A Helping Hand Goes a Long Way: Long-Term Effects of Counselling and Support to Workfare Program Participants
We study the medium- and long-run impacts of the Canada Self-Sufficiency Project (SSP) Plus program, which randomly offered intensive employment support services for up to three years to long-term welfare recipients eligible for temporary work subsidies. We examine whether this intervention – aiming to address both economic and psychosocial barriers faced by the poor in finding and retaining desirable employment – led to long-run changes in individuals’ socioeconomic trajectories. We link study participants to their federal tax and employer-employee matched records for up to 20 years after random assignment. The intensive services treatment led to a 20-27 percent increase in participants’ annual earnings over the 20-year period and increases in full-time employment throughout the first decade post-intervention. As possible mechanisms, individuals engage in more job search and job-to-job transitions and obtain jobs paying higher wages and in higher paying firms.
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