New Jersey

NCCP conducted a yearlong qualitative study during 2015-2016 to help determine the effectiveness of New Jersey’s paid family leave policy, or Family Leave Insurance (FLI). As described in more detail on our New Jersey Parenting Project page, the project sought to find out how well the program is working for low-income parents, and how the program might be strengthened and reach more working parents. Among our findings, we determined that FLI is valuable for low-income parents who use it, but that a range of barriers discourage program take-up. We recommended that the State of New Jersey invest in outreach, improve program administration, and enhance benefits to strengthen the FLI program. Our findings were included in the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development’s response to the Governor of New Jersey’s 2017 budget request to emphasize the need for improved outreach efforts and improved administrative efficiency in processing FLI claims.

NCCP’s partners on the project included Advocates for Children of New Jersey, the Center for Women and Work at Rutgers University, Community Service Society, New Jersey Citizen Action, and the Statewide Parent Advocacy Network. The project was funded by Annie E. Casey Foundation, The Nicholson Foundation, and the Schumann Fund for New Jersey.

Our previous work in New Jersey includes a collaborative project conducted in 2011 with New Jersey Policy Perspective to model the impact of potential cuts to New Jersey FamilyCare, the state’s public health insurance program. We performed this analysis by developing a Family Resource Simulator for New Jersey, which also models a wide range of other work supports and government benefits available to New Jersey families.