Service Delivery Area: Benefits
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ACCESS NYC
ACCESS NYC is an online public screening tool that residents can use to determine the City, State, and Federal health and human service benefit programs for which they are eligible.
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Human-Centered Design Safety Net Services Built for Outcomes
Code for America helped expand GetCalFresh (a service that guides Californians through the SNAP application process and helps government deliver food assistance to people in need) from a small pilot into a statewide service. They also recently concluded a similar pilot in Michigan along with Civilla and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
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Digital Identity Federal Agencies Need to Strengthen Online Identity Verification Processes
Remote identify proofing is the process federal agencies and other entities use to verify that the individuals who apply online for benefits and services are who they claim to be. If the applicant responds correctly to personal questions, their identity is considered to be verified. However, data stolen in recent breaches could be used fraudulently to respond to knowledge-based verification questions. Alternative methods are available that provide stronger security, but these methods may have limitations in cost, convenience, technological maturity, and they may not be viable for all segments of the public.
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Policy Analysis COVID-19’s Impact on the Social Safety Net
California’s SNAP program faced record application volume due to the COVID-19 crisis, and other states must anticipate similar demand. This post summarizes key takeaways from GetCalFresh’s real-time data and client communications, and offers recommendations for how other states can implement effective responses.
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Human-Centered Design Mapping the Applicant Experience of Benefit Enrollment
Applicants to federal aid programs face numerous barriers in accessing benefits they are eligible for. The Centers for Medicaid and Medicare conducted an extensive qualitative user research study to better understand applicant experience in enrolling in public assistance programs. Based on the results, the study emphasizes the need for simplified, streamlined and less burdensome application processes.
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Human-Centered Design SNAP Eligibility Calculator
Unofficial calculator allowing users to find out whether they are eligible for food stamps and estimates the amount of benefits they can receive.
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CARES Act Stimulus Payments Have Reached 160 Million Households — But Could Reach Millions More
Though the CARES Act provided much-needed relief to millions of Americans, around 5-10 million of the most vulnerable American households have not yet received their full payment. This report lays out a set of technical fixes regarding the delivery of the first stimulus payments, a set of fixes to address other critical tax credits, and several medium-term reforms to increase earned income tax credit (EITC) access for low-income families.
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Human-Centered Design 18F Methods: Journey Mapping
18F describes journey mapping: a visualization of the major interactions shaping a user’s experience of a product or service. This allows design teams to view a service through the perspective of the user and incorporate their learnings throughout the development process.
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Procurement Federal Field Guide
Few large government software projects are successful, as current ecosystems in place at agencies do not support agile development practices. This guide provides instructions to federal agencies on how to effectively budget for, procure, and oversee software development projects.
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Digitizing Policy + Rules as Code Rules as Code – Test, Learn, Repeat
The New South Wales government describes its efforts to connect with other Australian jurisdictions and international colleagues in its move towards making machine-consumable legislation and policy.
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Human-Centered Design Conducting Research with a Healing Mindset
Code for America highlights the importance of recognizing the effects of intergenerational trauma on communities that have been systemically marginalized when conducting research.
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Access for All: Innovation for Equitable SNAP Delivery
This brief describes the current state of SNAP benefit delivery through the electronic benefits transfer (EBT) card, identifies the features necessary for SNAP benefit delivery to ensure consistency with principles of equity and inclusion, and explores how future SNAP benefit delivery can keep up with rapid changes in commercial payment infrastructure.