Benefits Journey: Applying + Enrolling
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Vermont: Piloting A Document Uploader For Benefit Eligibility
Nava built flexible and reusable software and design components to make it easier for Vermonters to access their benefits. These components support Vermont’s long-term vision of integrating eligibility and enrollment processes for all of the state’s healthcare and financial benefit programs.
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Improvements in Public Programs’ Customer Service Experiences Could Better Meet Enrollees’ Needs and Help Build Trust in Government
This resource examines how improvements in customer service experiences in public benefit programs like Medicaid, CHIP, and TANF can help better meet enrollees’ needs and build trust in government.
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“It’s Like Night and Day”: How Bureaucratic Encounters Vary across WIC, SNAP, and Medicaid
This study examines how bureaucratic interactions differ among public assistance programs—WIC, SNAP, and Medicaid—highlighting variations in participant experiences and the psychological costs associated with each.
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Analysis: Digital Authentication and Identity Proofing Requirements in Unemployment Insurance Applications
In February 2023, the Digital Benefits Network at the Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation released a dataset documenting authentication and identity verification requirements that unemployment insurance (UI) applicants encounter across the United States. This resource outlines high-level observations from the data and more information about the research process.
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Increasing Stimulus Payment Take-up in California: Results from a Phone and Email Campaign
The Increasing Stimulus Payment Take-up in California report by the California Policy Lab examines barriers to accessing federal stimulus payments and provides strategies to increase take-up among eligible Californians, particularly low-income and non-filers.
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Data Sharing to Build Effective and Efficient Benefits Systems: A Playbook for State and Local Agencies
This playbook is designed to help government and other key sectors use data sharing to illuminate who is not accessing benefits, connect under-enrolled populations to vital assistance, and make the benefits system more efficient for agencies and participants alike.
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Basic Income and Local Government: A Guide to Municipal Pilots
This guide consolidates learning and spotlights principles, insights, and emerging practices to guide municipal leaders and public-private partnerships interested in designing basic income programs that are ethical, equitable, rigorous, informative, and consequential for local, state and national policymaking.
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Maximizing the impact of direct cash transfers to young people: A policy toolkit
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.
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Project Snapshot: Alluma: One-x-Connection
Alluma is a nonprofit that provides digital solutions to simplify eligibility screening and enrollment for social benefit programs, supporting cross-benefit access in 45 counties and two states. Their One-x-Connection product suite streamlines Medicaid and SNAP applications using a business rules engine, with a focus on human-centered design and anonymous, simplified eligibility checks, having helped screen over 10 million individuals and submitted over 67 million applications.
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Texting Playbook: Recommendations and Tips for Texting Clients of Safety Net Services
The Texting Playbook provides guidance and well-researched strategies to help state agencies implement texting in support of Medicaid, SNAP, WIC, and other benefits programs. It provides an overview of how to start texting clients; the types of messages to send, including real examples; Federal Communications Commision (FCC) policy guidance; how to encourage opt-ins and collect consent; how to avoid coming across as spam; and a cost analysis of texting.
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Bloom Housing: Affordable housing portal
A modern system that helps people learn about, apply for, and gain access to affordable housing. Bloom Housing is an open source platform that digitizes the process of finding and applying for affordable housing, turning a time-consuming paper process into a 15 minute activity from one's smartphone or computer.
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The Average Food Stamp Application is 17 Pages Long
The Average Food Stamp Application is 17 Pages Long article by mRelief highlights the extensive length and complexity of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) applications, which can deter eligible individuals from applying for benefits.