Featured Reports

Using Tax Refunds to Increase Savings and Retirement Security

Allowing households to split their refunds could make saving simpler and, thus, more likely. Since federal income tax refunds total nearly $230 billion a year (more than twice the estimated annual aggregate amount of net personal saving in the United States), even a modest increase in the proportion of refunds saved every year could bring about a significant increase in savings.

This policy brief explores the important potential of refund splitting to expand savings and discusses the obstacles and practical steps needed to make the splitting of tax refunds a reality.

U.S. Public Opinion on Uses of Genetic Information and Genetic Discrimination

While Americans are generally very supportive of the use of genetic information to improve their own health and the health of their families, 92 percent are wary that this same information could be used in ways that harm them, according to a public opinion survey by the Genetics and Public Policy Center conducted in late February and early March of 2007.

Too Slow

A multistate outbreak of Salmonella Heidelberg infections linked to ground turkey in 2011 sickened 136 people, causing 37 hospitalizations and one death. The Pew Charitable Trusts' analysis of the outbreak found numerous inadequacies in the foodborne illness surveillance system that, if addressed, could help to prevent illnesses and, in some cases, deaths.

Time for Reform: Investing In Prevention

Approximately 3.6 million children were reported to child protection authorities as possible victims of abuse and neglect in 2005. Unfortunately, few data exist about services provided to these children, but it is estimated only 2.5 percent of these children receive any kind of preventive services. We do know that, of the 899,000 confirmed cases of maltreatment, our child welfare system provides services or supports to approximately 60 percent of the children.

Time for Reform

Many significant improvements have been made to the foster care system over the years, and across the country, case workers and court officials have worked to facilitate better outcomes for children in the government’s care. Yet the number of foster youth aging out of care keeps rising. In 2006, the latest year for which data are available, 26,181 youth aged out of care, a 119 percent increase since 1998. On average, youth who aged out of foster care in 2006 spent five years in the system, compared with less than two years for children who left through reunification, adoption, guardianship or other means.

The Student Debt Dilemma

When student loans are the only way to pay for college, who decides how much debt a degree is worth? This paper explores how debt aversion and conflicting views about the role of student loans affect young people, their families, and those who advise them.

The Potential Effects of Retirement Security Project Proposals on Private and National Saving

This paper from The Retirement Security Project provides rough, ballpark calculations of how several recent proposals could affect private and national saving. The proposals, aimed at improving retirement security for middle- and low-income households, include automatic 401(k)s, automatic IRAs, an expanded and permanent Saver's Credit, split refund capability, and asset test reforms. With the current net national saving rate at about 2.5 percent of GDP, these proposals have the potential to raise net national saving by almost a quarter.

The Book 'Aging Gracefully: Ideas to Improve Retirement Security in America' (Spring 2007 Trust Magazine briefing)

A proposes legislative and administrative changes that would make saving for retirement easier for middle- and lower-income households, while at the same time offering practical savings ideas for workers. Aging Gracefully: Ideas to Improve Retirement Security in America was published by the Century Foundation Press and written by William G. Gale, J. Mark Iwry and Peter R. Orszag, Brookings Institution scholars who are principals of the Pew-supported Retirement Security Project, a partnership of Brookings and Georgetown University’s Public Policy Institute.