Supplemental Security Income

Work Support Strategies (WSS) is a multiyear, multi-state initiative to implement reforms that help eligible low-income families get and keep a full package of work support benefits, including Medicaid, nutrition assistance (SNAP), and child care assistance. This report describes Oregon's accomplishments and lessons learned during the initiative's first year. During the planning year, the state continued its numerous activities to streamline benefit eligibility for health programs, align policies across health and other work support programs, and prepare for an automated integrated eligibility system. The major focus of the WSS team was on change management in local field offices.

This report to the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC) was prepared to support MACPAC’s March 2012 Report to the Congress on Medicaid and CHIP. The report presents national findings on access to care for children with Medicaid or CHIP using measures from two national household surveys—the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and the Household Component of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS). These estimates give a national picture of how access to care for children enrolled in Medicaid/CHIP compares to that of children with ESI and uninsured children, building on prior reports and analyses.

This report to the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MAPCAC) was prepared to support MACPAC’s June 2012 Report to the Congress on Medicaid and CHIP. The report presents national findings on access to care for non-elderly Medicaid adults using measures from two national household surveys—the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and the Household Component of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS). These estimates give a national picture of how access to care for non-elderly adults enrolled in Medicaid compares to that of adults with ESI and uninsured adults, building on prior reports and analyses.

Most TANF recipients have at least one barrier to work, and many have multiple barriers. The likelihood of work declines as the number of barriers increases. This brief summarizes the strategies that states use to help TANF recipients with barriers to employment. It reviews the limited research evidence on the short- and long-term effects of employment-focused and treatment-focused interventions. It draws implications for policy, including recommendations for more effective screening and assessment, faster resolution of applications for disability benefits and the need for case management and broad support services.

The Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) provides child care assistance to almost a million low-income working families. Research suggests that some subsidy policies and practices can create unintended barriers to getting and keeping subsidies, which has led to greater interest in policies that make it easier for clients to access and retain child care benefits. To inform this interest, this brief examines research from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid/SCHIP on the effectiveness of "client-friendly" policies (policies designed to ease benefit access and retention) and explores the implications both for CCDF policy and future research.

Unemployed workers participate in various temporary assistance programs. They are also more likely to apply for Disability Insurance (DI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI), growing programs with large costs. Temporary benefits can both increase and decrease probabilities of re-employment and application for DI/SSI. When controlling for selection bias, we find evidence that increased access to unemployment benefits reduces applications for DI, while increased access to food benefits increases applications for SSI. These results suggest that applications for DI/SSI are sensitive to participation in temporary assistance programs, and that increased access to unemployment is less costly than it may appear.

This report describes the work the Urban Institute performed to generate the Model of Income in the Near Term, Version 6 (MINT6). MINT is a tool developed for the Social Security Administration (SSA) to analyze the distributional consequences of Social Security reform proposals. MINT is a micro-level data file of individuals born between 1926 and 2075. It starts with a rich set of income and demographic characteristics from the 2001 and 2004 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) data linked to SSA data on earnings and benefits. MINT then projects these characteristics until death or the year 2099.

This paper analyses the economic well-being of low-income single mothers who "disconnected" – that is neither working nor receiving public assistance benefits (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program (TANF) or disability benefits). We find that the percentage of disconnected single mothers increased over time. These mothers are extremely poor and are more likely to have challenges that make work more difficult than other single mothers. In addition, many mothers remain in this situation for a year or more. Some are helped by living with other family members or cohabiting and through receipt of public food and housing benefits.