Benefits Data Trust (BDT) is a nonprofit that connects people to public benefits through a streamlined, phone-based application system called Benefits Launch, which reduces redundant questions and speeds up the process for multiple programs. BDT's approach, supported by a custom-built rules engine, has facilitated over 800,000 benefit enrollments, helping secure over $9 billion for eligible households across seven states.
PolicyEngine is a nonprofit that provides a free, open-source web app enabling users in the US and UK to estimate taxes and benefits at the household level, while also simulating the effects of policy changes. By combining tax and benefits data, PolicyEngine helps individuals and policymakers better understand the impacts of existing policies and proposed reforms, using microsimulation models built from legislation and enhanced survey data.
The Community-Driven Policies and Practices project engaged people experiencing poverty in power-building sessions to develop advocacy plans for economic justice. This report offers recommendations for nonprofits to engage people with lived experience of poverty in advocacy.
My File NYC is a document storage and sharing website that provides New York City residents a safe place to store and share vital documents when applying for City services.
This Urban Institute report examines how public investments in children's health, education, and welfare yield significant short- and long-term benefits for both individuals and society.
Errors in administrative processes are costly and burdensome for clients but are understudied. Using U.S. Unemployment Insurance data, this study finds that while automation improves accuracy in simpler programs, it can increase errors in more complex ones.
This OPRE brief provides strategies for enhancing cultural responsiveness in social service agencies, focusing on improving services for diverse communities through organizational change, staff development, and culturally informed program design.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
This paper discusses the country’s chronic underinvestment in children and resulting outcomes, including new data on poverty rates among young children, is inextricable from the prospects of young children; and the remarkably comprehensive pandemic-era response policies, including which changes contributed most to reducing child poverty.
This Urban Institute report highlights how immigrant and mixed-status families continued to avoid safety net programs in 2023 due to lingering fears around the public charge rule.
Through its work with USDS, California identified key strategies and quick implementation steps to automate federal unwinding waivers that would net the largest impact for Medi-Cal redeterminations.
California Health and Human Services Agency (Cal HHS)
The team explored the performance of various AI chatbots and LLMs in supporting the adoption of Rules as Code for SNAP and Medicaid policies using policy data from Georgia and Oklahoma.
The team aimed to automate applying rules efficiently by creating computable policies, recognizing the need for AI tools to convert legacy policy content into automated business rules using Decision Model Notation (DMN) for effective processing and monitoring.
