This article discusses how Code for America enhanced the CalFresh application process to better assist self-employed individuals in accessing their full benefits by clarifying self-employment definitions and simplifying income verification.
This Urban Institute article argues that poverty is driven by structural barriers rather than individual choices and advocates for safety net programs that address systemic inequities.
In 2024, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and Digital Benefits Network led a workshop to explore key terms related to digital identity, and provide ecosystem-level context on how authentication and identity proofing may show up in the online benefits experience and impact clients. This resource links to the presentation slides.
The Atlanta Fed’s CLIFF tools provide greater transparency to workers about potential public assistance losses when their earnings increase. We find three broad themes in organization-level implementation of the CLIFF tools: identifying the tar- get population of users; integrating the tool into existing operations; and integrating the tool into coaching sessions.
This report examines how state governments organize and manage human services programs, analyzing various agency structures and their impact on service delivery and coordination with the health care sector.
This award documentation from the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) explains how agencies in Ohio used automation to support administration of public benefits programs.
National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO)
Comprehensive and sustained improvement in benefits access and customer experience requires changes across policy, operations, technology, staffing, procurement, and more. This guide offers a collection of actions and best practices for states to apply.
This report examines how the U.S. federal government can enhance the efficiency and equity of benefit delivery by simplifying eligibility rules and using a Rules as Code approach for digital systems.
This report contributes to the quantitative measurement of psychological burdens by examining a case study of a single social program: the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, by considering new quantitative measures of the psychological burdens faced by SNAP applicants.
This guide highlights approachable ideas for state and local public benefits agencies to improve applications, renewals, and correspondence. As outlined in this resource, even small improvements can be transformative for residents and caseworkers alike.
This paper describes results from fieldwork conducted at a social services site where the workers evaluate citizens' applications for food and medical assistance submitted via an e-government system. These results suggest value tensions that result - not from different stakeholders with different values - but from differences among how stakeholders enact the same shared value in practice.
CHI '14: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
