Location: United States
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Toolkit for Helping States Implement People-Centered Pandemic EBT
With the extension and expansion of P-EBT during COVID and the Food and Nutrition Service releasing new guidance, states have an opportunity to effectively deliver essential resources to children and families. Code for America built this toolkit of resources to share recommendations and promising practices around the implementation of P-EBT and to support state agencies and partners tasked with the development of P-EBT programs.
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The New Practice Lab’s Racial Equity Framework
New America’s New Practice Lab discusses insights into racial inequities within the Unemployment Insurance System, and provides recommendations its framework for rectifying inequality in policies and programs moving forward.
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The IRS as a Benefits Administrator
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.
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The Government Is Helping People Pay Rent, But Something’s Gone Wrong
This report describes the rent relief challenges during the pandemic, as well as a few possible fixes to help the next round of aid distribution.
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The Government has a Rare Chance to Modernize its Outdated Tech Systems. They Can’t Afford to Waste it.
Part of the $1.9 trillion recovery package that Biden signed into law includes a $1 billion grant to the Technology Modernization Fund. The fund’s purpose is to help federal agencies upgrade their cybersecurity and modernize their technology. The TMF is a chance for federal agencies to move toward a responsive model of government, where people quickly and easily access the resources they need.
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Technology, Accessibility, and the Child Tax Credit
Code for America's GetCTC portal simplifies access to the Child Tax Credit for low-income families by providing a mobile-friendly, bilingual platform for streamlined tax filing.
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Researching Inequities in a Public Benefits Program with a Racial Equity Framework, 7 Takeaways
This article examines how applying a Racial Equity Framework reveals systemic inequities in the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) program, offering insights into barriers faced by marginalized communities and potential solutions.
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Removing Barriers: Public Benefits and Voter Registration
The GetCalFresh team, the California Department of Social Services, and the California Secretary of State’s office worked together to create a simplified, accessible voter registration experience with clients. When people come to GetCalFresh.org, they are looking to apply for food assistance, so the state of California did not want voter registration to become an obstacle to the goal of getting food assistance. Thus, rather than directing clients to anther website, they offered to text clients a link to the CA Secretary of State’s voter website with directions on how to register.
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Rapidly Building Unemployment Services During the Pandemic
Nava partnered with California's Employment Development Department (EDD) to rapidly develop two cloud-based digital services, enhancing unemployment benefit access during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Proof Points for Human-Centered Benefits Administration
Code for America’s Integrated Benefits Initiative has been working in partnership with the State of Colorado to demonstrate how user-centered approaches lead to measurably better delivery of safety net programs. This article describes their work with the state of Colorado in simplifying how clients report common life changes that can affect their eligibility.
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People Lead the Way: How GetCalFresh has adapted qualitative research during a public health crisis
This article describes how Code for America conducted qualitative research within its GetCalFresh application by asking families to tell them about their familial, housing, and financial situations. From client messages, they gathered information regarding how to make changes to their product to keep their work people-centered.
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Pandemic EBT Policy + Delivery Memo
Policy memo by Code for America regarding how to deliver P-EBT benefits during the COVID-19 crisis.