Social Insurance Programs

Social insurance programs provide benefits to individuals who have paid into the program, or whose employers have paid into the program on their behalf, often in the form of payroll taxes. The major U.S. social insurance programs are Social Security, Medicare, Unemployment Insurance, Workers’ Compensation, and Disability Insurance.

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Focus & Focus+ 36(3), October 2020
COVID-19 and Poverty

  • Focus on Poverty & Classroom Supplement
  • 2020
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Administrative burdens in the time of Covid-19

  • Pamela Herd and Donald Moynihan
  • Focus on Poverty & Classroom Supplement
  • 2020
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Evictions and Housing Challenges in the COVID-19 Pandemic

  • Lavar Edmonds, April Hartman, and Marah Curtis
  • Webinar
  • 2020
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Measuring How Social Relationships Contribute to the Outcomes of Program Participants

  • Phillip Graham, Megan Smith, Maureen Berner, and Laura Erickson
  • Webinar
  • 2020
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Cutting Child Poverty in Half: Directions for Policymakers

  • Fast Focus Policy Brief
  • 2020
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Lars Højsgaard Andersen on the Consequences of Lowering Welfare Benefits for Migrants and Their Families

  • Lars Højsgaard Andersen
  • Podcasts
  • 2020
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Leslie Hodges on Unemployment Insurance and Material Hardships

  • Leslie Hodges
  • Podcasts
  • 2019
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Understanding benefit cliffs and marginal tax rates

  • Fast Focus Policy Brief
  • 2019
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Declining Returns to Low-Wage Work in Wisconsin

  • Anna Walther
  • Poverty Fact Sheet
  • 2019
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Policy approaches to reducing poverty and deep poverty among children

  • Hilary Hoynes, Robert Moffitt, and Timothy Smeeding
  • Focus on Poverty & Classroom Supplement
  • 2019