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July 2002
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Making Work Pay
Final Report on the Self-Sufficiency Project for Long-Term Welfare Recipients
Charles Michalopoulos, Doug Tattrie, Cynthia Miller, Philip K. Robins, Pamela Morris, David Gyarmati, Cindy Redcross, Kelly Foley, Reuben Ford
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Recognizing that welfare recipients who
find jobs may remain poor, the "make work pay" approach
rewards those who work by boosting their income. This strategy
was the centerpiece of the Self-Sufficiency Project (SSP),
a large-scale demonstration program in Canada that offered
monthly earnings supplements to single parents who left welfare
for full-time work. Launched in 1992, SSP was evaluated by
MDRC in collaboration with the Social Research and Demonstration
Corporation. As detailed in this report, which examines the
program's effects on welfare recipients over five years, SSP
substantially increased full-time employment, earnings, and
income and reduced the poverty rate - all at a low net cost
to the government. The program also improved the school performance
of enrollees' elementary school-aged children, a benefit that
- unlike the positive economic effects - persisted even after
parents stopped receiving the supplement. |
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