Cash Tax Credits

CYCLA’s Warm Handoff Pilot: Connecting Families to Free Tax Prep

04. 01. 2026

New research shows how trusted county workers helped connect families to free tax prep and the tax credits they’re owed.

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Refundable tax credits like the Child Tax Credit (CTC), Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and state-specific credits are proven as the most effective tools available to support families. Yet, each year MILLIONS of dollars in tax credits go unclaimed because eligible families don’t file. We wanted to change that.

Claim Your Cash LA (CYCLA) is a public-private collaboration between LA County departments, the CEO’s Office, and community partners, including Economic Security California, focused on connecting low-income families to the tax credits they deserve and are owed. In LA County, nearly half a billion dollars in state and federal tax credits are unclaimed yearly. The highest rates of unclaimed tax credits are among families already connected to county services, such as SNAP, utility assistance, or housing support. To address the tax credit uptake gap, CYCLA provides a “warm handoff” — where trained client-facing county workers refer residents they already serve to trusted, free tax preparation through the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) network.  The result is a high-touch, trust-based model that meets people where they are and guides them through claiming every credit they qualify for, up to $12,000, for free.

New independent research from Diana Jensen and Meg Davidson evaluates the CYCLA pilot and what made it effective, what could have been done different, and the overall impact. The findings point to one clear takeaway: trust between staff, partners, and residents turned out to be the most important factor in delivering tax credits to families. Among the key findings: 

• Filers at a sample of five VITA research partner sites received more than $1.26 million in documented tax credits during the 2025 tax season. When scaled across the county’s full VITA network of roughly 90 sites, researchers estimate the program generated over $15 million in tax returns for low-income Los Angeles residents.
• Filers who received a “warm handoff” from a caseworker received  72% higher refunds, averaging over $2,000 per family. 
• County outreach drove roughly 13% of all VITA filers countywide, connecting an estimated 8,400+ residents to free tax preparation services they might otherwise have missed.

Nearly half of county-referred filers were new to free tax preparation, including many who had never previously filed taxes.

Economic Security California wants to share what we learned with other advocates and local governments.  Whether you’re a county, city, or community organization, CYCLA offers a practical model that can be replicated and scaled to increase access to existing benefits.

We’ve developed a toolkit to help you get started. Download it to learn how to leverage trusted government touchpoints to connect more families to the resources they are already eligible for. This toolkit was developed on behalf of ESCA by Diana Jensen and Meg Davidson. For more information or to request planning support, please contact Monica Lazo (email) or Diana Jensen ([email protected]).