Benefits21 Financial Resilience Series
Modernizing Public and Workplace Benefits to Support Household Financial Resilience: Discussions with Benefit Leaders on Actions Needed and Opportunities for Scale to Support Household Financial Resilience
The once-in-a-generation financial disruption caused by COVID-19 was a massive stress test on the financial resilience of U.S. households. In response, policymakers, companies, nonprofits, and community leaders stepped up to support households in ways they never had before – through direct financial assistance that provided dignity of choice to use funds as needed to stabilize; by closing critical gaps in workplace benefits, like paid leave, to stabilize income and prevent workers from having to choose between their health and their income; and with innovative solutions to improve the design and delivery of benefits – from easing the burdens of applying for benefits to more effective and timely delivery – to support households to cope with large, unexpected financial shocks driven by the pandemic. While gaps remained, in many ways the efforts succeeded in closing benefit gaps and supporting household financial resilience.
With a strong but complicated economic recovery emerging, we must ensure that the innovations those leaders brought to the table – grounded in household financial security outcomes – are solidified and scaled to continue to ensure households are supported in moments of financial shock and can be financially resilient to weather unexpected financial shocks of the future.
Aspen FSP’s Financial Resilience Series will highlight the foundational role benefits play in supporting household financial resilience, elevate the insights and work of benefit leaders, and discuss the opportunities for scale and innovations needed in public benefits and workplace benefits.
October 13th at 2pm EST: Modernizing Public Benefits to Support Financial Resilience. This event will highlight a new framework for financial resilience, elevate the work of federal, state, and nonprofit leaders currently paving the way to support household financial resilience by taking a people-centric approach to redesign public benefits, and explore opportunities for scaling these solutions to reach all households.
November 17th at 2pm EST: Modernizing Workplace Benefits to Support Financial Resilience. This event will use Aspen FSP’s new financial resilience framework to showcase the importance of workplace benefits to holistically support households to manage and mitigate the impact of financial shocks. It will explore commitments by private sector leaders to support workers’ financial resilience and elevate the benefit innovators – investors, benefit providers and administrators, employees and fintech- who are currently leading the way to modernize workplace benefits and scale innovations to ensure all workers and their families are financially resilient.
