The Digital Benefits Network at the Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University and Public Policy Lab co-hosted a webinar presenting breaking research on beneficiary experiences with digital identity processes in public benefits.
These fact sheets provide detailed, state-specific data illustrating SNAP's role in reducing hunger and bolstering local economies across the United States
This publication shares ten ways states can improve start-to-finish customer experience for unemployment insurance claimants. These approaches can increase overall equitable access and system integrity for UI administration.
This scoring matrix from the California Employment Development Department (EDD) shows how the agency evaluated vendor proposals for a new identity proofing approach, based on vendors' ability to serve different user personas.
State of California Employment Development Department (EDD)
This paper describes the policy choices, business practices, and technology innovations that the State of New Jersey is employing to ensure that the right people get benefits — accurately and on time.
This webpage from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) provides guidance on improving mobile usability for Unemployment Insurance (UI) systems to enhance customer experience and accessibility.
This proposal recommends a set of new federal performance standards that would measure and improve UI access. The proposal is intended to supplement existing federal UI standards, but all UI standards and metrics should be periodically reevaluated and updated as the conditions facing unemployed workers and benefit delivery change.
Oklahoma Human Services (OKDHS) modernized their service delivery by reducing their real estate footprint, designing trauma-informed and user-friendly spaces, and expanding an embedded worker program to improve accessibility and client experience. Through their "Service First" strategy, OKDHS aims to create more equitable and compassionate interactions, reaching vulnerable populations while addressing high occupancy costs.
The Sprint 2 Report: Michigan UI Claimant Experience by Civilla and New America examines challenges in Michigan’s unemployment insurance (UI) system and provides human-centered design recommendations to improve accessibility, clarity, and user experience.
We kicked off Rules as Code Demo Day with Alex Soble of 18F and Mike Gintz of 10x presenting their Eligibility APIs Initiative that explores whether APIs and rules as code might improve the efficiency and effectiveness with which federal public benefits programs communicate their policy to states. They demonstrated their original prototype, and how the open source code has now been extended into several initiatives.
The experience of the COVID-19 pandemic and its induced recession underscored the crucial importance of unemployment insurance (UI) to workers, and to the stability of the American economy. Temporary federal expansions of unemployment systems during the pandemic showed how they can quickly be scaled to increase benefit levels and to include categories of workers who were not previously eligible, such as the self-employed, caregivers, and low-wage workers. And, states showed that separate programs can be set up to provide similar benefits to workers who are explicitly excluded from unemployment insurance—in particular immigrants who do not have a documented immigration status.
