This blog discusses how the “Big Beautiful Bill” (H.R. 1) contains provisions that undermine SNAP and warns that states will be burdened by its fiscal and administrative impact.
Demand for public benefits is rising in response to continued economic pressure on vulnerable people, in addition to changes in eligibility rules for some safety net programs. This report summarizes existing benefits access efforts, studies the successes and challenges of benefits expansion efforts through a subset of in-depth case studies, and analyzes the potential for sustaining, expanding, and replicating successful efforts.
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE)
Disparities in Economic Impact Payment (EIP) receipt during the COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately affected low-income households, communities of color, and individuals without tax filing histories.
Accessing safety net benefits can involve complicated and duplicative processes that create barriers to access. Using cross-enrollment strategies can minimize the difficulties community members face in getting access to life-saving resources.
beta.gouv.fr, a French government incubator, developed Mes Aides, an online benefits simulator launched in 2014 to help residents assess their eligibility for various social programs, addressing the issue of unclaimed benefits. The tool, built with open-source technology, enabled users to quickly estimate their potential benefits but was later integrated into a broader platform in 2020 following internal government disputes over authority.
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.
While millions of workers have gained access to PFML, the lack of uniformity in mandatory PFML programs created a growing patchwork of state laws, differing on nearly 30 policy components across four key areas: substantive benefits, financing, eligibility, and administrative requirements.
The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Data Collaborative Pilot Initiative is a component of the TANF Data Innovation project. The 30-month pilot offered technical assistance and training to support cross-disciplinary teams of staff at eight state and county TANF programs in the routine use of TANF and other administrative data to inform policy and practice.
The team introduced an AI assistant for benefits navigators to streamline the process and improve outcomes by quickly assessing client eligibility for benefits programs.
This report explains how states can continue to voluntarily implement key Medicaid and CHIP eligibility and enrollment improvements—originally required by two federal rules—despite a ten-year moratorium enacted in July 2025 that blocks their mandatory enforcement
The team explored using LLMs to interpret the Program Operations Manual System (POMS) into plain language logic models and flowcharts as educational resources for SSI and SSDI eligibility, benchmarking LLMs in RAG methods for reliability in answering queries and providing useful instructions to users.
