Benefits Program: UI: Unemployment Insurance
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Human-Centered Design 
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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Policy Analysis 
A Tsunami of Volatility: The Impact of the Design and Implementation of CARES Act Supplemental Unemployment Benefits on Lower-Income Households
While CARES Act benefits themselves have been critical to households, their design and implementation have led to more uncertainty and volatility for lower-income households. This report discusses the financial resilience strategies families used to manage gaps before benefits arrived, in addition to providing recommendations for how benefits can be better designed in the future to fit the financial lives of lower-income households.
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Recommendations to Set Path for Reform at the Employment Development Department
To better serve workers who have experienced job loss during the COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Gavin Newsom announced a strike team charged with creating a blueprint for improvements at the Employment Development Department (EDD). 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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Procurement 
How the Next Administration Can Use Technology To Prevent Another Unemployment Insurance Meltdown
Clearing applicant backlogs is an important solution to the UI crisis. State governments and federal agencies could facilitate access to public benefits by collaborating to develop interoperable technology platforms that use open source software and modular design. Panelists discuss opportunities to prevent future UI crises by reimagining how governments deliver benefits to their citizens.
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Human-Centered Design 
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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Can States Finally Fix Their Unemployment Systems?
Though the economy is rebounding, it is still necessary for states to reform their unemployment systems to provide relief to millions of Americans, as many sectors are still slow to recover.
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Project Redesign: Pandemic Unemployment and the Social Safety Net
The 33 stories in this collection are short, journalistic reports from interviews with living experts about the experiences of Americans trying to apply for unemployment and other benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Policy 
2021 Poverty Projections: Assessing Four American Rescue Plan Policies
This report describes key elements of the American Rescue Plan Act and how it would reduce the projected poverty rate for 2021. Various projections regarding the effects of the policy are described in this report.
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8 Tips for Governments to Mitigate Call Center Volume
Overwhelming unemployment rates during the pandemic created significant demand for state-based unemployment benefits. As a result of the increased applications, states are also experiencing an overwhelming volume of calls to their call centers. U.S. Digital Response has been working with states to mitigate problems arising from heavy demand on call centers. This article describes tangible steps state governments can take to manage call volume.
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How Well Insured are Job Losers? Efficacy of the Public Safety Net
An extensive literature in economics documents large and persistent declines in earnings following involuntary job loss. Though Unemployment Insurance provides the largest buffer against lost income, due to the structure of the program, the neediest are less-well insured (in terms of dollars transferred and percentage of lost earnings replaced) compared to middle and higher income job losers. This has important implications in light of the historic number of job losses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Procurement 
Software Update Required: COVID-19 Exposes Need for Federal Investments in Technology (Virtual Hearing)
House Committee on the Budget virtual hearing regarding the importance of federal investments in technology and software updates during COVID-19.
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Policy 
The Consequences of Decentralization: Inequality in Safety Net Provision in the Post–Welfare Reform Era
Study examining cross-state inequality in social safety net programs due to decentralized social provision. The authors find substantial cross-state inequality in provision, with increased inequality due to the devolution of authority under the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA).