Assessing California Communities’ Experiences with Safety Net Supports Survey (ACCESS)
One in five children lives in poverty in California. The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) can provide income support for qualifying economically disadvantaged California families, but at least 20% of eligible families are not taking advantage of benefits. Our goal is to promote equity by understanding the reasons for disparities in access to income support, particularly among Latinx and Black families and rural whites in California. Specifically, we aim to capture levels of awareness, barriers to uptake, and benefits of participation in the EITC among low-income families with young children, in order to best design interventions to address these gaps in take-up.
Project Summary:
From August 2020 to April 2021, we interviewed 411 families with young children who were eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) to understand program take-up for the 2019 tax year. The ACCESS survey included 16 sections with closed ended questions and 2 open-ended sections. Survey sections covered topics such as EITC, filing tax returns, housing, COVID, adult and child health, mental health, discrimination, food insecurity, and health care access. Interviews were conducted in either English or Spanish.
Publications:
Pandemic-related socioeconomic disruptions and adverse health outcomes: a cross-sectional study of female caregivers. BMC Public Health. Brown, E.M., Fernald, L.C., Hamad, R. et al. 2022 October. PubMed
Social and Economic Factors Related to Healthcare Delay Among Low-Income Families During COVID-19: Results from the ACCESS Observational Study. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved. Hoskote, Mekhala, et al. 2022 November. PubMed
Understanding Take-Up Of The Earned Income Tax Credit Among Californians With Low Income. Hamad R, Gosliner W, Brown EM, Hoskote M, Jackson K, Esparza EM, Fernald LCH. Health Affairs. 2022 Dec. PubMed
Characterizing the Landscape of Safety Net Programs and Policies in California during the COVID-19 Pandemic. IJERPH. Jackson KE, Yeb J, Gosliner W, Fernald LCH, Hamad R. 2022 Feb. PubMed
Potential mechanisms linking poverty alleviation and health: an analysis of benefit spending among recipients of the U.S. earned income tax credit. Hamad R, Yeb J, Jackson K, Gosliner W, Fernald LCH. BMC Public Health. 2023. BMC Public Health
Experiences of distress and gaps in government safety net supports among parents of young children during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study. Mooney A, Jackson K, Hamad R, Fernald LCH, Gosliner W. 2023 June. BMC Public Health. PubMed
The association of safety net program participation with government perceptions, welfare stigma, and discrimination. Pulvera R, Jackson K, Gosliner W, Hamad R, Fernald LCH. Health Affairs Scholar. 2023 Dec. Oxford Academic
Understanding multi-program take-up of safety net programs among California families. Tsai MM, Yeb J, Jackson K, Gosliner W. AJPM Focus. 2024 Feb. AJPM Focus
Policy Briefs:
Stressors and Supports For Californians with Low Incomes During COVID-19 (2023)
Low EITC and CalEITC take-up among eligible California families (2020)
Collaborators:
Lia Fernald (UC Berkeley), Wendi Gosliner (UC ANR, Nutrition Policy Institute), Rita Hamad (UC San Francisco)
Team Members:
Erika Brown (UC San Francisco), Kaitlyn Jackson (UC San Francisco), Mekhala Hoskote (UC San Francisco), Alyssa Mooney (UC San Francisco), Richard Pulvera (UC Berkeley), Joseph Yeb (UC San Francisco)
Community Advisory Board: Amy Everett (Golden State Opportunity Project), Andrew Cheyne & Shanti Prasad (California Association of Food Banks), Jenny Wang (Alameda County Public Health Department), Karen Gillian (Merced County WIC Director), Lynn Kersey (Maternal and Child Health Access), Nalleli Sandoval (United Ways of California), Samar McGregor (Public Health Foundation Enterprise WIC Program), Scott Waite (First Five Merced), Sylvia Soublet (Alameda County Social Services Agency)
Funders: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), Tipping Point, UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations, UC Berkeley Population Center
Contact Info: access-study@berkeley.edu
