Evaluation of Washington State’s Economic Security for All Program: The Role of Transitional Supports

• In Event: Piloting Transitional Benefits to Mitigate the Benefits Cliff: Implementation Lessons and Early Findings

Abstract

The assumption behind workforce development policy, at least since the implementation of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act (PRWORA) in the mid-1990s, is that employment alone can lift people out of poverty. However, most Americans who experience poverty currently live in families or households where at least one person is working. To address this problem, the Washington Employment Security Department (ESD) developed the Economic Security for All (EcSA) initiative to support the development and testing of comprehensive, locally driven approaches to help low-income people move toward sustained economic self-sufficiency. EcSA was started in 2019 with federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Statewide Activities funds, and in 2022, state funding was added, allocated from the general fund. A total of $15.2 million in federal funds and $15.5 million in state funds were allocated to Local Workforce Development Boards (LWDBs) between July 2019 and July 2023.

SPR conducted a formative evaluation of the program between 2020 and 2023 that included an implementation study and an early outcomes study, using state aggregate workforce administrative data. The evaluation team conducted two rounds of interviews with sites, with over 100 interviews completed with program staff and participants during the evaluation.

To participate in training with a view of obtaining a job with self-sufficiency wages, program participants often faced immediate financial trade-offs and challenges such as needing to reduce hours of paid employment, find additional childcare, and meet financial obligations. Some EcSA programs used incentive funds to encourage continued participation in program services and training. One site provided up to $500 per program year in incentives to youth in their EcSA program. Adult participants could earn incentives during the program and in the few months after completion based on achieving various milestones, with an annual cap of $5,000 per participant. Another site used state EcSA funding to develop a program model that primarily served community college students. The program provided a monthly stipend of $500 to $1,000 per month for up to 12 months to enrolled students in good standing.

While in many workforce development programs participants tend to return to their pre-participation earnings levels, EcSA exiters’ post-completion earnings appeared considerably higher than their pre-participation levels. The large increases in earnings suggested (and our interviews confirmed) that the program led participants to switch employment from lower-paying jobs to higher-paying jobs (often in the healthcare field). Our evaluation suggested that one of the main reasons behind the participants’ ability to stay enrolled and complete the program was due to the higher level of supportive services, including transitional benefits, described above.

The program may be ready for a rigorous impact evaluation, as funding for the program increased in 2024 with an additional $48 million from the Community Reinvestment Fund for the expansion of incentives payments in all 12 LWDBs.

Authors

• Madeleine Levin, Social Policy Research Associates
  Presenting Author

• Marian Negoita, Social Policy Research Associates
  Non-Presenting Co-Author