Browsing by Subject "public assistance"

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The Social Science Case for a Flexible Benefit Set
    (2022-05) Hurley, Tyler; Lecheler, Tegan; Proescholdt, Laura; Schoppa, Isabelle; Siljander, Bridget
    The Flexible Benefit Set (FBS) is an integral part of Pathways to Prosperity and Wellbeing (P2PW), a human-centered design initiative to reform human services in Dakota County and Olmsted County. the FBS addresses the need to remodel public assistance delivery by streamlining funding through a single payment source and eliminating restrictions on how participants can spend public benefits. Our study examined the social science literature pertaining to five core principles of the FBS's design: accessibility, centering equity, trusting families and flexibility, raising benefit cut-offs to the level of living wage, and eliminating benefit cliffs. In 2019, legislation to fund a pilot of the FBS did not pass. Our study was motivated by the P2PW team's need to secure support from legislators or private funders to launch a pilot of the FBS and test out its innovative design. In order to equip the P2PW team with the evidence they need tp itch the program to funders, we conducted a literature review organized around five of the core principles of the FBS.