Claim Your Cash LA (CYCLA)

Income inequality

County of Los Angeles (select only if your project has a countywide benefit)

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

Every year hundreds of thousands of low-income California families do not claim tax credit money they are owed. Tax credits, like the Young Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit, are powerful poverty alleviation tools that put cash directly into the hands of families living in financial precarity. These credits provide hard-to-come-by financial predictability, which not only helps families make ends meet, but empowers them to make choices that aren’t constrained by income insecurity. Yet many families do not realize they are eligible for credits because they are unconnected to the tax system: they are not required to file due to low income; they don’t file due to barriers like cost, time, and complexity; or they are concerned that these credits will raise income, potentially kicking them off other benefits. As a result, 4.2 million California families miss out on over $500 million in tax credits each year and hundreds to thousands of additional cash per year in their pockets.

Claim Your Cash LA is a groundbreaking, two-year pilot that Economic Security California launched in partnership with the CEO’s Office of Poverty Alleviation and the Korean Youth & Community Center in early 2024 in LA County to increase uptake of tax credits. Many families eligible for these credits already receive government benefits such as food assistance, and regularly interact with County agencies. Our model seeks to leverage these pre-existing engagements to connect low-income families with free tax prep services, enabling them to receive eligible credits. ESCA worked with county agencies and community partners to train frontline staff, expand access to free filing services, and guide folks through the process. When a person interacts with a County agency, seeking services or benefits, the County agency staffer asks the person about filing taxes, and then facilitates a connection to a community-based organization (using a dedicated hotline) that is already set up to provide free tax preparation services through the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program, essentially creating a new, proactive pipeline to increasing filing.

This is a unique intervention that ESCA helped design, build, and implement. This “warm handoff” is designed to leverage trusted relationships to help overcome the confusion and logistical challenges that typically result in non-filers declining to access their credits.

This grant would support ESCA’s role in transitioning the CYCLA pilot into a permanent program administrated by the County in partnership with local county offices and VITA services. ESCA played a critical role in constructing and implementing the pilot for this program, and moving forward we will: 1) conduct and publish a Year 2 assessment of data and impact, and 2) engage with county offices and local partners to ensure the program becomes a permanent service available to LA residents. Part of this work will be setting county agencies up for success to continue implementing the program, including by ensuring “co-located sites” continue to be available (Co-located sites are where VITA services are available at existing county offices so that non-filers can file taxes and claim credits while already accessing other services in person.)