Bell supports program to minimize child-care cliff effect

Melody Maitland, a master of social work fellow at the Bell, testified on Tuesday in favor of Senate Bill 22, a proposal to ease a "cliff effect" that causes many Colorado families to lose more in child-care benefits than they gain with an increase in family income.

Maitland said that many public programs experience a cliff effect, but the steepest cliff occurs when a family loses child-care subsidies. SB12-022 would, through a pilot program, "authorize counties to allow families to remain eligible for child-care assistance for up to two years, providing the families assume an increasing portion of their child-care costs. At the end of the two-year period, the family would pay the full, unsubsidized cost of child care," she said in her testimony.

"This transition period would give families time to prepare to pay the full cost of child care, reduce the disincentives to earn more money and move families toward self-sufficiency."

The bill earned bipartisan support, passing 10-3 in the House Health and Environment Committee.

Click here to read Maitland's full testimony.