Millions of dollars of funding and actions from 20 philanthropies, nonprofits, and states announced at Aspen FSP’s and OMB’s 2024 Financial Resilience Summit
Contact: Lizette Olmos Godfrey
The Aspen Institute
lizette.olmosgodfrey@aspeninstitute.org
Washington, D.C., April 9, 2024 – Today, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) “Facing a Financial Shock” initiative and the Aspen Institute Financial Security Program (Aspen FSP) are co-hosting the 2024 Financial Resilience Summit: The Future of Public Benefits Modernization to convene leaders working to improve public benefits access and delivery. With the help of nationwide nonprofits and strong public/private partnerships, the 2024 Summit will celebrate successes, share lessons learned, highlight initiatives to improve benefits access, and identify strategies to sustain and scale innovations that build household financial resilience in the United States.
The Families and Workers Fund partnered with Aspen FSP at the Summit to help bring federal, state, local, and nonprofit leaders together to improve access and delivery across the country. 25 states across the nation, from Virginia to California, are innovating to improve and streamline public benefits delivery, including a commitment of $12.3 million in support from the Families and Workers Fund, a $125 million philanthropic fund supported by more than 40 donors working to improve public benefits access and delivery.
Many hardworking people have to rely on public benefits to ensure stability, weather the storm of unexpected expenses and financial shocks, and improve their financial resilience. With 27% of households in America living in liquid asset poverty and 1 in 5 children facing hunger, these benefits are essential to people’s financial security. However, these programs do not always reach their intended beneficiaries: Every year, $80 billion in benefits is left unclaimed by people who qualify for assistance programs because the barriers to access and delivery are too high.
“Our nation’s current fragmented systems of benefits – including unaligned eligibility rules, outdated technology, and persistent delivery challenges – has left millions of people in America without access to the benefits they need,” said Tim Shaw, Policy Director of the Aspen Institute’s Financial Security Program. “As we examine the landscape of financial security, it is clear that public benefits are vital for workers, serving as pillars for meeting day-to-day needs, achieving financial resilience, and ultimately building wealth.”
“The U.S. made meaningful progress in reducing child poverty and all poverty during the COVID-19 pandemic thanks to a series of special public benefits policies and investments in their delivery. We have started to backslide with the end of certain programs, but it doesn’t have to be this way,” said Tyonka Perkins Rimawi, Program Director with the Families and Workers Fund. “The Summit brings together the many leaders—from state governments to community and philanthropic partners—who are working to change the course through tangible action focused on improving economic security in this country.”
Alongside the summit, Aspen FSP and the Families and Workers Fund released a summary of commitments and actions to modernizing public state benefits delivery by 19 state departments and nonprofits, representing work in over 25 states.
Highlights of those commitments and actions are below:
- Multistate efforts responding to public health unwinding to maintain benefits for hundreds of thousands of beneficiaries
- Work in at least 12 states committed to human-centered redesign of public benefits delivery, communications, and applications
- Initiatives in at least 7 states that incorporate community- and person-centered approaches to public benefits delivery redesign
You can find the full summary at this link.
Access the event’s livestream here.
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About The Aspen Institute Financial Security Program
The Aspen Institute Financial Security Program’s mission is to illuminate and solve the most critical financial challenges facing American households and to make financial security for all a top national priority. We aim for nothing less than a more inclusive economy with reduced wealth inequality and shared prosperity. We believe that transformational change requires innovation, trust, leadership, and entrepreneurial thinking. Aspen FSP galvanizes a diverse set of leaders across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors to solve the most critical financial challenges. We do this through deep, deliberate private and public dialogues and by elevating evidence-based research and solutions that will strengthen the financial health and security of financially vulnerable Americans. To learn more, visit AspenFSP.org, join our mailing list at http://bit.ly/fspnewsletter, and follow @AspenFSP on X and The Aspen Institute Financial Security Program on LinkedIn.
About The Families and Workers Fund
The Families and Workers Fund is a coalition of diverse philanthropies working to help repair and reimagine the systems that fuel economic security, opportunity, and mobility. Specifically, through deploying funding and building partnerships, the Fund seeks to advance jobs that sustain and uplift people and invest in the development of a more inclusive, effective public benefits system, with a focus on unemployment insurance. The Families and Workers Fund is a fiscally sponsored project of the Amalgamated Charitable Foundation. For more information and updates, contact info@familiesandworkers.org or visit familiesandworkers.org.