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Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP)
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The Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) is a community service and work-based job training program for older Americans. Authorized by the Older Americans Act, the program provides training for low-income, unemployed seniors. Participants also have access to employment assistance through American Job Centers. SCSEP participants gain work experience in a variety of community service activities at non-profit and public facilities, including schools, hospitals, day-care centers, and senior centers. The program provides over 40 million community service hours to public and non-profit agencies, allowing them to enhance and provide needed services. Participants work an average of 20 hours a week and are paid the highest of federal, state or local minimum wage. This training serves as a bridge to unsubsidized employment opportunities for participants. Participants must be at least 55, unemployed, and have a family income of no more than 125% of the federal poverty level. Enrollment priority is given to veterans and qualified spouses, then to individuals who are over 65, have a disability, have low literacy skills or limited English proficiency, reside in a rural area, are homeless or at risk of homelessness, have low employment prospects, formerly incarcerated within the last five years, or have failed to find employment after using services through the American Job Center system.
This chart shows obligations for the program by fiscal year. All data for this chart was provided by the
administering agency and sourced from SAM.gov, USASpending.gov, and Treasury.gov.
For more information on each of these data sources, please see the
About the data page.
The SCSEP program provides work-based job training, support, and paid community service opportunities for low-income seniors with particularly intensive needs. Through the program, older workers gain critical soft skills and industry-specific skills, actively search for employment, and learn technology and internet skills, ultimately preparing them for unsubsidized employment opportunities after exit from the program. In PY 2019, SCSEP served nearly 48,000 older workers.
In the early stages of the pandemic, ETA provided guidance and technical assistance to ensure that SCSEP grantees swiftly implemented measures to protect the health and safety of their participants, many of whom are particularly vulnerable given their age, socioeconomic conditions, and reliance on SCSEP wages. Measures included maximizing the use of available flexibilities to ensure SCSEP participants continued to receive critical support while they were unable to participate in community service assignments.
In Program Year 2022, Senior Community Employment Program (SCSEP) grantees aided over 42,400 seniors over the age of 55 gain skills and self-sufficiency toward unsubsidized employment. SCSEP participants conducted 3,176,807 hours of training, contributed 13,474,570 total hours in community service, and worked another 10,307,208 total hours in service to the general community.
In Fiscal Year 2023, SCSEP implemented a new case management tool, GPMS, to better support the operation of the grantee performance system and its connectivity with internal grantee performance systems. The additional costs associated with the required technology infrastructure upgrades presented a hardship for grantees, and the Office of Workforce Investment offered additional funding in the amount of $9,471,234 to SCSEP grantees to support efforts to upgrade technology infrastructure for GPMS compatibility.
In Fiscal Year 2024, ETA distributed grant funds totaling $402 million to states, territorial, and SCSEP is both a formula and competitive grant program in which a predetermined percentage of the funds are allocated to the States and territories by formula, and the remaining percentage is based on a competition for grants to national organizations (including set-aside grants, which are a subset of national grants). ETA competed the SCSEP program in 2024, which by statute takes place every four years. The department awarded $194 million to 19 national nonprofit organizations through the program’s general fund, and three organizations received a total of $9 million in funds set aside by statute to provide employment services to older workers from Native American or Asian-American and Pacific Islander communities. The SCSEP funding will enable program participants to move into unsubsidized employment in public and private sectors, foster self-sufficiency, and promote part-time work experiences in community service assignments for unemployed low-income people ages 55 and older. Authorized by the Older Americans Act, the SCSEP awards provide funding through the end of Program Year 2024. This cohort of grantees may receive a total of approximately $313 million annually for an additional three years, subject to future appropriations.
Single Audit Applies (2 CFR Part 200 Subpart F):
For additional information on single audit requirements for this program, review the current Compliance Supplement.
OMB is working with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) and agency offices of inspectors general to include links to relevant oversight reports. This section will be updated once this information is made available.
