From 2007 to 2010, Family Rewards offered 2,377 New York City families cash transfers of $8,674. Another 2,372 families services at the control group didn't receive benefits.

Health aspects of the program were recently examined by researchers at King's College London, Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and MDRC, part of LIFEPATH, a project funded by the European Commission and results of the analysis were published this week in the journal Health Affairs.

While it seems that the families, or anybody, would complete tasks to receive free money, the researchers say that it may not be that simple for some people.

"Lower-income populations have a lot going on in their lives," study auther Peter Muennig, a professor of Health Policy and Management at Mailman, told UPI. "Some people work two or even three jobs and have kids to boot, so it's not easy getting medical care, even if there are funds for it".....

.....Overall, these benefits translated into modest improvements in health status when measured by self-rated health and level of hope, and researchers say the increases were not as significant as they'd expected.....

.....The researchers say they are also planning followup research.

"There is a 'part II' of the 2010 study," Muennig said. "We are working with the social research organization, MDRC, to look at the health benefits of other social programs as well. Too often, health benefits are overlooked."

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