Think Big, Start Small: How Implementing Flexible Interviews Improves Benefit Delivery
Implementing flexible interview scheduling in Los Angeles County's CalFresh program significantly increased benefit approval rates and reduced processing times, particularly aiding working families, students, and individuals experiencing homelessness.
Los Angeles County’s CalFresh program, which provides food assistance to over a million residents annually, identified that missed interviews were a major barrier to benefit approval, with one in three applications denied for this reason.
To address this, the county partnered with GetCalFresh to pilot a flexible interview process, allowing applicants to call at their convenience rather than adhering to pre-scheduled times. This initiative led to a 3% increase in approval rates and reduced the average time to benefit determination from 19 to 15 days. The improvement was most notable among groups previously facing higher denial rates due to missed interviews, such as working families, students, and individuals experiencing homelessness. The success of this pilot underscores the importance of user-centered design and iterative implementation in public service delivery, demonstrating that even small process changes can have substantial impacts on accessibility and efficiency.
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