The American dream is built on the idea that the harder you work, the more resources you will have to support your family. Yet, for millions of working Americans who are receiving public benefits, this is not the case.
The American dream is built on the idea that the harder you work, the more resources you will have to support your family. Yet, for millions of working Americans who are receiving public benefits, this is not the case.
In our work to help families overcome poverty and achieve upward economic mobility, we have repeatedly encountered a significant roadblock: caregivers turning down higher-paying jobs or longer hours due to the risk of losing public benefits.
To Combat this issue:
TAEM partners increase family stability and economic advancement through family-centered coaching, benefits cliff focused financial counseling, resource navigation, and accelerated education and training for in-demand jobs.
With these supports, TAEM is testing an innovative transitional benefit to mitigate the cliff effect through direct payments to a family’s childcare, housing, healthcare, and food security providers when an individual experiences the cliff.
The goal of the transitional benefit is to meet family need and highlight how the benefits cliff discourages the pursuit of upward economic mobility and keeps families tethered to systems of low-paying, wage-labor jobs.
Through this work, we are creating a local proof point for what is possible when the benefits cliff is removed, revisioning the American Dream as a goal that is achievable for all families nationwide.
The Tennessee Alliance for Economic Mobility (TAEM) as a public-private collaborative to co-design a new vision for the Tennessee safety net that could be scaled statewide and ultimately become a model for the nation. The collaborative includes community-based organizations, faith-based institutions, government agencies, and community and technical colleges in 16 Middle Tennessee counties, and provides direct support to families through Our ChanceTN.
TAEM’s 1,300 family effort is one the largest benefits cliff pilots in the country.
TAEM received a $25M Tennessee Opportunity Pilot Initiative Implementation Grant to reimagine how Tennessee families are moving out of poverty and into opportunity.
The Federal Reserve called Our ChanceTN, “one of the most, if not the most, comprehensive pilots we’ve ever seen around benefits cliffs. It’s very ambitious.”