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.
This guide provides practical financing strategies for governments to build, maintain, and expand integrated data systems (IDS) and evaluation capacity using federal and non-federal funding sources.
This report analyzes how proposed state cost-sharing requirements for SNAP would impact benefit access and poverty during a recession, projecting significant risks to low-income households if states are unable to maintain SNAP funding.
This policy brief outlines how extending postpartum Medicaid and CHIP coverage can improve maternal health outcomes, reduce disparities, and strengthen continuity of care during the critical first year after childbirth.
This case study highlights how Illinois is modernizing its student data infrastructure and interagency data sharing to increase access to SNAP and Summer EBT benefits for eligible children and families, particularly those facing systemic barriers.
American Public Human Services Association (APHSA)
Created for use in the Digital Doorways research project, this design stimuli shows the steps of submitting an application, sharing personal information, and verifying identity for Massachusetts' online application for Unemployment Insurance.
This course is designed to help public professionals accelerate the process of finding and implementing urgently-needed evidence-based solutions to public problems.
Alluma is a nonprofit that provides digital solutions to simplify eligibility screening and enrollment for social benefit programs, supporting cross-benefit access in 45 counties and two states. Their One-x-Connection product suite streamlines Medicaid and SNAP applications using a business rules engine, with a focus on human-centered design and anonymous, simplified eligibility checks, having helped screen over 10 million individuals and submitted over 67 million applications.
MITRE’s Joe Ditre and Frank Ruscil demoed the code for the Comprehensive Careers and Supports for Households (C-CASH) at Rules as Code Demo Day. The MITRE team expanded the accessibility of the Policy Rules Database and the Cost-of-Living Database (the prior demo) by creating a web service API and a front-end Window’s application called C-CASH Analytic Tool (CAT). CAT provides a more scalable, flexible, and portable functionality which allows end-users to generate various households to run eligibility scenarios across different U.S. counties and states. They are currently working to create a national data hub and analytics tool, starting with utilizing U.S. Census data and populating the data warehouse by pushing large amounts of data through the PRD.
This guide addresses technical and engineering requirements for a text messaging program, including texting platform options, and procurement and vendor management, among other technical implementation topics.
Code for America partnered with the CBPP, Civilla, and Nava to launch the Integrated Benefits Initiative, testing and piloting human-centered approaches to improve outcomes and learn what an optimal safety net could look like. This article describes key takeaways from short-term pilots implemented as part of this project.
