The Baby’s First Years (BFY) Unconditional Cash Transfer provided monthly, predictable unconditional cash transfers to new mothers with low-income to increase household financial resources and encourage investments in child development during the first years of children’s lives. Mothers were given a debit card in the hospital, and a cash gift of $333 was loaded into the card monthly. Mothers also had access to a hotline number for assistance with the card use. There were no work-related requirements and no restrictions on how mothers could spend the cash gifts.
The cash gifts were originally intended to last 40 months but were subsequently extended to last 76 months.
The study was conducted in New Orleans, LA; New York City, NY; Omaha, NE; and Minneapolis and St. Paul, MN.
The Baby’s First Years (BFY) Unconditional Cash Transfer provided monthly, predictable unconditional cash transfers to new mothers with low-income to increase household financial resources and encourage investments in child development during the first years of children’s lives.