Events: Refund to Savings (R2S)

The Social Policy Institute welcomes Kathy Kraninger, the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, who will be giving remarks on the importance of promoting financial security and financial well-being and discussing a new savings initiative from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Co-sponsored by the Clark-Fox Policy Institute, the Gephardt Institute for Civic & Community Engagement and the CFPB.

To provide the opportunity for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (the Bureau) Tax Time Savings Initiative Cohort partners to meet in person and share ideas on ways that Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) programs can increase economic stability through the improved use of savings products and services.

November 9, 2018: 8:30 AM-10:00 AM 8228 – Lobby Level (Marriott Wardman Park) Panel Chairs: Olga Kondratjeva, Washington University in St. Louis Discussants: Stephen Grant, Prudential Workplace Solutions Group

This work aims to encourage the saving of the tax refund through an experiment embedding behavioral interventions in a tax filing platform serving almost a million low- and moderate-income households.

Low- and moderate-income (LMI) households lack sufficient liquid assets to address unexpected emergencies and dips in income (McKernan, Ratcliffe, & Vinopal, 2009; Pew Charitable Trusts, 2015). Receiving tax refunds is an opportunity for recipients of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) to build emergency savings to help cope with these financial shocks.

On-demand peer-to-peer services (‘gigs’) coordinated by platforms like Uber, allow workers to decide for themselves when and how much to work. This flexible work arrangement offers workers granular control over their earnings.

Financial well-being means having financial security and freedom of choice, both now and into the future. Research on the state of financial well-being in the United States and what drives it is now available for the first time.