Service Delivery Area: Benefits
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Human-Centered Design What More States Allowing SNAP Recipients to Buy Food Online Means for Food Security
In early 2019, the USDA launched an online purchasing pilot for SNAP users, making it possible for recipients to order food online. Expansion of this program is necessary during COVID-19, as to prevent people from venturing out of their homes to pay for groceries and compounding the public health crisis.
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Human-Centered Design Why Californians need food assistance: The stories behind the numbers
Californians who receive food assistance come from all backgrounds, but many share a similar story: they were barely getting by financially when they were tipped into crisis by an unexpected expense or loss of income. This site shares their stories.
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Human-Centered Design UX research during crisis: understanding rapidly evolving user needs to inform responsive design
Important considerations for understanding user needs to inform responsive design in rapidly changing contexts are discussed, including how context, threat perception, decision-making, and crisis affects disaster management and UX research.
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Human-Centered Design The Time Tax: Why is so much American bureaucracy left to average citizens?
Article describing the “time tax,” the costs to people applying or benefits in terms of spending substantial amounts of time navigating user-unfriendly interfaces. The article describes the necessity of simplifying safety-net programs and cross-coordinating across various social service programs.
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Advocate’s Guide to MAGI
The National Health Law Program released an updated Guide to Modified Adjusted Gross Income, including sections on ACA tax filing and reporting, clarification on commonly asked questions about Social Security Income, and updated IRS tax filing thresholds.
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Digitizing Policy + Rules as Code Rapid Implementation of Policy as Code
Policy changes are often dynamic and occur quickly, but they can only create impact once implemented. The Eligibility APIs Initiative at 18F shares an example from their work that shows the potential for rapid, accurate policy implementation as code.
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Communications Promoting Public Benefits Access Through Web-Based Tools and Outreach: A National Scan of Efforts. Volume I: Background, Efforts in Brief, and Related Initiatives
Demand for public benefits is rising in response to continued economic pressure on vulnerable people, in addition to changes in eligibility rules for some safety net programs. This report summarizes existing benefits access efforts, studies the successes and challenges of benefits expansion efforts through a subset of in-depth case studies, and analyzes the potential for sustaining, expanding, and replicating successful efforts.
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Human-Centered Design Designing for Connection: 5 Key Principles for IES Solutions That Put People First
Alluma outlines five key principles for a people-first approach to eligibility and enrollment systems.
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States Are Using Much-Needed Temporary Flexibility in SNAP to Respond to COVID-19 Challenges
Since March 2020, states have been using temporary SNAP (food stamps) flexibility to provide emergency benefit supplements, and ease program administration during the pandemic. These options have allowed states to deliver more food assistance to struggling families, help manage intense administrative demands, and ensure that participants maintain much-needed benefits.
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Unpacking Inequities in Unemployment Insurance
The New Practice Lab interviewed Black and Latinx workers that lost their job or income due to COVID-19 and their experience navigating UI. They synthesized their findings in this report, discussing how compounding inequities that exist in the unemployment insurance system make it less accessible for workers of color.
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Diversity, Equity + Inclusion After all these years, ‘welfare reform’ is the same racist dog whistle it always was
“Welfare reform” is often racially-coded, as it is used as a dog-whistle to propagate hostility towards poor people of color.
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Digitizing Policy + Rules as Code Exploring a new way to make eligibility rules easier to implement
Programs like Medicaid and SNAP are managed at the federal level, administered at the state level, and often executed at the local level. Because there are so many in-betweens, there is significant duplicated effort, demonstrating the need to simplify eligibility rules to facilitate easier implementation.