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Project Description

The Self-Sufficiency Project (SSP) was designed to test the effectiveness of temporary earnings supplements to increase employment and income among long-term welfare recipients with the aim of simultaneously reducing both poverty and welfare dependence. SSP is comprised of three parallel studies that test various options in the use of financial incentives as a strategy to “make work pay.” In the main “recipient” study, a generous earnings supplement was offered to lone parents who had received welfare benefits for at least a year and who left welfare for full-time work (at least 30 hours per week). Recipients who found a full-time job within one year of being offered the supplement could receive supplement payments for up to three years as long as they continued to work full-time and remain off welfare. The supplement was set at a level that was generous enough to make work pay better than welfare for most recipients. Two additional components of the SSP design — the “applicant” study and SSP Plus - had similar parameters to the main “recipient” study but included additional features in order to test further delivery options. The “applicant study” targeted the supplement offer to new applicants for welfare rather than current long-term recipients. Similar to recipients, these applicants would need to be on welfare for one year in order to be eligible for the supplement offer but in contrast they were made aware of their potential eligibility at the time they applied for welfare. The goal of this study was to determine whether new applicants would stay on welfare longer in order to qualify for the supplement (a potential negative “entry effect” of the program) and to assess whether the impact of the supplement would be different on new applicants than recipients. SSP Plus, the third study of the SSP design, was implemented to test the effectiveness of adding job search and employment services to the core supplement offer. Many welfare recipients who were offered the supplement were unable to obtain a full-time job within the year required in order to qualify. The addition of job search assistance might help a larger portion of recipients find work and take advantage of the supplement offer.

Project duration: Nov 1992 - Mar 2001

Sites studied include British Columbia, Canada
New Brunswick, Canada

Sample Characteristics and Sites Studied

Approximately 6000 lone parent long-term welfare recipients agreed to take part in the main SSP “recipient” study (5729). Half were randomly assigned to the program group and were eligible for the earnings supplement (2880). The other half was randomly assigned to the control group and was not offered the earnings supplement (2849). Samples for the recipient study were drawn from both British Columbia and New Brunswick populations of single parent long-term welfare recipients. The sample of single parent welfare applicants for the SSP “applicant” study was drawn from British Columbia. Over 3000 new applicants agreed to participate in the study and completed a baseline survey (3316). Half were randomly assigned to the program group and could become eligible for the supplement offer in one year’s time if they remained on IA (1648). The other half was randomly assigned to the control group and was not eligible for the supplement (1668). Approximately 1000 single parent long-term welfare recipients agreed to take part in the SSP Plus study (892). The sample was drawn from New Brunswick. A three-way random assignment was employed to test the effectiveness of the supplement as well as the incremental impact of adding services to the financial component of the offer. One third was randomly assigned to the SSP Plus program group offered both the supplement and services (303), one-third was randomly assigned to the regular program group (296) eligible for the supplement only, and one third was randomly assigned to the control group (274) eligible for neither the supplement or employment services.

Recent Findings in Brief

07/01/04: Canada Self-Sufficiency Project Evaluation: An Econometric Analysis of the Impact of the Self-Sufficiency Project on Unemployment and Employment Durations

Interim Descriptive/Analytical Findings:

• Researchers found significant short-term impacts of SSP on unemployment and employment durations.
• SSP appears to have long-term positive impact on the employment rate of the take-up program group.

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