Think about you’re 62 years previous. You’ve been laid off. Your financial savings are gone. You’ll be able to’t get employed. And now Washington needs to get rid of the one federal program designed that will help you get again to work.
That’s the fact dealing with tens of 1000’s of low-income older Individuals proper now. The Trump administration’s newest finances proposal requires killing the Senior Group Service Employment Program — SCSEP for brief — which offers job coaching and minimum-wage placements for unemployed Individuals 55 and up.
In 2023, this system served greater than 42,000 individuals, based on the U.S. Division of Labor’s most up-to-date progress report. If the minimize goes by means of, tens of 1000’s of seniors are out of luck.
Right here’s what you must know.
1. What SCSEP does
SCSEP was created in 1965 beneath the Older Individuals Act. It’s the one federal job-training program constructed particularly for low-income Individuals 55 and older.
Individuals work a mean of 20 hours every week at nonprofits, faculties, hospitals, senior facilities and different public-service websites. They earn the best of federal, state or native minimal wage. The objective isn’t a everlasting paycheck — it’s to bridge them again into common work.
To qualify, you have to be 55 or older, unemployed, and have a household revenue no increased than 125% of the federal poverty degree, based on the Labor Division. Veterans, individuals 65 and older, these with disabilities, and rural residents get precedence.
2. Who will get harm if it disappears
In response to the Labor Division, greater than 42,000 individuals relied on SCSEP in 2023.
These aren’t lazy individuals refusing to work. They’re usually the hardest-to-employ Individuals — older employees with restricted expertise, well being points, gaps of their resumes, or restricted English.
Many have already tried each different federal job program and nonetheless can’t land work. Older employees additionally have a tendency to remain unemployed far longer than youthful ones as soon as they lose a job.
3. The merciless timing
Right here’s the place it will get weird.
Final 12 months, the One Huge Stunning Invoice Act added new work necessities for Medicaid recipients ages 19 to 64 and expanded SNAP (generally often known as meals stamps) work guidelines to cowl adults 55 to 64, based on PBS NewsHour.
In plain English: Many low-income older adults at the moment are required to work or prepare not less than 80 hours a month simply to maintain their well being protection and meals help.
And what’s the one federal program constructed particularly to assist low-income older Individuals discover jobs and coaching? SCSEP. The identical one Washington needs to wipe out.
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4. What the administration says — and what it doesn’t
The Trump administration’s finances proposal labels SCSEP an earmark for DEI-promoting organizations and calls this system ineffective and duplicative, based on CNBC.
A Home Republican Appropriations Committee report claimed SCSEP positioned fewer than half of its job-ready contributors in common jobs. The report didn’t title a supply for that determine.
The administration additionally argues different federal applications already cowl this floor and that state and native governments do higher at boosting wages. Critics counter that these different applications aren’t reaching older employees — which is precisely why SCSEP was created within the first place.
5. The authorized struggle that’s already underway
This isn’t the primary time this system has been on the brink.
In July 2025, the Labor Division withheld greater than $300 million in SCSEP funds for months, forcing nonprofits like Goodwill, Easterseals and the Nationwide Council on Growing older to furlough roughly 20,000 older employees, based on CNN.
In September 2025, 4 SCSEP contributors filed a category motion lawsuit in federal courtroom in Massachusetts, alleging the Labor Division had unlawfully withheld cash Congress already appropriated, based on Newsweek.
The funds had been finally launched. However by then, the injury was executed.
6. What occurs subsequent
Congress — not the president — has the ultimate say on the federal finances. And lawmakers have already pushed again on the administration’s earlier makes an attempt to zero out SCSEP.
For fiscal 12 months 2026, Congress settled on $395 million in funding, about $10 million lower than the 12 months earlier than, based on CNBC.
The Home Appropriations Committee has now proposed eliminating SCSEP completely going ahead. Senator Tammy Baldwin, the highest Democrat on the Senate subcommittee that oversees this system, has mentioned she’ll struggle to maintain it alive.
When you or somebody you realize depends on SCSEP, now’s the time to name your senators and representatives.
Right here’s the larger image
An entire era of Individuals of their late 50s and early 60s is getting squeezed from each course — job loss, longevity, vanishing pensions, rising well being prices, and now safety-net applications that demand they work simply to maintain meals on the desk.
If Washington goes to require older adults to work, it is sensible to maintain the one federal program that truly helps them do it. Killing it now’s, at finest, dangerous math.
At worst, it’s simply merciless.
