Does SSP Plus Increase Employment? The Effect of Adding Services to the Self-Sufficiency Project's Financial Incentives

In 1992, Human Resources Development Canada launched the Self-Sufficiency Project (SSP), which was a research and demonstration effort involving long-term, single-parent Income Assistance (IA) recipients in New Brunswick and British Columbia. Under SSP, IA recipients who left IA and worked at least 30 hours per week were offered a generous but time-limited monthly earnings supplement. A short-term study of SSP established that nearly one-third of those offered the earnings supplement took full-time jobs and exited IA. In March 1995, a SSP was supplemented with a range of pre- and postemployment services. The new program was called SSP Plus. The impact of the SSP Plus program on employment patterns among IA recipients was examined in comparative analyses of regular SSP, SSP Plus, and control groups. The additional services in SSP Plus led to an increase in the percentage of persons taking advantage of the supplemental offer (52% after implementation of SSP Plus versus 35% before). The additional services in SSP Plus led to a small increase in full-time employment, decrease in receipt of IA, and modest increase in after-tax family income. (The document contains 16 references and 41 tables/figures. Appended are five additional tables of technical data.) (MN)