Many low-income households lack the savings to weather financial shocks like layoffs, and SNAP plays a crucial role in helping them manage essential expenses during difficult times.
While millions of workers have gained access to PFML, the lack of uniformity in mandatory PFML programs created a growing patchwork of state laws, differing on nearly 30 policy components across four key areas: substantive benefits, financing, eligibility, and administrative requirements.
The Othering & Belonging Institute offers insight into research processes. The article is a part of the Institute's Transformative Research Toolkit, which focuses on centering lived experiences, valuing diverse ways of knowing, and influencing narratives and policies.
In this policy brief and video, Michele Gilman summarizes evidence-based recommendations for better structuring public participation processes for AI, and underscores the urgency of enacting them.
The Sprint 2 Report: Michigan UI Claimant Experience by Civilla and New America examines challenges in Michigan’s unemployment insurance (UI) system and provides human-centered design recommendations to improve accessibility, clarity, and user experience.
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.
This guide highlights approachable ideas for state and local public benefits agencies to improve applications, renewals, and correspondence. As outlined in this resource, even small improvements can be transformative for residents and caseworkers alike.
DSN Spotlights are short-form project profiles that feature exciting work happening across our network of digital government practitioners. Spotlights celebrate our members’ stories, lift up actionable takeaways for other practitioners, and put the examples we host in the Digital Government Hub in context.
