Income and Wealth Building

Healthy, vibrant communities are made up of residents who have living-wage jobs and feel confident about their economic futures. LISC’s income- and wealth-building programs, including our Financial Opportunity Center® sites and Bridges to Career Opportunities programs, help residents tackle all the facets of financial life—earning a steady paycheck, budgeting, building good credit, and saving for life goals like homeownership or retirement. LISC champions policies that support this critical work and enable economic opportunities for people in rural and urban communities across the U.S.

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Building a Strong and Resilient Workforce

Today, more than half of jobs in the U.S. require education and training beyond a high school degree but not a four-year degree, yet only 4 in 10 people have had access to the skills training and supportive services necessary to fill these roles. This skills gap harms working families, small businesses, and local economies. LISC supports policies that advance holistic solutions to the skills gap that prepare workers and families for long-term success.

Policy Asks

Reauthorize the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA)

Enacted in 2014, WIOA is the primary law responsible for the structure, programs, and funding of our nation’s public workforce system.

  • LISC supports reauthorizing WIOA to continue and strengthen federal workforce programs, with a focus on promoting integrated career training and supportive services that are proven to be successful in building long-term financial stability and economic growth.
  • LISC also supports efforts to target resources to community-based organizations that are best positioned to address locally specific financial and skills-building needs.
  • LISC supports incorporating support services into federal workforce programs, such as child care and transportation assistance, which reduce barriers to participation. A large majority of all voters (82%) support increased funding for support services to help people finish skills training.

LISC supports including the CONSTRUCTS Act in WIOA reauthorization. In any given month, there is a shortage of 200,000 to 400,000 construction workers, and home builders will need to add 2.2 million new workers over the next three years just to keep up with demand. The CONSTRUCTS Act directly addresses the lack of workers in the housing sector by expanding opportunities for residential construction training programs at community colleges, technical education schools, and other training programs.

Promote Integrated Service Delivery in Federal Programs

LISC’s model proves that career training programs are most successful when they are paired with guidance and resources that holistically address people’s needs. Examples include:

  • The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Employment & Training Program, which helps SNAP participants gain skills, training, and work experience to increase their ability to obtain quality employment.
  • The Department of Labor’s Reentry Employment Opportunities (REO) program, which supports comprehensive workforce development programming through community-based organizations. This includes job-readiness training, education and skills development, mentoring, and support services tailored to the needs of people transitioning from incarceration to ensure that they can achieve economic self-sufficiency and contribute to their communities.

Equip Individuals and Families with Digital Skills

One in three workers lacks foundational digital skills, yet 92% of available jobs require them. Closing the gap can enable people to earn 23% more on average, or $8,000 per year for an individual worker. It is critical that federal workforce and broadband infrastructure programs incorporate digital skills training to ensure that people in all communities can fully participate in the modern economy. The Digital Skills for Today’s Workforce Act is an example of a bipartisan effort to equip people with the digital skills needed to secure good jobs in in-demand industries and promote a more resilient workforce in the face of technological advancements (e.g., artificial intelligence).

Empowering Families To Achieve Financial Independence

More than half of U.S. adults lack financial literacy skills and American households are carrying more household debt than ever before. At a time of increasing economic uncertainty, it is critical to ensure that every person has the knowledge and tools to build financial resilience and pursue long-term goals. An independent evaluation of LISC’s Financial Opportunity Center model found that participants in integrated programs that include financial coaching and help accessing public benefits are more likely to be employed year-round, reduce non-asset-related debt, and build positive credit histories than participants in programs offering employment assistance alone.

Policy Asks

Invest in Financial Coaching Programs

Financial coaching programs have a strong track record of helping people improve their financial well-being, including reducing debt, improving credit scores, increasing savings, improving financial behaviors, and reducing financial stress.

LISC supports policies that expand access to financial coaching services, particularly those that incorporate partnerships with community-based organizations that are best positioned to tailor these programs to local needs.

LISC also supports efforts to incorporate financial coaching support into workforce programs to enhance their effectiveness in supporting long-term employment and financial resilience.

Preserve and Strengthen Income Supports that Protect People’s Financial Security

Programs that support family health and financial security, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Medicaid, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), are critical to ensuring that individuals can benefit from career training programs and fully participate in the workforce.

It is essential that lawmakers work to eliminate “benefit cliffs” for these programs, or abrupt loss of eligibility as incomes rise, as these can act as disincentives for people to participate in career development programs or pursue higher-paying jobs.

Help Families Build Savings

Increasing savings enables families to weather financial shocks while also achieving long-term goals like purchasing a home, starting a small business, or pursuing higher education.

  • LISC supports programs like the Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS) program of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which is the federal government’s most extensive asset-building program for working-class families, currently serving over 74,000 families living in federally subsidized housing. FSS combines individual coaching with a rent-based savings mechanism to help people achieve their employment and asset-building goals. The program has proven results, with a report finding that participating families gained more than $10,000 in increased income over five years at a net cost to the government of only $276 per participant. Despite its benefits, FSS currently serves only a small fraction of the 2.2 million households that are eligible. LISC supports increasing the FSS program’s appropriation so it can serve more HUD-assisted residents and exploring opt-out approaches for enrollment so more residents participate.
  • LISC also supports removing asset limits from federal benefit programs. Asset limits discourage saving and impede families from achieving financial self-sufficiency. Eliminating asset limits has been found to increase families’ likelihood of having a bank account and having money in that account to cover financial expenses. It also creates savings for states in administrative costs that significantly outweigh any increase in the number of families receiving benefits while reducing the likelihood of "churn,” where families cycle on and off of public benefits.

Protect and Expand Tax Credits for Working Families

The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Child Tax Credit (CTC) reduce the impacts of poverty for working families while incentivizing more people to enter the workforce, particularly women and single parents. They also contribute to long-term economic gains for families and communities by improving children’s health, educational outcomes, and future earnings. Despite these benefits, more than 20% of eligible workers are not filing taxes to claim their EITC.

Expand Access to Free Tax Preparation Support

Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) is an initiative of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that ensures low- and moderate-income households have access to high-quality tax preparation services. VITA enables more people to access their earned tax benefits while offering an alternative to paid, often unregulated tax preparation services that can erode financial returns and make mistakes at higher rates compared to VITA volunteers. Equally important, VITA services are typically offered through community-based organizations that offer additional financial capability services, connecting people to further opportunities to enhance their financial well-being.

Expand Access to Quality Financial Products

Consumers rely on financial products to meet their immediate financial needs and pursue long-term goals like buying a car, attaining an educational degree, or becoming a homeowner. LISC supports federal policy efforts that:

  • Foster responsible innovation to expand access to quality financial products, including banking, savings, credit, and loan products, and to ensure that these products are reaching the people who would most benefit from them. This includes efforts to strengthen and modernize the tools financial providers use to evaluate risk, such as underwriting technologies that leverage machine learning and artificial intelligence in addition to (or as an alternative to) traditional credit scores, while ensuring that these new innovations continue to comply with existing laws that ensure fair access to financial products.
  • Preserve and strengthen the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Created after the 2008 financial crisis, the CFPB has been instrumental in ensuring that financial markets operate in people’s best interests. Since its founding, the Bureau has leveled the playing field for individual consumers to hold financial institutions accountable when they break the law, returning more than $21 billion to more than 200 million people through its supervision and enforcement powers. The agency has also instituted reforms to make financial markets work better for people, including by cracking down on junk fees, reducing the harmful credit impacts of medical debt, and promoting fairer and more competitive markets through small business financing transparency. A strong and independent CFPB is essential to ensuring that our financial markets work for consumers.