Can Monthly Cash Payments Make Our Economy More Equitable?

Low-income students are always looking for ways to finance their education. A new system using “human capital contracts” to pay for higher education isn’t as scary as it sounds.

54 million people in the United States, and 4.5 billion globally, have no credit to their name - making it nearly impossible for them to buy homes, apply for jobs and receive loans. Investors and lenders make an effort to help those with 'invisible credit' scores in financing essentials like homes or cars.

Neighborhood Centers, a Houston anti-poverty program has a simple philosophy: “The people are the asset, the source of potential solutions, not the problem.” The non-profit has scaled nationally, employing its bottom-up approach to disburse funds in poor communities.

Microfinance started to help reduce world poverty but, in the long run, without bank accounts it is hard for beginning entrepreneurs to really get going and to help the economy. Now that paying is possible through cellular phones, more people will have the opportunity to have a bank account and hopefully cause a decrease in poverty.

Government benefits to aid the poor are frequently left unclaimed, leaving children hungry, young people unable to finish school, and opportunities for stable housing and preventative health care unused. New York City-based program Single Stop connects people to benefits for which they may be eligible. Importantly, Single Stop has served community colleges where disadvantaged students can use the assistance to help get through school.

When you don’t live in a city, if you don’t have a car, you don’t have a job. But car payments can eat up a salary quickly - a New England program offers low-cost car loans to people who need them most.

For five decades, tens of thousands of people have fought poverty. Trillions of dollars have been spent, but poverty is a stubborn enemy. In the second part of a five-part series, WAMU’s Kavitha Cardoza tells us about one innovative program in Fort Worth, Texas, that may have cracked the code.

Felons get out of jail owing hundreds or thousands of dollars in court and parole fees, acting as an often insurmountable barrier preventing them from reintegrating into society and staying out of jail. What's worse, these fees often end up costing the state more than they produce. Two columns on a program called the Clapham Set, which erases or reduces debts for felons who take classes and job training.

Two columns on the most important new development program today, in use in at least 40 poor countries: give the poor cash payments, contingent on their use of health clinics and their children’s school attendance. These programs, which started in Mexico and Brazil, help the poor now and try to create a generation with less poverty in the future.

This is a column on an important new development program in use in at least 40 developing countries: give the poor cash payments, contingent on their use of health clinics and their children’s school attendance, to help break the cycle of poverty.