A recently released working paper gives details on how OES-designed letters to older adults tripled awards for Supplemental Security Income (SSI). 

The pilot is particularly relevant in light of the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) current national outreach campaign to assist vulnerable populations during the COVID-19 pandemic, while in-person appointments at Social Security field offices are limited. OES collaborated with SSA to evaluate the effect of a letter sent to individuals who were potentially eligible for SSI based on their age. 

The letters increased SSI awards by 340 percent in the months after they were sent: Among individuals who were sent a letter, 2.3 percent were awarded SSI, compared to 0.5 percent of individuals who were not sent a letter. The monthly SSI payment for individuals who were sent a letter and were awarded the benefit was $185 per month.

The increase represents about 6,960 additional low-income, elderly individuals receiving SSI; if the same letters were sent to all four million people identified by SSA’s administrative data, this would have translated to a likely increase in SSI participation of over 63,000 low-income, elderly individuals. Learn more here.

A new blog post highlights how a coordinated and transparent effort to conduct rapid evaluations would allow vaccination programs to quickly learn about the most effective ways to encourage vaccination. 

Though it might seem complicated to run evaluations amid existing challenges to delivering vaccines, OES’s evaluations were embedded within already ongoing vaccination outreach efforts at Veterans Affairs facilities and with city and state departments of health. Interventions ranged from letters and email reminders to a modified clinical reminder in an electronic health record system, and median sample size was 55,000 recipients. This two-pager highlights the lessons learned from these eight studies that can inform COVID-19 vaccination efforts.

Supporting small businesses - Projects in this portfolio have focused on improving access to economic and non-economic resources for small businesses, such as encouraging farmers to apply for microloans. Some projects focused specifically on how to connect groups that have faced higher barriers in establishing and growing a business, like women, with the resources they need for business success. Learn more here.

Responding to the COVID-19 Pandemic - OES worked with the Department of Education, the Small Business Administration, the Department of Health and Human Services, and other agencies to provide evaluation support to assess the impact of COVID-19 policy responses, as well as to share relevant lessons learned from past evaluations on communicating about health behavior. Learn more here.