The Labor Department has suddenly stopped funding a senior job training program

CNN

5 days ago

Goodwill, Easterseals and other nonprofit organizations say thousands of low-income seniors could soon be unemployed because funding hasn't come through for a decades-old federal job training and placement program.
The Department of Labor has yet to release more than $300 million in funds for national grantees of the Senior Community Service Employment Program, which was created in 1965 to help low-income, out-of-work adults 55 and older — especially veterans, rural residents and people with disabilities — return to the workforce.
On July 1, the Department of Labor released about $86 million in funds to state recipients, but the national grantees' funds were not released (something that's typically done in May), several of the longtime participating nonprofit organizations told CNN. The funding pause of the program that serves about 40,000 seniors was first reported by Bloomberg Law.
As a result, those organizations say they've had to furlough seniors participating in the program, as well as their own employees. These moves are coming at a time when hiring activity has continued to slow in the broader US labor market.
'This is an intrinsically American program, when you think about it: people who want to work, who want to be contributing members of society, people who want to be able to support themselves, who want to be a part of a community,' Kendra Davenport, president and chief executive officer of Easterseals, which provides services to children and adults with disabilities.
But the uncertainty extends beyond the current year's funding, as the program itself is feared to be on borrowed time: The proposed 2026 fiscal year budget for the Labor Department proposes eliminating the SCSEP and a slew of other longtime job training programs and replacing them with a block grant to be distributed to states and local communities.
Such potential cuts couldn't be coming at a worse time, Davenport said.
'If you look at a macro level at what is impacting these seniors, there are Medicaid cuts, so their health care might go away,' she said. 'There are massive [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] cuts. Many of these folks are dependent on SNAP for food assistance; that's going away. And now SCSEP is taking away their opportunity to work.'
She added: 'We're putting people who really do want to help themselves in a terrible position.'
A Labor Department spokeswoman said the agency will 'provide an update soon' on the remaining $307 million in 2025 funding for the national grant recipients.
'The Department has given all SCSEP grantees a one-month period of performance extension, so that if grantees have funding available from their Program Year 2024 grant, they can still use these funds to continue program operations,' Christine Feroli, a Labor Department spokeswoman, wrote via email to CNN. 'The Employment and Training Administration is preparing to award grants shortly after state and territorial grantees submit their required budget documents. The department will support grantees in their operations and services to participants.'
Organizations such as the National Asian Center on Aging are sounding the alarm over the funding delays.
'This funding delay is not just a bureaucratic issue, it's a crisis for tens of thousands of older adults who depend on SCSEP to survive,' Clayton Fong, president and CEO of the organization that provides employment programs and caregiving services for older adults, said in a statement earlier this month.
In an emailed statement to CNN, Fong called on the Labor Department to fully fund the program to support a 'meaningful pathway to economic stability' for low-income seniors.
'SCSEP is a job training program that restores dignity and a sense of purpose to seniors who want to continue working but are often overlooked in the workforce,' Fong said. 'This funding pause has painful consequences for jobseekers who are trying to build skills and take care of themselves and their families.'
Fong's organization has furloughed more than 800 senior workers.
At Goodwill Industries, more than 400 program participants were placed on leave of absence status; and if funds are not released by July 31, additional furloughs could impact more than 1,500 of its older workers, the nonprofit said in an emailed statement to CNN.
'Goodwill is urging the Department of Labor to quickly provide the allocations needed for this important program to continue and calls upon Congress to continue to invest in SCSEP, providing essential support for older workers,' according to the statement.