Dana Chisnell describes work leading a team of researchers to interview people from across the US on their experiences applying for unemployment and other benefits during the pandemic.
County workers typically spend most of their time trying to get income information right during eligibility interviews. This article provides several recommendations for asking about income, accounting for cognitive biases, under-reporting, and complexities in reporting income.
Black and Latina mothers have faced intensified material hardship during the pandemic due to institutional racism and sexism. LIFT describes the lessons it learned through working with parents to improve their personal well-being, increase their social connections, and strengthen them financially through coaching and direct financial assistance.
It is hypothesized that if information about the existing screening mechanisms is highlighted and made salient, this will lead to greater approval of eligibility-based programs. The results of this study demonstrate the ways in which in which information regarding administrative burden can shape citizens’ support for eligibility-based programs.
Professor Don Moynihan discusses how administrative burden is an effective tool to make it difficult for people to access certain types of benefits, noting that this is particularly harmful to communities of color.
In a time of crisis, behavioral science offers insights into how to reduce the paperwork and other administrative burdens that prevent people from taking advantage of crucial support services.
Californians who receive food assistance come from all backgrounds, but many share a similar story: they were barely getting by financially when they were tipped into crisis by an unexpected expense or loss of income. This site shares their stories.
A guide to navigating New York City’s public services. It was made with and for families of students living in temporary housing or experiencing homelessness and the NYC Department of Education’s Office of Students in Temporary Housing (STH).
Code for America helped expand GetCalFresh (a service that guides Californians through the SNAP application process and helps government deliver food assistance to people in need) from a small pilot into a statewide service. They also recently concluded a similar pilot in Michigan along with Civilla and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
About 12 million Americans risk missing out on stimulus payments provided through the CARES Act. State outreach efforts are critical to connect people to the $1,200 stimulus payments, and the CBPP lists various resources to assist in state outreach efforts on this webpage.
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)
Easy Localization System Access (ELSA) is an Open Source continuous translation and localization system that ensures all content is automatically and continuously kept up to date in the 11 languages most commonly spoken by New Yorkers, using a combination of Neural Machine Translation (NMT) and human Localization vendors.
NYC Mayor's Office of the Chief Technology Officer
