Benefits Journey: Applying + Enrolling
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A Playbook for Improving Unemployment Insurance Delivery
This playbook offers a comprehensive guide to enhancing unemployment benefits systems, focusing on claimant-centric approaches, equitable access, and actionable steps for state agencies.
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Unemployment Insurance Technology Modernization Act of 2021
A bill proposed by Senator Wyden to modernize the technology for delivering unemployment compensation.
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To reimagine unemployment insurance services, start small
Building modular, open-source, human-centered software is necessary to create equitable government services fit for the digital age. Nava emphasizes addressing large scale digital service challenges by building and releasing small, modular software components that are loosely-coupled by well-defined APIs. This enables agencies to quickly and conistently deliver services that help people immediately, whilst also building a flexible foundation for long-term technical evolution.
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Streamlining SNAP for the Gig Economy
This issue brief explores how states can leverage existing policy to better support self-employed workers.
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Story-driven experience research on pandemic unemployment
Dana Chisnell describes work leading a team of researchers to interview people from across the US on their experiences applying for unemployment and other benefits during the pandemic.
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Social Listening: Covid-19, Social Media, and The Path to a Better Safety Net
This report describes how the government can use widespread social media feedback and begin to build long-term measures to center people’s experience as an important component of policy design
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Six Recommendations for Implementing the Next Stimulus Package
The US Digital response partnered with dozens of states, counties, and cities to support them in using and tracking CARES Act grants. This article presents six lessons learned from their work to help governments better assist residents, particularly small businesses and low-income communities.
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Report: Modernizing Access to the Safety Net
Innovators inside and outside of government are working to improve access to the social safety net using data, technology, and design. This report highlights innovations carried out by The Rockefeller Foundation’s Data and Technology grantees from 2018 to 2021, including extraordinary efforts to meet the challenges of the pandemic. Those grantees are: Benefits Data Trust, Code for America, Georgetown University’s Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation, U.S. Digital Response, and the Digital Innovation and Governance Initiative at New America. In 2020, these projects secured more than $200 million in benefits for close to 100,000 people across at least 36 states, and helped millions more through policy change, training, and guidance.
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Reddit Is America’s Unofficial Unemployment Hotline
Reddit's unemployment forums have become vital support networks during the pandemic, offering advice, emotional support, and a sense of community to those navigating job loss and financial hardship.
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Recommendations to Set Path for Reform at the Employment Development Department
In this report, the Strike Team outlines its recommendations and suggested next steps for the EDD to address the backlog and improve on future processing of unemployment claims.
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Project Redesign: Pandemic Unemployment and the Social Safety Net
Applicants for pandemic unemployment benefits faced long wait times, complex processes, and significant administrative burdens.
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Overcoming Barriers: Finding Better Ways to Ask GetCalFresh Applicants About Income
County workers typically spend most of their time trying to get income information right during eligibility interviews. This article provides several recommendations for asking about income, accounting for cognitive biases, under-reporting, and complexities in reporting income.