MW This proposed federal budget cut could eliminate job training for 42,000 vulnerable seniors
By Jessica Hall
The Senior Community Service Employment Program provides job training that will become even more crucial as work requirements for food and healthcare aid increase
The SCSEP program helped about 42,000 enrollees in 2023.
A job-training program for low-income older adults is set to lose funding under President Donald Trump's proposed budget for 2027 - just as more stringent work requirements for food aid and healthcare coverage go into effect.
A total of $395 million in funding for the entire Senior Community Service Employment Program was cut in the proposed 2027 budget, which said the program "has served as an earmark to leftist, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion $(DEI)$-promoting organizations instead of helping seniors in need."
SCSEP's job-training function is already covered by other federal agencies, as well as state and local governments, according to the budget proposal.
"In the past, SCSEP has funded organizations such as: The National Urban League, which seeks to 'safeguard DEI principles;' Easterseals, which aims to advance 'inclusion, diversity, equity and access,' in the workplace; and The Center for Workforce Inclusion, which until recently hosted an annual 'Equity Summit,' focused on 'systemic ageism, racism, and sexism,'" Trump's budget proposal said.
The proposed funding cut would wipe out the program, which provides job training to unemployed people 55 and older with a household income at or below 125% of the federal poverty level, or about $19,950 a year. SCSEP had more than 42,000 participants in 2023, according to the Labor Department's most recent report.
The program, which was created by Congress in 1965, provides training for vulnerable older adults including veterans, people with disabilities, those with limited education, people with limited English skills and those at risk of homelessness.
"These are folks who have exhausted all other avenues to employment, and we create a path forward," said Maura Porcelli, senior director of workforce at the National Council on Aging. "People typically come into the program not job-ready to work. These are not job-ready individuals. They need training. But we also need to make sure they have access to stable housing and access to food."
SCSEP provides job training through grantees, including state agencies and national nonprofit organizations. Enrollees are paid the highest of the state, federal or local minimum wage and work an average of 20 hours per week.
Enrollees spend an average of 22 months in SCSEP job training, Porcelli said. So people currently in the program would see their funding cut off on June 30, 2027, and the program would be unable to sign up new enrollees as of that date.
The proposed funding cut comes as Americans are living and working longer. ?Nationwide, workers age 55 and older have been the fastest-growing age group in the labor force for about two decades, making up 24% of the U.S. workforce in 2022, up from 10% in 1994, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The proposed cuts to SCSEP come as other benefit programs for low-income people are also facing increased work requirements.
The Republican One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law last year, tightened eligibility for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, the nation's largest anti-hunger program (formerly known as food stamps). Now, adults ages 18 to 64 without dependents who are able to work must work at least 20 hours a week or participate in a job program. Previously, the requirement applied only to adults through age 54.
Starting Jan. 1, 2027, Medicaid will also implement similar stricter work rules for more older adults.
"With work requirements, it's all the more important that vulnerable older adults be supported with training," Porcelli said.
Social Security, meanwhile, faces insolvency as early as 2032, according to the Congressional Budget Office and the Social Security Administration's chief actuary, Karen Glenn. Unless Congress acts to shore up the program's finances, Social Security benefits would at that time be cut by about 24% for all beneficiaries.
Last year, the SCSEP program faced funding hiccups, including a pause in $300 million in funding that forced the temporary furlough of thousands of workers. A class-action lawsuit was filed last September on behalf of the older workers who were furloughed.
"Not a day went by when we didn't get a call with people struggling to make ends meet without a job. People were desperate," Porcelli said.
-Jessica Hall
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 09, 2026 11:22 ET (15:22 GMT)
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