The Administration for Children and Families’ Office of Family Assistance (OFA) worked with 18F to replace its legacy data reporting system through product management training, user research, and an assisted acquisition.
Complex benefits information creates unnecessary barriers for people trying to understand what’s relevant to them so that they can take immediate action to receive the benefits they need. As part of the Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation’s series on documenting best practices in social safety net benefits access and delivery, this guide to Accessible Benefits Information offers case studies that show how groups in Michigan, New York City, and San José use plain language, multilingual translation, co-creation and testing with residents, and technology tools to provide better information about benefits.
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.
Article describing the “time tax,” the costs to people applying or benefits in terms of spending substantial amounts of time navigating user-unfriendly interfaces. The article describes the necessity of simplifying safety-net programs and cross-coordinating across various social service programs.
Eligible people struggle to maintain their case status for critical safety net services, often due to administrative hurdles and poor communication. Code for America piloted text message reminders to support Louisianans, which helped clients avoid costly churn. Text messages are an underrated, efficient solution for human service agencies to meet client expectations and improve case outcomes.
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).
The NYC Benefits Screening API provides machine-readable calculations and criteria for benefits screening that power the ACCESS NYC screening questionnaire.
Study examining cross-state inequality in social safety net programs due to decentralized social provision. The authors find substantial cross-state inequality in provision, with increased inequality due to the devolution of authority under the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA).
As part of its ongoing commitment to streamline access to benefits by Californians in need of assistance, the California Department of Social Services is exploring electronic options to help simplify and modernize the processes for obtaining required verifications for CalFresh and CalWORKs eligibility. This report lays out a set of options and opportunities for consideration, as well as a list of key verification considerations that would benefit both clients and staff.
