The exclusion of agricultural and domestic workers—predominantly African Americans—from the 1935 Social Security Act's unemployment insurance program is analyzed as a result of international policy diffusion rather than solely domestic racial politics.
A case study on how North Carolina leveraged human-centered design, interagency collaboration, and data-sharing strategies to improve cross-enrollment in SNAP, WIC, and Medicaid, aiming to reduce administrative burden and better serve families.
American Public Human Services Association (APHSA)
This resource examines how improvements in customer service experiences in public benefit programs like Medicaid, CHIP, and TANF can help better meet enrollees’ needs and build trust in government.
This brief examines how state Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs adapted policies during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic to address emerging challenges.
The report reviews the scope and methods of SNAP benefit theft—including card skimming, cloning, phishing, and algorithmic attacks—and examines the effectiveness of state and federal countermeasures.
This panel discussion from the Academy's 2025 Policy Summit explores the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and public benefits, examining how technological advancements are influencing policy decisions and the delivery of social services.
This guide outlines how states can use TANF funds to provide direct cash assistance to families, particularly through flexible mechanisms like nonrecurrent short-term benefits (NRSTs).
Errors in administrative processes are costly and burdensome for clients but are understudied. Using U.S. Unemployment Insurance data, this study finds that while automation improves accuracy in simpler programs, it can increase errors in more complex ones.
This brief highlights key takeaways from APHSA’s work on young families, starting with an overview of the young families work and its early years, followed by key takeaways and highlights from its final year, ending with opportunities for future work in the young families space.
American Public Human Services Association (APHSA)
This report recommends updating the methodology used by the Census Bureau to calculate the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) to reflect household basic needs and replace the current Official Poverty Measure as the primary statistical measure of poverty. The report assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the SPM and provides recommendations for updating its methodology and expanding its use in recognition of the needs of most American families such as medical care, childcare, and housing costs.
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
There were over 25 million Medicaid disenrollments in 2023, but national enrollment remained significantly above pre-pandemic levels at over 56 million, with notable state-level variations and near-recovery of child enrollment.
The Improving Service Delivery in EITC for New Yorkers initiative explores ways to enhance access to the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) through improved outreach, application processes, and service delivery.
