This introductory guide explains the core concepts of digital identity and how they apply to public benefits programs. This guide is the first part of a suite of voluntary resources from the BalanceID Project: Enabling Secure Access and Managing Risk in SNAP and Medicaid.
This report offers best practices for public agencies implementing digital identity verification, emphasizing privacy, equity, and security in the delivery of government services.
This article advises government agencies to prioritize cybersecurity methods over AI-driven approaches when combating identity fraud in benefits programs, highlighting potential risks that automated systems pose to legitimate applicants.
The Digital Benefit Network's Digital Identity Community of Practice held a session to hear considerations from civil rights technologists and human-centered design practitioners on ways to ensure program security while simultaneously promoting equity, enabling accessibility, and minimizing bias.
This panel discussion from the Academy's 2025 Policy Summit explores the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and public benefits, examining how technological advancements are influencing policy decisions and the delivery of social services.
A panel of experts discuss the application of civil rights protections to emerging AI technologies, highlighting potential harms, the need for inclusive teams, and the importance of avoiding technology-centric solutions to social problems.
BenCon 2024 explored state and federal AI governance, highlighting the rapid increase in AI-related legislation and executive orders. Panelists emphasized the importance of experimentation, learning, and collaboration between government levels, teams, agencies, and external partners.
The Center for Democracy and Technology's brief clarifies misconceptions about artificial intelligence (AI) in government services, emphasizing the need for precise definitions, awareness of AI's limitations, recognition of inherent biases, and acknowledgment of the significant resources required for effective implementation.
This post argues that for the types of large-scale, organized fraud attacks that many state benefits systems saw during the pandemic, solutions grounded in cybersecurity methods may be far more effective than creating or adopting automated systems.
This report analyzes lawsuits that have been filed within the past 10 years arising from the use of algorithm-driven systems to assess people’s eligibility for, or the distribution of, public benefits. It identifies key insights from the various cases into what went wrong and analyzes the legal arguments that plaintiffs have used to challenge those systems in court.
Digital identity verification offers several potential advantages over traditional verification, but these benefits can only be achieved if issues related to privacy and ethical data use are also addressed. This guidance surveys the challenges facing government agencies who want to digitally verify identities as part of improving service delivery, and provides recommendations about how to address those challenges.
