Our existing maze of family tax benefits — including the CTC, Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC), and head of household (HoH) filing status — has several structural deficiencies that make overhauling the system a prerequisite for any effort to boost support for families with children. The report offers several options for expanding and streamlining family tax benefits to address these issues.
A policy brief outlining concrete actions states can take to regulate tenant screening practices and reduce harm from inaccurate reports, automated scoring, and discriminatory impacts in the rental housing market.
This policy brief offers recommendations to policymakers relating to the computational and human sides of facial recognition technologies based on a May 2020 workshop with leading computer scientists, legal scholars, and representatives from industry, government, and civil society
This policy brief explores how federal privacy laws like the Privacy Act of 1974 limit demographic data collection, undermining government efforts to conduct equity assessments and address algorithmic bias.
Government agencies at all levels collect administrative data in the course of their day-to-day operations. While such information has been used to determine effectiveness through program evaluations for many years, program administrators view it increasingly as a valuable resource that can also be used to improve program performance. For example, administrative data from employment and public benefits programs such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) can offer insights into families’ unmet needs and ways to improve services.
This overview introduces direct cash transfers (DCTs) in the United States, outlining their history, major programs, and findings from contemporary guaranteed income demonstrations that show how cash supports improve family stability, health, and economic mobility
While most states provide basic digital accessibility, this review warns that persistent gaps in language services and disability accommodations create significant barriers for enrollees as pandemic-era Medicaid protections expire.
As a part of Benefit Data Trust (BDT)’s Medicaid Churn Learning Collaborative, BDT has created a memo describing strategies for states to collect current mailing addresses of Medicaid beneficiaries in advance of the Medicaid continuous coverage requirement — in effect under the federal public health emergency — unwinding.
In this brief, APHSA outlines its commitment to addressing the causes of structural inequities by first illuminating structural root causes of race inequity within the context of human services. The brief outlines approaches to doing the intentional and systematic work that is required to counteract the structural barriers human services systems have fostered.
American Public Human Services Association (APHSA)
This issue brief illustrates the challenges that many older adults with low income face in gaining access to benefits online. It addresses digital literacy, access to broadband internet, and the increasing prevalence of connecting online to SNAP.
