Wendi Gosliner and collaborators receive grant to test an outreach program to increase WIC participants take-up of the Earned Income Tax Credit

Feb 9, 2023

Working families with low- to moderate-income can receive up to $6,000 in Federal benefits and an additional $3,000 in California state benefits through the Earned Income Tax Credit, one of the largest poverty alleviation programs in the nation. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers EITC a critical evidence-based cost-effective intervention to improve health within five years, however only 53-80% of eligible families received these benefits in 2017 and 2018. Nutrition Policy Institute's Wendi Gosliner will collaborate with Rita Hamad from the University of California, San Francisco and Lia Fernald from UC Berkeley on a project to test an outreach program designed to improve take-up of the Federal and state Earned Income Tax Credits among participants in the Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC). The two-year project, “Advancing health equity by alleviating poverty: A multi-level, evidence-based pilot trial to increase take-up of the Earned Income Tax Credit,” started October 1, 2022, and was made possible with funding from the Blue Shield of California Foundation. This project builds on previous work by Gosliner, Hamad, and Fernald as part of their Assessing California Communities' Experiences with Safety Net Supports study, which showed barriers to Federal and state EITC uptake.


By Danielle L. Lee
Author - Director of Communications & Research Engagement
By Wendi Gosliner
Editor - Project scientist