Letter to the Hon. Roy Blunt, Sen. Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, and the Hon. Parry Murray, Ranking Member - Call for Robust Funding for Job Training for Older Americans

Letter

Dear Chairman Blunt and Ranking Member Murray:

As you prepare your appropriations bill for fiscal year (FY) 2019, we ask that you fund the Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) at the U.S. Department of Labor at least at the FY 2018 level of $400,000,000.

Authorized most recently in 2016 through the bipartisan Older Americans Act, SCSEP is the only federal employment program dedicated to helping older Americans return to the workforce. Through the program, low-income older job seekers from every state learn new work skills and contribute to their communities through paid community training at schools, hospitals, senior centers and other non-profit or public facilities. Last year, about 60,000 older Americans with significant barriers to employment trained at community employers and earned paychecks through SCSEP.

SCSEP is meeting the goals established by Congress: to promote individual economic self-sufficiency and to increase unsubsidized employment of unemployed older Americans, age 55 and older. Every older adult who participates in SCSEP increases their individual economic self-sufficiency through the regular paychecks they earn during their training assignments. In addition, about half of SCSEP participants enter into unsubsidized employment after exiting the program. This high rate of success is despite the fact that SCSEP serves the most-in-need seniors, including those with low employment prospects (91% of all SCSEP participants), many of whom are homeless or at-risk of homelessness (55%), who have disabilities (21%), or who reside in rural areas (27%) or areas of persistent unemployment (17%). SCSEP participants who exit for employment earn more in their first year than the annual SCSEP training costs, resulting in a strong return on the federal investment, according to a 2017 Urban Institute study.

The need for SCSEP remains critical as it takes unemployed older adults, on average, twice as long to return to the workforce as their younger counterparts, and even longer for most-in-need older adults with low employment prospects. A recent U.S. Senate Aging Committee report found that age discrimination, inadequate training opportunities, and other factors make it more difficult for older workers to find jobs and thrive in the workplace. Coupled with a looming retirement savings crisis, where a roughly one-third of workers do not have access to a retirement plan at work and the majority of older Americans do not have nearly enough savings, it is crucial that we continue to invest in this vital program

Please help to ensure job training for older workers continues by robustly funding the Senior Community Service Employment Program in FY 2019.

Sincerely,