Assistance program
Senior Community Service Employment Program
$3.1 Billion committed in FY2018–FY2026
- Agency
- Employment and Training Administration, Labor, Department of
- Assistance
- Formula Grants;Project Grants
- CFDA number
- 17.235
- What it does
- 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.
- Who benefits
- SCSEP applicants must be unemployed adults 55 years or older with a family income that is not more than 125 percent of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) poverty level. Prospective participants must provide documentation relevant to age and income, which is required to determine whether the individual is program eligible. With certain exceptions, the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey definition of income governs the determination of SCSEP applicants’ income eligibility. Section 518 (a)(3)(A) of the OAA-2016 specifies that any income that is unemployment compensation, a benefit received under title XVI of the Social Security Act; a payment made to or on behalf of veterans or former members of the Armed Forces under the laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, or 25 percent of a benefit received under title II of the Social Security Act, is excluded from SCSEP income eligibility determinations.
- Who applies
- The following types of organizations are eligible to receive grants: (1) States; (2) U.S. territories; (3) Public and nonprofit private agency and organizations; and (4) Public or nonprofit national Indian aging organizations and public or nonprofit Pacific Island and Asian American aging organizations. Unless otherwise stipulated, entities carrying out the project are subject to Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards found at 2 CFR Part 200 along with the OMB approved exceptions for DOL at 2 CFR Part 2900 published on December 19, 2014 in the Federal Register; Older Americans Act Reauthorization Act of 2016 published April 22, 2016; Older Americans Act Reauthorization Act of 2020 published March 2020; Performance Accountability Final Rule published July 10, 2018); Final Rule published December 26, 2010; and Training and Employment Guidance Letters available via https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/seniors/technical-assistance.
- Authorized by
- Older Americans Act of 1965
- Unless otherwise stipulated, entities carrying out the SCSEP project are subject to Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards found at 2 CFR Part 200, along with the OMB approved exceptions for DOL at 2 CFR Part 2900, publishe…
- Program site
- https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/seniors ↗
Committed by fiscal year
* FY2026 is year-to-date — the fiscal year is still in progress, so its total is still filling in. The striped band and dashed line mark that provisional stretch.
How the money flows
Committed dollars by how this program's money is paid out.
Grants
$3.1B
100%
Other
$2.9M
<1%
Top recipients
By dollars committed.
How to read these numbers
- Committed through this program
Money committed under this assistance listing (its CFDA program), counted in the year each action happened.
- How it's paid
Most programs pay out one way — a grant, or a direct payment to individuals; the flow bar only appears when a program genuinely mixes types.
- Some recipients aren't itemized
For entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, the government reports one aggregate instead of naming tens of millions of people, so the recipient roster isn't part of the public record.
- Awards, counted once
An award count is the number of distinct awards with at least one action that year — each counted once, however many times it was amended.
- The colored bars
Every bar on this page splits by how the money moves:
Direct payments