The morning I met Brittany Espinoza, she had just come off a nine-hour delivery shift and was still wearing her FedEx vest. She had driven to her credit union on Papermill Drive in Knoxville not to open an account or apply for a loan — she had come in, she later told me, to ask whether there was any program that could help her stop feeling like she was “running on a treadmill that keeps speeding up.” The branch manager, Diane Holloway, had heard that phrase before. She called me the next day.
When I sat down with Brittany Espinoza in a small conference room at that same credit union two weeks later, she was direct about one thing before I could even open my notebook: she was tired of feeling like the system rewarded people who had consistent paychecks and punished everyone else. “I’m not looking for a handout,” she told me, folding her hands on the table. “I just want to know the rules, because nobody ever explained them to me.”
A Life Built Around Unpredictable Hours
Brittany is 34, engaged to her partner Marcus, who is finishing a degree in electrical engineering at the University of Tennessee. They have no children. She has been driving delivery routes for FedEx for six years, working out of a distribution facility near the I-40 corridor. On paper, she is employed full-time. In practice, her hours fluctuate significantly — some weeks she logs 55 hours with peak-season volume, other weeks she is cut to 28 hours when routing shifts.
Her gross income for 2024 came to approximately $41,300. But it did not arrive in steady, predictable increments. As Brittany explained, “One month I brought home $3,800. Two months later it was $2,100. I can’t build a budget around that. I’ve tried.” The volatility made planning feel futile, and she had accumulated roughly $6,200 in credit card debt during a particularly slow stretch in late 2022 when FedEx reduced routes in her district.
Brittany had one retirement account — a Roth IRA she opened in 2021 after a coworker mentioned it at lunch. She had contributed $800 in 2021, nothing in 2022 during the lean stretch, $600 in 2023, and $1,200 in 2024. She had no idea that those contributions might entitle her to a direct tax credit from the IRS. Neither, she said, had any tax preparer ever mentioned it. “I used one of those walk-in tax places near my apartment for three years. They just handed me a number and said sign here.”
The Credit She Had Never Heard Of
The Retirement Savings Contributions Credit, commonly called the Saver’s Credit, is a federal tax credit designed specifically for low- and moderate-income workers who contribute to a retirement account such as an IRA, 401(k), or similar plan. According to the IRS, the credit rate ranges from 10% to 50% of your contribution, depending on your adjusted gross income and filing status. For single filers in 2024, the full 50% credit applies to AGI up to $23,000 — but partial credits extend much further up the income scale.
For tax year 2024, single filers with an AGI between $23,001 and $25,000 receive a 20% credit rate. Those with an AGI between $25,001 and $38,250 receive a 10% credit rate. Above $38,250, the credit phases out entirely for single filers. Brittany’s 2024 AGI, after standard deductions and work expenses, came in at approximately $36,900 — within the 10% credit threshold.
When Diane Holloway, the branch manager who had introduced us, walked Brittany through the IRS Form 8880 requirements during a financial wellness session in January 2025, Brittany’s reaction was blunt. “I was honestly angry,” she told me. “Not at Diane. At the fact that I had been doing the right thing — putting money away on a salary that barely covers rent — and nobody told me I could get something back for it.”
A Past Setback That Still Stings
Brittany’s frustration about unclaimed benefits is not abstract. It is rooted in a specific financial blow she suffered in early 2022, when her hours were cut and she missed a credit card payment for the first time in her adult life. The late payment triggered a penalty rate increase from 19.99% to 29.99% on a balance of roughly $2,400. By the time she stabilized her income in mid-2022 and paid the balance down, she had paid approximately $680 in interest charges she describes as “completely avoidable, if I’d known what I was dealing with.”
That experience shaped how Brittany now approaches anything related to government programs or tax filings. She approaches them with suspicion first, then curiosity. When Holloway mentioned the Saver’s Credit, Brittany’s first response was to ask what the catch was. “I thought there had to be some income test I’d fail, or some form that would disqualify me,” she said. “There’s always something.”
In this case, the eligibility criteria are relatively straightforward. The IRS Form 8880 requires filers to be 18 or older, not a full-time student, and not claimed as a dependent on another person’s return. Brittany met all three criteria. The only complication in her case was confirming her exact AGI given her variable income — a calculation her new tax preparer, a certified public accountant she switched to for the 2024 filing season, worked through carefully.
The Outcome, and What Brittany Is Still Navigating
Brittany filed her 2024 return in February 2025, claiming the Saver’s Credit for the first time. Her total refund came to $847, compared to $412 the year before. The difference reflected both the credit and more careful documentation of her mileage and work-related expenses — something her previous walk-in tax service had not pursued. She used the refund to pay down the last $610 remaining on her credit card balance.
But Brittany was also dealing with a harder question: her long-term retirement trajectory. At 34, with a Roth IRA balance of approximately $3,400 after irregular contributions over four years, she is significantly behind common benchmarks for her age. The irregular income that made the Saver’s Credit available to her is also what has made consistent retirement saving so difficult. “Marcus will have a good job when he graduates, and that will help,” she told me. “But I don’t want to depend on that. I want to know that what I’m building is mine.”
She is still working through what consistent retirement contributions look like on a variable income. Her CPA suggested treating savings like a bill — setting a minimum monthly transfer amount, even during slow weeks — but Brittany acknowledges she has not fully implemented that yet. “I know what I should do,” she said. “Knowing and doing are different things when you’re watching your checking account at 11pm.”
She also discovered she may have been eligible for the Saver’s Credit in 2021 and 2023 as well, based on her income and the $800 and $600 she contributed to her Roth IRA in those years. Those filing years are now closed for amendments in most circumstances, which is a reality she received without much expression. “That one I’m trying not to think about too hard,” she said.
What Brittany’s Story Reveals About Variable-Income Workers
Brittany Espinoza is not an outlier. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, millions of workers in transportation, logistics, and delivery sectors experience significant weekly hour fluctuations that translate directly into income volatility. The tax code offers several provisions — including the Saver’s Credit, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and the Child and Dependent Care Credit — that are specifically calibrated for lower-to-moderate income filers. Yet awareness of these credits remains uneven, particularly among workers who use low-cost or chain tax preparation services that may not probe for every eligible benefit.
The structure of the Saver’s Credit itself creates a particular challenge for variable-income workers: because eligibility depends on annual AGI, a worker who earns more during peak-season months may not know until the year is over whether they fall above or below the phase-out threshold. For Brittany, the margin was narrow — her AGI of $36,900 sat about $1,350 below the 2024 phase-out ceiling for single filers.
When I asked Brittany what she would tell another delivery driver who had never heard of the Saver’s Credit, she paused for a moment. “I’d tell them to stop assuming they’re not eligible for things,” she said. “I assumed that for years. I assumed the system wasn’t set up for people like me. And sometimes it’s not. But sometimes it is, and you’re just not being told.”
Sitting across from her in that credit union conference room, I found myself thinking about all the Brittany Espinozas who never get a referral from a branch manager like Diane Holloway — who file and leave and never know what they left on the table. The Saver’s Credit is not a large sum of money for most people who claim it. But for someone trying to build a retirement account on irregular hours and a tight budget, the difference between claiming it and not claiming it is the difference between feeling like the system sees you and feeling invisible.
Brittany did not leave that conversation with a sense of triumph. She left with a clearer picture — and a running list of questions she planned to ask her CPA before the 2025 filing deadline. That, she said, felt like enough for now.
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