Citation
LeBlanc, A., Miller, C., Martinson, K., & Azurdia, G. (2007). The Employment Retention and Advancement project: Results from Minnesota’s Tier 2 program. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Highlights
- The study’s objective was to determine the 18-month impact of Minnesota’s Tier 2 welfare-to-work program compared with existing Tier 1 services. Minnesota’s Tier 2 program was part of the nationwide Employment Retention and Advancement (ERA) project.
- The authors randomly assigned approximately 1,700 long-term Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) recipients to either a treatment group, which received Tier 2 services including intensive assessments and case management, or a control group, which received Minnesota’s existing Tier 1 TANF services. The authors analyzed data from Minnesota Unemployment Insurance (UI), TANF, and Food Stamps administrative records.
- The study found that, 12 months after random assignment, more people in the Tier 2 group (79.2 percent) reported that they received Food Stamps than in the control group (70.0 percent). After 18 months however, there were no statistically significant differences between treatment and control group members’ employment, earnings, or benefits receipt.
- The quality of causal evidence provided in this study is high because it is based on a well-conducted randomized controlled trial. This means we are confident that any estimated effects are attributable to Minnesota’s Tier 2 program and not to other factors.
Intervention Examined
The Employment Retention and Advancement project, Minnesota’s Tier 2 Program
Features of the Intervention
The ERA project was introduced in 1999 as a nationwide exploration of factors that help welfare recipients not only find employment but retain their positions and advance in their careers. Minnesota was one of 16 sites across the United States to receive funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to implement a program intended to improve welfare recipients’ employment outcomes.
People assigned to Tier 2 worked with case managers whose caseloads had been reduced to 25 to 30 cases. Participation in Tier 2 was mandatory and could be enforced by sanctioning TANF benefits. Case managers performed detailed assessments of clients to identify the underlying challenges affecting them and their families and then referred clients to services that addressed those challenges. Clients had access to education or job training programs but were required to work 20 hours per week concurrently with participation in such programs. Clients searched for jobs for up to six weeks; those still unemployed at the end of that period were placed in either unpaid employment or supported employment in which their paid employment was paired with job coaching or on-the-job training.
Features of the Study
The program was built on the services provided by Tier 1, the existing welfare-to-work program. TANF recipients who had been assigned to a Tier 1 employment services provider for at least 12 months, had not worked in the previous 3 months, were unemployed at the time of random assignment, were not participating in an education or training program, and were not under sanction were eligible for assignment to Tier 2. Eligible Tier 1 recipients were randomly assigned from January 2002 to April 2003 to enroll in Tier 2 or remain in Tier 1; half were randomly assigned to each condition.
The vast majority of participants were female (93.2 percent) and most were African American (67.8 percent). Nearly 70 percent had received public assistance benefits for more than two years and about one-third described themselves as suffering from health problems.
The authors randomly sampled 657 clients, half from each study group, to contact for a survey 12 months after random assignment. The authors used UI records data to calculate employment and earnings program impacts for all people in the study at 18 months after random assignment. They also used TANF and Food Stamps administrative data to calculate the program’s impact on benefits receipt 18 months after random assignment.
Findings
- The study found that, 12 months after random assignment, more people in the Tier 2 group (79.2 percent) reported that they received Food Stamps than in the control group (70.0 percent).
- The study did not find any statistically significant differences between treatment and control group members on employment, earnings, or benefits receipt 18 months after random assignment.
Considerations for Interpreting the Findings
The authors noted that the two treatment conditions, Tier 1 and Tier 2, shared substantial similarities in structure and focus, differing mainly in the intensity of services provided. The authors hypothesized that this could explain the lack of statistically significant differences in outcomes between the two groups. Unlike the other ERA study sites, a longer-term follow-up of the Minnesota Tier 2 program was not conducted.
Causal Evidence Rating
The quality of causal evidence provided in this study is high because it is based on a well-conducted randomized controlled trial. This means we are confident that any estimated effects are attributable to Minnesota’s Tier 2 program and not to other factors.