A New America report examines the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, highlighting its role in aiding low-income tax filers and offering recommendations to enhance public benefit access through improved tax filing assistance.
In response to the COVID-19 crisis, the federal government authorized a new emergency program, Pandemic EBT (P-EBT), to replace school meals with money for groceries while schools are closed. Code for America describes its efforts to launch an accessible, online P-EBT application under an accelerated timeline due to to immense demand caused by the pandemic.
This report puts forth an anti-racist reimagining of Medicaid and CHIP that actively reckons with the racist history of the Medicaid program and offers principles and recommendations that capitalize on the transformative potential of the programs. The principles center the voices and agency of program participants and prioritize direct community involvement at all stages of the policy process.
This Urban Institute report identifies strategies to improve young people’s access to public benefits through targeted outreach, benefit navigation, cross-organizational partnerships, and streamlined eligibility processes.
CMS has identified a number of immediate and longer-term strategies that states can implement to improve application processing timeframes and address application backlogs.
This report shares the results of our comprehensive content audit and heuristic evaluation of eligibility pre-screeners, including ratings on security, mobile-friendly design, accessibility, and more.
Chapin Hall collaborated with national policy experts, practitioners, and young adults with lived experience of homelessness to create a policy toolkit where tax, public benefits, and educational aid implications for young people participating in Direct Cash Transfer (DCT) programs are laid out in one place.
Hennepin County, Minnesota, implemented an online application system for child care assistance, resulting in increased applications, faster benefit distribution, and reduced administrative burdens.
The "Implementing Paid Family and Medical Leave" report examines New Jersey's experience with paid leave programs, offering insights and recommendations for effective policy design and implementation.
Created for use in the Digital Doorways research project, this design stimuli shows the steps of submitting an application, sharing personal information, and verifying identity for Massachusetts' online application for Medicaid.
This report discusses the financial resilience strategies families used to manage gaps before benefits arrived, in addition to providing recommendations for how benefits can be better designed in the future to fit the financial lives of lower-income households.
