This report documents best practices and lessons learned from project streamlined data sharing between SNAP and WIC, enhancing cross-enrollment processes
American Public Human Services Association (APHSA)
This guidebook aims to equip state and local agencies with the practical insights they need to develop a text messaging outreach program for SNAP recertification.
The goal of the brief is to encourage policy makers and employers to consider benefits cliffs as they look to create mandatory wage increases, with a look at a legislative action in NYC.
The New Jersey Department of Human Services and New Jersey Department of Health collaborated in their Coordinating SNAP & Nutrition Supports project to enhance the enrollment and coordination of SNAP and WIC programs.
American Public Human Services Association (APHSA)
The first half of Rules as Code Demo Day was wrapped up with Thomas Guillet who has contributed to Open Fisca France and beta.gouv. He demoed the code for Mes Aides—or My Benefits—which is France’s social benefit simulator that leverages open source rule models for over 600 benefits while keeping the displayed complexity to its minimum.
The article discusses how state agencies can effectively use text messaging to communicate with Medicaid and SNAP enrollees, especially following a 2021 FCC ruling that permits automated texts for informational purposes.
This primer introduces two foundational software types that can support organizations that are committed to accessible benefits information: content management systems (CMS) and application program interfaces (APIs).
The Increasing Stimulus Payment Take-up in California report by the California Policy Lab examines barriers to accessing federal stimulus payments and provides strategies to increase take-up among eligible Californians, particularly low-income and non-filers.
We wrapped up Rules as Code Demo Day with Max Ghenis and Nikhil Woodruff, the founders of PolicyEngine. The PolicyEngine web app computes the impact of tax and benefit policy in the US and the UK. With PolicyEngine, anyone can freely calculate their taxes and benefits under current law and customizable policy reforms, and also estimate the society-wide impacts of those reforms. Policymakers and think tanks from across the political spectrum can analyze actual policy. PolicyEngine is built atop the open source OpenFisca US and UK microsimulation models and they are building an open unified data set utilizing data from the Policy Rules Database, Current Population Survey, Survey of Consumer Finances, Consumer Expenditures, tax records, and IRS Public Use File.
At Rules as Code Demo Day Seth Hartig from the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) and Bank Street College demoed the Policy Rules Database (PRD), a collaborative effort between the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and the NCCP. The primary purpose of the PRD is to simplify the interpretation of all programs by creating a common structure and a common terminology. The repository allows for research on public assistance programs and tax policies, and helps users model benefits cliffs on career pathways. The PRD is supported by a technical manual with pseudocode that helps guide integration and usage in other platforms.
This Urban Institute report explores the impact of benefit cliffs, plateaus, and trade-offs on families receiving public assistance, examining how changes in earnings affect access to essential benefits like SNAP, Medicaid, and housing subsidies.
APHSA's President and CEO reflects on lessons and opportunities the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted and constructs a national narrative around the moment.
American Public Human Services Association (APHSA)
