The IRS is arguably the single most critical benefits administrator in the country, given its responsibility for tax credit-based relief programs, and COVID-19 relief payments. Despite these programs’ incredible progress in reducing poverty, and despite great strides by the IRS to implement them successfully, accessing IRS benefits remains too difficult for many low-income families. This report presents a comprehensive agenda to increase benefit coverage rates, simplify Americans’ interactions with the IRS, and decrease the portion of IRS benefits diverted to third parties.
New America’s New Practice Lab is directing research with the aim to increase the money in the pockets of low-income families by enhancing service delivery in federal programs that help families. To address this challenge in one specific state, the New Practice Lab partnered with the New York Department of Taxation and Finance (NYSDTF) team to understand the factors that present challenges to the administration of the EITC. The team highlights recommendations and learnings from its research in this article.
An interview with Wendy De La Rosa, assistant professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. De La Rosa discusses how the concept of “psychological ownership” can encourage people to take up benefits they are eligible for.
GetYourRefund.org is an online portal by Code for America that helps low-income individuals claim thousands of dollars in tax credits, even after the traditional tax deadline has passed.
ACCESS NYC is an online public screening tool that residents can use to determine the City, State, and Federal health and human service benefit programs for which they are eligible.
The complexity of eligibility rules creates a burden for state and local government agencies, delivery organizations, and policymakers who interpret and implement policy to deliver benefits in their jurisdictions. This report explores how the U.S. federal government could improve the efficiency and equity of benefits delivery to Americans in need by applying new approaches to eligibility requirements for core safety net programs, and using a “rules as code” approach to improve digitization of legislation and policy documents.
The NYC Benefits Screening API provides machine-readable calculations and criteria for benefits screening that power the ACCESS NYC screening questionnaire.
Data-sharing across public benefits programs can help enroll low-income people into other benefits for which they qualify. This guide helps local policymakers and program officials identify opportunities under federal law to streamline the application and enrollment process.
Data provided by the NYC Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity regarding benefit, program, and resource information for over 80 health and human services available to NYC residents in all eleven local law languages.
This landscape analysis examines data, design, technology, and innovation-enabled approaches that make it easier for eligible people to enroll in, and receive, federally-funded social safety net benefits, with a focus on the earliest adaptations during the COVID-19 pandemic.
