program to provide.

Specifically, the proposed rule puts forward for public comment seven changes to the current regulations that would increase program integrity, clarify allowable uses of TANF, and reduce obstacles for individuals trying to access support. These are:

• Establish a ceiling on the term "needy";
• Clarify when an expenditure is "reasonably calculated to accomplish a TANF purpose";
• Exclude as an allowable TANF maintenance-of-effort (MOE) expenditures cash donations from non-governmental third parties and the value of third-party in-kind contributions;
• Ensure that excused holidays match the number of federal holidays, following the recognition of Juneteenth as a federal holiday;
• Develop new criteria to allow states to use alternative Income and Eligibility Verification Systems (IEVS) measures;
• Clarify the "significant progress" criteria following a work participation rate corrective compliance plan; and
• Clarify the existing regulatory text about the allowability of costs associated with the disseminating program information.

Comments on these proposed rules from all TANF partners and affected parties are due to HHS by December 1, 2023 and can be submitted via this form. 

The federal Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF), administered through individual states, subsidizes access to affordable early care and education for families with low incomes. CCDF subsidies can support parents’ ability to work and positively impact their children’s early development. Many Latino families tend to have high rates of parental employment but low levels of income. Latino families are underserved by the CCDF program in most states and could stand to benefit from these subsidies. This National Research Center on Hispanic Children & Families brief is a part of a series focused on Latino families’ access to social assistance. This resource aims to improve understanding on families’ access to subsidies in California, including barriers and facilitators.

For individuals on probation and those reentering their communities after incarceration, finding employment is often one of multiple challenges. Employment is an important factor in reentry, but getting to a place where the focus can be on a job, education, or a career requires support in other parts of life as well. The Los Angeles County Innovative Employment Solutions Program (INVEST) is designed to address the complex range of employment and supportive service needs and support individuals in pursuing their employment and career goals. This MDRC brief focuses on one of the unique features of the program: the array of supportive services that staff members can provide and tailor to individual client needs under a flexible spending model, which is enabled by the significant program funds reserved for supportive services and financial incentives and stipends in ways not often seen in traditional workforce programs.

The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically changed the employment landscape, with effects that persist. Many people lost their jobs, lost childcare, or otherwise experienced negative changes to their income and ability to work. These shifts disproportionately affected people of color, women, parents, and workers earning low wages, exacerbating longstanding systemic inequities. This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation brief explores how the pandemic shifted employment, earnings, and unemployment benefit receipt among workers who have historically faced obstacles to finding and keeping jobs in a more typical economic context—workers who were disproportionately affected by the pandemic. The brief focuses on experiences across geographic locations during the pandemic period, which may reflect differences in local economies, COVID-19 infection rates, and public policies.

The Division of Economic Independence (DEI), operated within the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE), has primary responsibility for welfare and family self-sufficiency research. DEI’s publications are aimed to expand knowledge about how Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and other programs can best support the self-sufficiency and economic well-being of children and families with low incomes. This OPRE portfolio describes all the active or newly funded projects by DEI in Fiscal Year 2022. The document provides detailed summaries of each family self-sufficiency research project and highlights select findings.