Innovators inside and outside of government are working to improve access to the social safety net using data, technology, and design. This report highlights innovations carried out by The Rockefeller Foundation’s Data and Technology grantees from 2018 to 2021, including extraordinary efforts to meet the challenges of the pandemic. Those grantees are: Benefits Data Trust, Code for America, Georgetown University’s Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation, U.S. Digital Response, and the Digital Innovation and Governance Initiative at New America. In 2020, these projects secured more than $200 million in benefits for close to 100,000 people across at least 36 states, and helped millions more through policy change, training, and guidance.
This case study highlights how states used data sharing and targeted outreach to boost WIC enrollment among Medicaid and SNAP participants, improving program reach and reducing disparities.
A brief report on our quantitative research about messages that increase people's take-up of government benefits by making them feel like those benefits belong to them.
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.
To assist states in closing digital skill gaps and preparing for digital equity planning, this brief offers key questions and resources for state leaders to consider.
This report explores technologies that have the potential to significantly affect employment and job quality in the public sector, the factors that drive choices about which technologies are adopted and how they are implemented, how technology will change the experience of public sector work, and what kinds of interventions can protect against potential downsides of technology use in the public sector. The report categories technologies into five overlapping categories including manual task automation, process automation, automated decision-making systems, integrated data systems, and electronic monitoring.
Benefits Data Trust (BDT), in collaboration with the Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS), conducted a nationwide analysis of how states coordinate across Medicaid and SNAP programs to streamline access to benefits.
This report explains how the A-87 Exception enabled states to modernize and integrate health and human services systems, improving service delivery, efficiency, and data sharing across programs.
American Public Human Services Association (APHSA)
