Maintaining Benefits

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.

Semicolon Design Group, New Jersey Office of Innovation, New Jersey Department of Labor

Unemployment Insurance Email Template Kit v1.0

This kit contains a collection of styles, components, and building blocks to quickly create action-forward emails for Unemployment Insurance programs within the U.S. An email library of 50+ examples are also provided for you to get started. Customize with your state logo and colors that are already in the file. Report of project is included.

Guardrails: Automated SNAP Recertification Assistance

GuardRails is an experimental new approach to streamline the annual SNAP recertification process by leveraging targeted text messaging and automated voice messages in multiple languages to “nudge” people at the right time with the right information to help them through the recertification process.

A Playbook for Improving Unemployment Insurance Delivery

A playbook by New America describing lessons learned from past recessions, recent pandemic-inspired innovations, and complementary benefit spaces like SNAP and WIC.

New America

Time to Get It Right: State Actions Now Can Preserve Medicaid Coverage When Public Health Emergency Ends

Millions of people could lose health coverage when the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) ends, but states can make changes to avoid massive coverage losses.

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University

Integrating Renewals and Correspondence

This resource highlights strategies for integrating benefits renewals and correspondence, potentially reducing administrative burdens for both clients and caseworkers.

Simple Changes Can Make a Big Difference for Clients Accessing Government Benefits

Our work with Pennsylvania to implement user experience and user interface changes shows that innovation can be easier to implement than it might seem.

Proof Points for Human-Centered Benefits Administration

Code for America’s Integrated Benefits Initiative has been working in partnership with the State of Colorado to demonstrate how user-centered approaches lead to measurably better delivery of safety net programs. This article describes their work with the state of Colorado in simplifying how clients report common life changes that can affect their eligibility.

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

Medicaid and CHIP Eligibility Renewals: A Communications Toolkit

This toolkit has important information to help inform people with Medicaid or CHIP about steps to take to renew their coverage or find other health care options.

New America, National Conference on Citizenship

Project Redesign: Pandemic Unemployment and the Social Safety Net

The 33 stories in this collection are short, journalistic reports from interviews with living experts about the experiences of Americans trying to apply for unemployment and other benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic.

RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences

“I Used to Get WIC . . . But Then I Stopped”: How WIC Participants Perceive the Value and Burdens of Maintaining Benefits

This study examines how individuals assess administrative burdens and how these views change over time within the context of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).

The Center for Law and Social Policy

Advocacy in the Dark: A Pennsylvania Case Study on Advocating to Improve Technology that Drives Eligibility Decisions

Technology that automates different processes can save time for caseworkers and constituents, but it can also significantly reduce the transparency of government operations. This paper describes how Pennsylvania advocates addressed the low rate of automated Medicaid renewals.

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.

The Atlantic

Stanford Basic Income Lab

Basic Income and Local Government; A Guide to Municipal Pilots

This guide consolidates learning and spotlights principles, insights, and emerging practices to guide municipal leaders and public-private partnerships interested in designing basic income programs that are ethical, equitable, rigorous, informative, and consequential for local, state and national policymaking.

Data Sharing to Build Effective and Efficient Benefits Systems: A Playbook for State and Local Agencies

This playbook is designed to help government and other key sectors use data sharing to illuminate who is not accessing benefits, connect under-enrolled populations to vital assistance, and make the benefits system more efficient for agencies and participants alike. It is a step-by-step guide to conducting smooth and efficient data sharing projects that are permissible and secure.

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University, Benefits Data Trust

Text to Connect: Strategy + Content for Using Text Message Outreach to Reduce SNAP Churn

This guide is the fourth in a series designed to help SNAP administrators implement a text messaging program to reduce SNAP churn. Focused on strategy and content, this guide offers recommendations and best practices for crafting messages, engaging clients, and obtaining consent.

Strategies for Improving Public Benefits Access and Retention

This report presents a menu of strategies that have the potential to increase access to individual public benefit programs or a package of benefits. It focuses on Illinois, but the strategies identified are relevant throughout the country.

Urban Institute

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University, Benefits Data Trust

Text to Connect: Data Collection Considerations for Using Text Message Outreach to Reduce SNAP Churn

This guide is the fifth part of a series designed to help SNAP administrators implement a text messaging program to reduce SNAP churn. This guide is intended to help data engineers and analysts build the data pipeline and manage, analyze, and synthesize data needed for a text messaging program.

Code for America and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Building Human-Centered Benefits Renewal Processes with Client Equity in Mind

Lessons from piloting expanded ex parte renewals in Minnesota

Nudging Benefits Access in the Right Direction

Article describing partnership between NYC Department of Social Services, Benefits Data Trust, and the Robin Hood foundation to send targeted text messages to SNAP recipients to encourage them to successfully compete the annual recertification process required to stay in the program.

States Can Use Text Messaging to Communicate Effectively With Medicaid and SNAP Enrollees

In the vast majority of states where Medicaid, SNAP, and other economic security and health programs are administered at the state level, agencies can and should send text messages to their clients to help eligible people connect to and stay enrolled in these programs.

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.

New America

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University, Benefits Data Trust

Text to Connect: Legal + Policy Considerations for Using Text Message Outreach to Reduce SNAP Churn

This guide is the third part of a series designed to help SNAP administrators implement a text messaging program to reduce SNAP churn. This guide is intended to provide a general overview of the national statutory and regulatory landscape governing the legality of sending large volumes of text messages and sharing client information.

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University

Making Integrated Benefits Easy to Access Online and on Mobile Phones

This resource describes how different agencies have updated their systems to increase online and mobile access to benefits information and applications, including using text messages to share benefits information with residents. These approaches enable residents to more effectively access benefits information, and can meet resident needs across a range of accessibility requirements.

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.

Urban Institute

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, The Center for Law and Social Policy

States Can Reduce Medicaid’s Administrative Burdens to Advance Health and Racial Equity

This report outlines strategies to reduce administrative burdens and expand Medicaid participation and advance racial and health equity. The report also offers historical context on Medicaid eligibility.

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.

Cell Phones as a Safety Net Lifeline

Eligible people struggle to maintain their case status for critical safety net services, often due to administrative hurdles and poor communication. Code for America piloted text message reminders to support Louisianans, which helped clients avoid costly churn. Text messages are an underrated, efficient solution for human service agencies to meet client expectations and improve case outcomes.

Using SNAP Data for Medicaid Renewals Can Keep Eligible Beneficiaries Enrolled

Medicaid enrollees must renew their eligibility every 12 months, resulting in extensive “churn,” whereby eligible people continuously cycle on and off of Medicaid instead of remaining continuously enrolled. States can use detailed SNAP income data to reduce churn and thus reduce the burden on beneficiaries and agencies.

Texting Playbook: Recommendations and Tips for Texting Clients of Safety Net Services

The Texting Playbook provides guidance and well-researched strategies to help state agencies implement texting in support of Medicaid, SNAP, WIC, and other benefits programs. It provides an overview of how to start texting clients; the types of messages to send, including real examples; Federal Communications Commision (FCC) policy guidance; how to encourage opt-ins and collect consent; how to avoid coming across as spam; and a cost analysis of texting.

Food and Nutrition Service

SNAP State Options Report

SNAP statutes and regulations provide the state SNAP agency with certain options to tailor SNAP according to their respective operational considerations and policy preferences. This report summarizes 19 SNAP policy options (in effect as of Oct. 1, 2023) and waivers (implemented as of July 1, 2023) chosen by SNAP state agencies (50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, and Virgin Islands) in federal fiscal year (FY) 2023.

Helping States and Families Prepare for the End of the Pandemic Emergency Declaration

When the COVID-19 public heath emergency declaration ends, so will the expansion of many key safety net programs, causing millions to lose critical assistance nationwide. This article describes some of the steps the Benefits Data Trust is taking to help states transition and allow families to rectify and access benefits they are eligible for.

Assessing Your WIC Certification Practices

This toolkit provides questions for agencies to consider, examples, and suggested resources for exploring ways to make certification easier for families and WIC staff.

How Louisiana Rapidly Scaled Pilot Solutions to Combat COVID-19

In response to exploding demand for social services during COVID-19, the Louisiana Department of children and Family services implemented text-message alerts and reminders for the state’s entire SNAP caseload, launched a text-based public campaign to help people understand and apply for SNAP benefits, and hired SNAP recipients to provide client feedback on communications and policy decisions.

Lessons Churned: Measuring the Impact of Churn in Health and Human Services Programs on Participants and State and Local Agencies

Paper presenting preliminary lessons learned about SNAP churn derived from states participating in the Work Support Strategies project. It defines churn and outlines its consequences, explores approaches to measuring churns and looks at possible approaches to reduce churn.

An Early Look at the Impacts of the Response to COVID-19 on Medicaid Churn

Given that the effects of the COVID-19 crisis will likely last for a while, it is crucial that states continue to prioritize coverage continuity to further improve the overall health outcomes of their enrollees and reduce administrative burden.

The Missed Opportunity in Online Benefits Applications: Mobile First

The ubiquity of mobile devices makes it imperative to build “mobile first” services, i.e. services built with the expectation that they will primarily be accessed on mobile devices. This article also outlines important considerations and suggestions for implementing mobile-first user interfaces.

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.

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University, Benefits Data Trust

Text to Connect: Evaluation of your Text Messaging Program to Reduce SNAP Churn

This guide is the second in a series designed to help SNAP administrators implement a text messaging program to reduce SNAP churn. This guide focuses on designing an evaluation plan to assess the impact of a text messaging program.

Civilla, Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University

Going Big with Human-Centered Redesign

Redesigning benefits applications, renewals, and correspondence using human-centered design is one of the most impactful things state and local government agencies can do to ensure that all eligible residents can access social safety net resources. This guide includes practical insights for benefits administrators considering a comprehensive redesign of benefits delivery processes.

Medicaid Churn Toolkit

Benefits Data Trust (BDT)  has developed this “Medicaid Churn Toolkit” to guide Medicaid agencies and their partners in the design and implementation of efforts to reduce churn as they plan for the resumption of normal eligibility and enrollment actions after the after the initial COVID shock.

Administrative Burden: Policymaking By Other Means

This book is an in-depth exploration of federal programs and controversial legislation demonstrating that administrative burden has long existed in policy design, preventing citizens from accessing fundamental rights. Further discussion of how policymakers can minimize administrative burden to reduce inequality, boost civic engagement, and build an efficient state.

Russell Sage Foundation

Impact Charitable and Home Grown

Benefits Protection Toolkit

This benefits protection toolkit is a step-by-step guide to develop and integrate a benefits protection strategy into your Direct Cash Transfer (DCT) program design. This toolkit includes a set of customizable templates, letters, and other tools which should be downloaded and modified for your pilot and local context.

The Cash Assistance Implementation Playbook

The purpose of this document is to outline possible technical approaches to supporting a cash assistance program. The report aims to both capture individual approaches as well as overarching insights taken from across the approaches taken by different organizations.

New America

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University, Benefits Data Trust

Text to Connect: Engineering + Technology Requirements for Using Text Message Outreach to Reduce SNAP Churn

This guide is the sixth and final part of a series designed to help SNAP administrators implement a text messaging program to reduce SNAP churn. This guide addresses technical and engineering requirements for a text messaging program, including texting platform options, and procurement and vendor management, among other technical implementation topics.

U.S. Digital Service (USDS) Medicaid Renewals Playbook

This playbook was created by the U.S. Digital Service as a rapid-response guide for civic technologists providing direct technical assistance to states during the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE) Unwinding. The content in this playbook focuses on strategies to rapidly decrease the burden of Medicaid renewals on members of the public and state staff.

U.S. Digital Service

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University

Increasing Security and Equity in Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT)

There has been exponential growth in benefits theft by criminals who are “cloning and skimming” EBT cards, leaving thousands of families with drained accounts and limited recourse in getting back their benefits. In this webinar, a panel of experts discuss what states can do right now to improve EBT security, how to use data to analyze theft patterns, and how EBT payment technology needs to evolve to ensure efficiency, security, and dignity for beneficiaries.

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.

Improving Users’ Experience With Online SNAP and Medicaid Systems

State and county agencies have made remarkable progress digitizing their forms and processes. But to take full advantage of online systems, agencies must also ensure that people can easily set up and sign into online accounts. This would not only benefit clients, but also significantly reduce the workload for caseworkers and administrators, allowing them to focus on clients that need more intensive in-person assistance.

U.S. Digital Service, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

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.

What We Measure Matters: Enhanced Performance Metrics for SNAP and Medicaid Would Promote a More Human-Centered Delivery System

This post from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities argues that the traditional measures of program performance say little about the human experience of accessing benefits, and argues for enhanced performance metrics to support more human-centered delivery.

Heldrich Center for Workforce Development, Rutgers University

New Jersey’s Worker-centered Approach to Improving the Administration of Unemployment Insurance

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.

Using Client-Centered Communications to Improve the Benefits Renewal Process

Understanding the impact of churn and how agencies can better use communication channels to help clients keep their benefits.

Federal Communications Commission

DA 23-62: FCC Declaratory Ruling on Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 for Medicaid

Ruling from the FCC granting the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to confirm that federal and state governmental agencies working in conjunction with local governments, governmental contractors, and managed care entities acting under contract with state governments may, under certain circumstances, make autodialed and prerecorded or artificial voice calls or send autodialed text messages to raise awareness of the eligibility and enrollment requirements for these governmental health care programs without violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).

Effective Strategies to Collect Address Changes from Medicaid Beneficiaries via State Websites

As a part of Benefit Data Trust (BDT)’s Medicaid Churn Learning Collaborative, BDT has created a memo describing strategies for states to collect current mailing addresses of Medicaid beneficiaries in advance of the Medicaid continuous coverage requirement — in effect under the federal public health emergency — unwinding.

Medicaid Strategies Making a Difference: A Spotlight on Rhode Island

Sharing lessons learned via the Medicaid Churn Learning Collaborative, which is working to reduce Medicaid churn, improve renewal processes for administrators, and protect health insurance coverage for children and families.

United States Digital Service

Cutting Red Tape for Americans Renewing Their Health Coverage

After the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE) ended, the Facing a Financial Shock team at the U.S. Digital Service (USDS) partnered with the Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services (CMCS) and state Medicaid agencies to improve eligibility and enrollment systems. By mobilizing a small strike team of implementers to analyze the software and processes that are used to complete health coverage renewals, USDS helped CMCS and state teams tackle major challenges.

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University, Benefits Data Trust

Text to Connect: Planning a Text Message Program to Reduce SNAP Churn

This guide is the first part of a series designed to help SNAP administrators implement a text messaging program to reduce SNAP churn. This guide outlines how to scope and plan a text messaging program.

Technology Transformation Services (TTS), Public Benefits Studio, General Services Administration

Collaborate with the TTS Public Benefits Studio

The Technology Transformation Service at GSA recently created a new Public Benefits Studio to focus on fostering a more cohesive, coordinated experience for the public, across programs. To do this, their team is seeking to collaborate with benefits agencies to develop shared technology tools and best practices that can be used by multiple benefits programs simultaneously. As a first initiative, the Studio exploring opportunities to close the gap in adoption of plain-language, multi-channel notifications, including using text messaging.

Ex Parte Options and Recommendations for the non-MAGI Medicaid Population to Reduce Churn

As a part of Benefit Data Trust (BDT)’s Medicaid Churn Learning Collaborative, BDT has created a memo describing policy options and state examples for Medicaid administrators to reduce churn for non-MAGI Medicaid enrollees when the federal public health emergency ends.

Nava Public Benefit Corporation

Helping people access government services through Login.gov

This case study describes how Nava is working with the General Services Administration, Fearless, and the U.S. Postal Service to design, build, and deliver a new in-person identity verification service to nearly 20,000 USPS locations

Social Service Review, The University of Chicago

“It’s Like Night and Day”: How Bureaucratic Encounters Vary across WIC, SNAP, and Medicaid

Using 83 interviews with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and Medicaid beneficiaries, and 35 interviews with staff from those programs, this paper examines how people differentiate their experiences across programs.

Unemployment insurance modernization: Examples from states and territories in their unemployment insurance modernization journeys

The U.S. Department of Labor is working with states, territories, and the public to develop strategies to continuously improve the nation’s unemployment insurance (UI) systems. All of the work shown on this site to date came from the Claimant Experience Pilot engagement between U.S. Department of Labor, the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development and the Arkansas Division of Workforce Services funded through ARPA.

U.S. Department of Labor

National Safety Net Scorecard

The existing system for evaluating state safety net programs does not adequately capture the human experience of accessing services. This new National Safety Net Scorecard is a more meaningful set of metrics that can effectively asses the true state of the current program delivery landscape and measure progress over time, creating a more human-centered safety net.

Sprint 3 Report | Michigan Unemployment | Improving communication and messaging for unemployment insurance in Michigan

This project documents the work of Civilla and New America to improve the delivery of unemployment benefits for claimants in Michigan. This project is one phase of a larger body of work led by New America to improve the claimant and staff experience with unemployment insurance across the country.

Civilla, New America