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Asset Building > EarnBenefits
The EarnBenefits® program connects low-wage workers to a wide range of income-enhancing benefits that have a proven impact on long-term job retention and asset accumulation.
Low-wage workers who make Informed choices—opening a checking account, thinking about the next step in a career, accessing available benefits such as health insurance and the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)—are more likely to succeed. But research and Seedco's experience have shown that too few families are aware and able to access the available opportunities. EarnBenefits was launched in 2004 as an answer to that problem.
Immediate and Long-Term Impact
An EarnBenefits counselor sits down one-on-one with a low-wage worker and uses an online system that dynamically screens a client for multiple supports, from school lunch programs for her child to legal advice. The counselor can apply for certain applicable benefits on behalf of the client and follows up to ensure the worker is receiving the benefit and to recommend other options that may become available down the road.
A single mother with two children, for example, employed as a childcare provider typically earns about $7 an hour. At that pay, she brings home a little more than $1,000 a month, below the poverty line and hundreds of dollars less than her monthly costs for housing, transportation, food, clothes and utilities. When she has access to nearly $200 a month in Medicaid insurance, $200 in Food Stamps and $100 in tax refunds, however, her monthly budget rises to more than $1,600. That's the power of income-raising benefits.
Thorough and Ongoing Client Support
EarnBenefits is much more than an efficient computer program. Counselors are trained in how to engage clients and how to deliver the service. EarnBenefits is designed to work with clients in three stages:
Marketing and Education: User-friendly materials, including the site www.earnbenefits.org, inform low-wage workers about the available benefits and EarnBenefits itself, helping to draw more applicants into the program.
Eligibility Screening and Application Assistance: During the screening session, the counselor uses EarnBenefits Online, a computer program that manages the client files, making it easy for caseworkers to find the best options for each client and to keep track of the case history. Most importantly, EarnBenefits assists clients in filling out complex government applications and directly file them or help to file them for applicants.
Benefits Management: After a low-wage worker has accessed benefits and work supports, the counselor keeps in touch, assisting with recertification and facilitating career and training opportunities. Experience has shown that by maintaining a long-term relationship with a client, it is more likely they'll continue to receive income-enhancing benefits.
Partnerships for Success
EarnBenefits is currently operated in New York City, Memphis/Shelby County, Atlanta/Fulton County, Baltimore, and Buffalo/Erie County. We are in the process of launching services in Buffalo/Erie County, New York State. In each city, EarnBenefits is available at places that connect with low-wage workers.
In New York, the service is provided at the One-Stop employment center in Upper Manhattan, at the more than a dozen community-based workforce development agencies that comprise Seedco's EarnFair Alliance, and at firms where low-income workers are employed-from small community stores to Century 21, a department store in lower Manhattan. And in Memphis, Atlanta and Baltimore EarnBenefits is administered by a wide range of community partners.
Partnerships with local institutions are a natural part of the program's success. EarnBenefits screenings are integrated into the other services available at an agency, making it a natural fit. And the program has a much wider distribution by being operated by community institutions throughout the area.
Seedco also works closely with government agencies that provide benefits. For example, Seedco has created a partnership with the Shelby County Department of Human Services to expedite the application filing process, and the IRS has certified our partners as Volunteer Income Tax Assistance sites, which allows counselors to e-file a claim for a client right then and there.
Proven Performance
- In 2005—the program's first full year of operation—more than 8,000 individuals were screened for benefits eligibility, and nearly 3,000 received at least one benefit.
- In the first half of 2006, now at scale in more locations, EarnBenefits screened nearly 6,000 clients, of which 3,800 received one or more benefits.
- A total of more that 28,000 individuals were screened for benefits eligibility, and more than 13,000 have already received at least one benefit.
- A total of more than $20 million has been accessed by low-wage workers.
For more information on EarnBenefits, please check out www.earnbenefits.org or contact Michelle Henry.
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