A Helping Hand Goes a Long Way: Long-Term Effects of Counseling and Support to Welfare-to-Work Program Recipients

Author: Gustavo J. Bobonis (Department of Economics, University of Toronto) • Aneta Bonikowska (Social Analysis and Modelling Division, Statistics Canada) • Philip Oreopoulos (Department of Economics, University of Toronto) • W Craig Riddell (Vancouver School of Economics, University of British Columbia) • Steven P. Ryan (Department of Economics, University of Toronto)
Posted: 6 August 2026

Abstract

We study the medium- and long-run impacts of the Canada Self-Sufficiency Project (SSP) Plus program, which randomly offered intensive employment support services for up to three years to long-term welfare recipients eligible for temporary earnings subsidies. We examine whether this intervention—designed to address both economic and psychosocial barriers to finding and retaining desirable employment—produced long-run changes in individuals’ socioeconomic trajectories. We link study participants to high-frequency survey data and to their federal tax and employer-employee matched records for up to 20 years following random assignment. The intensive services treatment resulted in a 20–27 percent increase in participants’ annual earnings over the 20-year period and sustained increases in full-time employment during the first decade post-intervention. As potential mechanisms, treated individuals engaged in more job search and job-to-job transitions and secured employment in higher-wage jobs and at higher-paying firms.
JEL codes: I30, I38
Keywords: Welfare-to-Work Programs, Self-Sufficiency Project, SSP Plus, Temporary Income Subsidies, Counselling and Support, Long Term Impacts