This introductory guide explains the core concepts of digital identity and how they apply to public benefits programs. This guide is the first part of a suite of voluntary resources from the BalanceID Project: Enabling Secure Access and Managing Risk in SNAP and Medicaid.
Federal guidelines for digital identity services, outlining technical and procedural requirements for identity proofing, authentication, and federation.
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
Created for use in the Digital Doorways research project, this design stimuli shows the steps of submitting an application, sharing personal information, and verifying identity for Massachusetts' online application for Medicaid.
The US General Services Administration announces that it is seeking a limited number of state and local government partners to take advantage of login.gov to administer their federally funded programs.
The California Employment Development Department (CA EDD) launched the EDDNext initiative to modernize benefit delivery, focusing on user-centric procurement for a new identity verification system.
Created for use in the Digital Doorways research project, this design stimuli shows the steps of submitting an application, sharing personal information, and verifying identity for Massachusetts' online application for Unemployment Insurance.
These guidelines provide technical requirements for federal agencies implementing digital identity services and are not intended to constrain the development or use of standards outside of this purpose. This guideline focuses on the enrollment and verification of an identity for use in digital authentication.
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
In this webinar, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Digital Benefits Network explored key terms related to digital identity, and provided ecosystem-level context on how authentication and identity proofing may show up in the online benefits experience and impact clients.
In December 2024, the Digital Benefits Network released an updated open dataset on authentication and identity proofing requirements across various public benefits applications to highlight best practices and areas for improvement in identity management.
Created for use in the Digital Doorways research project, this design stimuli shows the steps of submitting an application, sharing personal information, and verifying identity for New York's online application for Medicaid.
The vast fraud committed through the use of stolen and synthetic identities in UI programs has spotlighted the need for updated identity fraud detection mechanisms. As states are implementing new technologies and systems, they need to consider the ways in which they are impacting racial inequities in UI benefits.
