Unemployment applicants across the country are experiencing technical issues as they try to file applications, and these difficulties are exacerbated by the old architecture that state governments use to maintain their websites.
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.
A primer by New America for government entities thinking about embracing open-source solutions. This report is based on interviews with experts in the field, the organization’s work on piloting open source projects with partners around the world, and a review of nearly 50 reports, documents, and resources on the creation and usage of open source software.
Technology that automates different processes can save time for caseworkers and constituents, but it can also significantly reduce the transparency of government operations. This paper describes how Pennsylvania advocates addressed the low rate of automated Medicaid renewals.
Professor Don Moynihan discusses how administrative burden is an effective tool to make it difficult for people to access certain types of benefits, noting that this is particularly harmful to communities of color.
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.
Business Insider rounded up 35 states that struggled with giving out unemployment benefits during the pandemic. Issues included backlogs, delayed payments, payments sent to fraudsters, and poor communication between the agency and laid-off workers. In alphabetical order by state, they provide a roundup of many states' struggles to give unemployment benefits to jobless Americans.Â
This article analyzes the strategic use of public policy as a tool for reshaping public opinion. Though progressive revisionists in the 1990s argued that reforming welfare could produce a public more willing to invest in anti-poverty efforts, welfare reform in the 1990s did little to shift public opinion. This study investigates the general conditions under which mass feedback effects should be viewed as more or less likely.
Technologists are crucial to help governments, social service providers, and advocacy groups use technology to confront and address the challenges and inequities that inevitably arise from technological change. However, there are not enough technologists working or interested in joining public interest fields to meet growing demand. This report identifies opportunities to build the field of public interest technology, and ways that philanthropy and other stakeholders can invest to best support such efforts.
Report by the Aspen Institute discussing Benefits21, a multi-stakeholder, multi-faceted initiative to integrate and modernize benefits systems. This paper provides an overview of Benefits21, along with a discussion of the shortcomings of current public and private benefit systems.
New America spoke to to the people at the frontlines of the pandemic—professional caregivers, family caregivers, parents, and essential workers—to understand the policy interventions people need most. This report discusses ideas for policymakers, private sector leaders, and community innovators to use in pursuit of work-family justice and equity across race, gender, and class.
Outdated, cumbersome and inefficient government processes have long stymied innovation and prevented people from accessing social services for which they are eligible. BenePhilly has helped more than 110,000 Philadelphians, both in and out the workforce, enroll in assistance programs and has unlocked over $350 million in benefits.
