She received a $20,000 basic income. Two years later, she's back to working multiple jobs.

• Cepia Harper recieved $850 a month for two years from an Atlanta basic income program.
• She earned a teaching certification and built savings, but is back to working multiple jobs.
• US cities have run hundreds of programs offering no-strings-attached cash to low-income families.

Cepia Harper starts her day at dawn, commuting to her job as a middle school teacher in Atlanta's morning rush. After lecturing about thesis statements, the 43-year-old grades papers, tidies up her classroom, then clocks into her second shift selling sneakers at Nike from about 6 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

The two roles keep Harper financially afloat, especially after her guaranteed basic income program ended two years ago. She was part of Atlanta's cohort of 650 low-income Black women who received $20,400 cash between 2022 and 2024, no strings attached. While the extra money allowed her to build savings and earn a new teaching certification, paying her monthly bills is still a challenge.

Business Insider first spoke with Harper in the summer of 2024. At the time, the single mom of three had begun teaching full time and felt stable enough to quit her part-time retail gigs. Now, she's back to working multiple jobs — but she said life feels much more stable.

"Before basic income, I was pretty much homeless," Harper said in April. "I was able to get a new apartment, substitute teach, and pay my rent because I had that extra income. Later, it led me to get a bigger apartment, and land an even better job."

Over the past decade, cities across America have run hundreds of basic income pilots. Advocates see payments as a potential solution for poverty or a supplement to existing social safety nets like SNAP and Section 8. Tech leaders have even suggested no-strings-attached cash as a means to support the white-collar workforce as AI reshapes the job market. Dozens of families told Business Insider they used the money to afford childcare, pay household bills, fund higher education, and pay off debt.

Most of these pilots study participants' lives immediately before, during, and directly after receiving basic income. Data on the effects of cash aid years later is more limited.

Harper is back to working multiple jobs, but feels more confident in her financial future

Harper qualified for the In Her Hands program — run through nonprofits The Georgia Resilience and Opportunity Fund and GiveDirectly — because her household income was below 200% of the federal poverty line, which is about $64,000 annually for a family of four. She said the monthly payments of $850 helped her move out of a family member's home and secure her own place. It also helped her afford groceries and activities for her children without stress.

Previous to the program, she had been cobbling together several retail gigs to make ends meet. Her packed schedule and intense hours were hard on the family.

"I've never had it where I could just go home to my own kids, pick them up from practice," she told Business Insider in 2024. "They all play sports, and I could never leave work to go to a game."

Business Insider has heard from dozens of participants across the US who used cash payments to boost their careers. Some working or single parents said that being able to afford childcare allowed them to work toward promotions. Others said they were able to drop multiple, lower-paying roles for one higher-paying full-time job. In Her Hands participants, for example, worked fewer hours but were less likely to be unemployed than the control group.

Harper's story is similar. While she returned to a part-time retail job at Nike last summer — she only needs to work a few nights and some weekend shifts — adding up to about 20 hours a week, to supplement her teaching income. The schedule is predictable. Her two oldest kids are now college age, and her youngest is in high school. For Harper, being able to drop her 17-year-old off at school, attend their events, and eat meals together has been a welcome effect of basic income, even years later.

Since her cash payments stopped, Harper's experience has been mixed. She has faced some short-term setbacks: She was in a bad car accident last year and the cost of a new vehicle is a main reason why she's back working a second job. She is also living with a relative again, which she said is not because of money, but because of an unexpected logistical issue with her previous landlord. Harper hopes to find a new apartment soon.

For the future, however, Harper is feeling more confident than she has in a long time. Because she was able to earn additional teaching credentials, she said her earnings from teaching are thousands of dollars higher than in 2022. She has been able to start saving for emergencies and retirement, as well as help pay for her kids' college visits and prom. Harper said she has also been hired as a temporary consultant for a few different nonprofits, helping them craft basic income programs from a participant perspective. Making the system better for the next person gives her a sense of purpose.

"If you're a person like me — no child support, no food stamps — that money is going to a good cause," she said. "That money helped me get my daughter to college, it helped me keep my kids out of trouble. It's not just a hand out. It can change a person's life."