Low-Income Working Families

San Mateo County is one of a small number of innovative local jurisdictions that is expanding coverage for uninsured adults and at the same time undertaking a reform of its safety net primary care system. We evaluated the impact of the systems redesign by comparing outcomes for a group of people served at the largest county safety net clinic prior to systems redesign (2006) to those served at the clinic after systems redesign (2009). Use of any preventive care services in a year climbed from 25.9 percent to 33.3 percent. Continuity of care also rose significantly, and emergency room use declined. The county's experience provides an example for other communities to follow as they improve the efficiency of health care services for the most vulnerable members of society.

Children are more likely to succeed if they have a stable home environment, adequate nutrition and the opportunity to get a good education. Unfortunately, nearly 50 years after the march on Washington, opportunity still has a racial dimension, argues Institute fellow Margaret Simms in this commentary for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

An important dimension of AFDC/TANF programs is the disincentives to work recipients face due to the reduction in benefits that comes with an increase in earnings. These disincentives can be represented as average (implicit) tax rates that depend directly on policy variables including the maximum benefit and the disregard policy in states. To help those interested in better understanding these implicit tax rates, we have provided a dataset of relevant summary variables including the maximum benefit, the effective tax rate on the first $500 of earnings (in 2010 dollars), the effective tax rate on a part-time full-month minimum wage job, and how these measures vary across families of different sizes for each state in each year from 1996 to 2010. The dataset and accompanying tables were derived from the Urban Institute's Welfare Rules Database, and are available as a PDF file (with documentation/discussion) or as an Excel file and Stata dataset.

This paper examines the unprecedented funding problem of state unemployment insurance (UI) programs. The majority of UI programs (36 of 53) have borrowed, securing record loan amounts to maintain unemployment insurance benefit payments during 2009-2011. It identifies the causes of the funding problem, discusses borrowing options for states and describes policy responses at both the state and federal levels. State actions have included both tax increases and benefit reductions. Federal policy proposals have addressed the low UI taxable wage base in most states and have offered partial debt forgiveness in return for state actions to improve solvency. To date, policy actions have been slow at both the state and federal levels of government.

Based on our review and synthesis of the individual development account (IDA) literature, findings in this report include that IDA accounts (in the short-term, five years after program entry) help low-income families become homeowners, start or expand a business, or pursue secondary education. Studies to date have found no relationship between IDA program participation and net worth. The report reviews empirical evidence on the effect of IDA program participation and project design features on outcomes and highlights remaining gaps in the literature.