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Human-Centered, Machine-Assisted: Ethically Deploying AI to Improve the Client Experience

In this interview, Code for America staff members share how client success, data science, and qualitative research teams work together to consider the responsible deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) in responding to clients who seek assistance with three products.

Code for America
Non-Academic Article

Starting Small with Human-Centered Redesign: Approachable Ideas for State and Local Public Benefits Agencies to Improve Applications, Renewals, and Correspondence

This guide highlights approachable ideas for state and local public benefits agencies to improve applications, renewals, and correspondence. As outlined in this resource, even small improvements can be transformative for residents and caseworkers alike.

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

Study to Identify Methods to Assess Equity: Report to the President

Study by the Director of the Office of Management and Budget assessing methods for determining whether agency policies and actions create or exacerbate barriers to full and equal participation by eligible individuals. This study followed the Executive Order on racial equity.

Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget
Government Documents

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.

Benefits Data Trust
Toolkit

Rules as code: Seven levels of digitisation

This report, written for practitioners, classifies “digital transformation” of legal rules into a hierarchy of levels to help establish common terms.

Singapore Management University
Report

Unemployment Insurance Equitable Access Toolkit

The Unemployment Insurance Equitable Access Toolkit contains common equity recommendations, promising practices, and insights, represented visually as a different floor of an agency office building, compiled in one interactive document.

U.S. Department of Labor
Toolkit

Regulating Biometrics: Taking Stock of a Rapidly Changing Landscape

This post reflects on and excerpts from AI Now's 2020 report on biometrics regulation.

AI Now Institute
Non-Academic Article

Why defining your product is an essential question in government digital services

One of the most important questions in government digital services is "what is our product?". Teams that can identify their products are more likely to prioritize improvements in the best interest of the underlying service. And as a result of their work, Veterans, their family members, seniors, Medicare patients, and others have more successful and efficient interactions with the critical government services they need.

Ad Hoc
Non-Academic Article

Digital Welfare States and Human Rights

In this report, the UN Special Rapporteur critically examines uses of digital technologies for administration of welfare programs across international contexts, and makes recommendations for using technology responsibly and ethically.

United Nations
Report

Healing Policy Papercuts: Aligning small conflicts in application requirements makes public benefits easier to access

Integrating eligibility and enrollment benefits is an increasingly important undertaking for state governments around the country. However, states already in the process of integrating benefits are encountering an issue: differing and contradictory submission requirements dictated by the federal agencies running these benefits programs. Aligning these fragmented requirements is necessary to build a truly human-centered process for state benefits programs.

Nava Public Benefit Corporation
Non-Academic Article

Combatting Identify Fraud in Government Benefits Programs

This post argues that for the types of large-scale, organized fraud attacks that many state benefits systems saw during the pandemic, solutions grounded in cybersecurity methods may be far more effective than creating or adopting automated systems.

Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT)
Non-Academic Article

2021 Poverty Projections: Assessing Four American Rescue Plan Policies

This report describes key elements of the American Rescue Plan Act and how it would reduce the projected poverty rate for 2021. Various projections regarding the effects of the policy are described in this report.

Urban Institute
Report

Rules as Code Demo Day | Demo 8: PolicyEngine | Max Gehnis and Nikhil Woodruff

We wrapped up Rules as Code Demo Day with Max Ghenis and Nikhil Woodruff, the founders of PolicyEngine. The PolicyEngine web app computes the impact of tax and benefit policy in the US and the UK. With PolicyEngine, anyone can freely calculate their taxes and benefits under current law and customizable policy reforms, and also estimate the society-wide impacts of those reforms. Policymakers and think tanks from across the political spectrum can analyze actual policy. PolicyEngine is built atop the open source OpenFisca US and UK microsimulation models and they are building an open unified data set utilizing data from the Policy Rules Database, Current Population Survey, Survey of Consumer Finances, Consumer Expenditures, tax records, and IRS Public Use File.

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University
Video

The Average Food Stamp Application is 17 Pages Long

In June 2021, we analyzed the paper (PDF) version of the SNAP (food stamps) application for all 53 participating states and territories. We found that the average paper application was 17 pages long, including all informational pages. Considering that some paper applications included additional programs, we also analyzed which of those pages included questions about SNAP. On average, the paper applications included SNAP content on 9 pages.

Graphic

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.

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Report

Calling all stakeholders: Group-level assessment (GLA)—A qualitative and participatory method for large groups

Group-level assessment (GLA) is a qualitative and participatory large group method in which timely and valid data are collaboratively generated and interactively evaluated with relevant stakeholders leading to the development of participant-driven data and relevant action plans. This article describes the methodological development and process of conducting a GLA and its various applications across the evaluation spectrum.

Evaluation Review
Academic Article

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
Book

2022 Benefits Scorecard

Framework by the Aspen Institute to assess how both public and private benefits are performing to support workers’ financial security needs, identify where innovations are needed to fill current benefit gaps, and explore opportunities to improve and modernize design and delivery. This resource allows policymakers, employers, benefits providers, and researchers assess benefits performance for constituents and identify opportunities in market and policy innovation to ensure equitable benefits distribution.

Aspen Institute Financial Security Program
Toolkit

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
Non-Academic Article

Administrative Burden: Policymaking by Other Means: Professor Don Moynihan

Professor Don Moynihan discusses how administrative burden is an effective tool to make it difficult for people to access certain types of benefits, noting that this is particularly harmful to communities of color.

University College Dublin
Video

Cross Training Government Staff and Community Assisters on Multiple Benefits

While some approaches to benefits integration use technology to improve processes and user experience, other approaches rely less on technology or datasets and more on improving frontline staff’s knowledge and capacity. The examples in this guide describe how peer-to-peer training and updated interview scripts can help connect residents to the benefits they are eligible for.

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University
Report

Federal Standards Needed to Provide Equitable Access to Unemployment Insurance

This report explains how revised federal performance standards can be a powerful tool for increasing equitable access to UI benefits.

National Employment Law Project (NELP)
Non-Academic Article

Rules as Code Demo Day | Demo 4: Benefits Data Trust Benefits Launch | Daniel Singer & Preston Cabe

We continued Rules as Code Demo Day with Daniel Singer and Preston Cabe from Benefits Data Trust. Benefits Data Trust provides benefit outreach and application assistance services in seven states. Using Benefits Launch, their in-house interview and rules engine, they support two hundred contact center employees as they screen and apply thousands of clients each year. They also offer a self-service screener, Benefits Launch Express. Additionally, they offer an eligibility API to integrate with other services.

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University
Video

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
Report

Improving mobile usability for claimants

Mobile usability refers to the ease with which people can accomplish tasks on smartphones or tablets. A good mobile experience enables people to do the same things they do on a desktop computer while considering mobile devices’ constraints.

U.S. Department of Labor
Government Documents

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).

Federal Communications Commission
Government Documents

Creating a State Software Collaborative

Only 13% of major government software projects succeed, and the successful and failed ones alike cost 5–10 times more than they should. When those projects fail, so too do the public policy initiatives that depend on them: unemployment insurance, small business loans, paid family and medical leave, SNAP, Medicaid, etc.

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University
Non-Academic Article

Government By Algorithm: Artificial Intelligence In Federal Administrative Agencies

Little is known about how agencies are currently using AI systems, and little attention has been devoted to how agencies acquire such tools or oversee their use.

Stanford RegLab
Report

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.

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University
Video

How our work with Montana WIC demonstrated the value of a national API standard

Members of Nava's team describe how their work with WIC Montana cemented their belief that an API standard can fuel modernization to improve experiences for WIC staff, participants, and applicants.

Nava Public Benefit Corporation
Non-Academic Article

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.

Code for America
News

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.

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Toolkit

How to use product operations to scale the impact of government digital services

Ad Hoc has found that product operations can help scale impact by putting objective indicators at the center of product decision-making. The team has seen success in supporting product thinking at agencies like the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), where they made it easier for Veterans to access employment and education assistance and for caregivers to receive needed support.

Ad Hoc
Non-Academic Article

Overcoming Barriers: Finding Better Ways to Ask GetCalFresh Applicants About Income

County workers typically spend most of their time trying to get income information right during eligibility interviews. This article provides several recommendations for asking about income, accounting for cognitive biases, under-reporting, and complexities in reporting income.

Code for America
Non-Academic Article

Dismantling the Invisible Wall: Breaking down barriers to pandemic relief

The CARES Act and Families First Coronavirus Response Act failed to reach millions of non-tax-filing Americans with low incomes and deliberately excluded undocumented immigrants, leaving entire communities without recourse. Disaster Relief Assistance for Immigrants (DRAI) was a crucial program by the state of California for undocumented immigrants, and the California Department of Social Services partnered with Code for America to build a digital portal that would support community-based organizations in taking applications, tracking the various steps in the process, and activating clients’ $500 bank cards.

Code for America
Non-Academic Article

Serving the Citizens—Not the Bureaucracy: A Strategic Vision for City Procurement

This report features a strategic vision with six plays to help procurement work in public service.

The Chicago Council on Global Affairs
No items found.

Implementing Paid Family and Medical Leave: Lessons for State Administrators from Research in New Jersey

Passing a major new social program like paid family and medical leave (PFML) is only the first step in creating change. To achieve real impact, PFML programs must be well implemented — and as more and more states pass PFML programs, the urgency of such good implementation has never been higher. In 2019, New America staffed a discovery sprint team to explore New Jersey’s pioneering PFML program, using a mixture of beneficiary interviews, data analysis, and business processing mapping. Based on that research, this report outlines key implementation learnings for administrators in other states, focusing on: (a) communicating about PFML, (b) outreach strategies, (c) applications and processing, and (d) IT infrastructure.

New America
Case Study

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.

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

Customer Experience Principles for Unemployment Insurance

The blog post sets up a foundational perspective on CX principles for the state UI agencies.

USDOL OUIM
Government Documents

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.

Code for America
News

Logging In and Providing Proof: A Guide to U.S. Government Actions on Digital Identity

This guide provides a detailed overview summarizing the many initiatives and activities from Congress, the White House, federal agencies, and coalitions which may impact the digital identity landscape in the United States, including at state, local, Tribal, and territorial levels.

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University
Report

Proposed Performance Standards for Equitable Access to Unemployment Insurance

This proposal recommends a set of new federal performance standards that would measure and improve UI access. The proposal is intended to supplement existing federal UI standards, but all UI standards and metrics should be periodically reevaluated and updated as the conditions facing unemployed workers and benefit delivery change.

National Employment Law Project (NELP)
Non-Academic Article

NIST Digital Identity Guidelines

These guidelines from the National Institutes of Standard and Technology provide technical requirements for federal agencies implementing digital identity services.

National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST)
Report

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.

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

Unlocking the "Prevention Services" in the Family First Prevention Services A

In recent years, there has been a deliberate shift to move our public systems that support child and family well-being upstream. These efforts reflect the growing consensus that true and lasting progress toward a nation where everyone can thrive requires we get to the root of the barriers that keep people and communities from achieving their potential. A foundational building block of this effort is the work happening to advance prevention strategies within child welfare agencies. In this brief, we focus on the challenges and opportunities that the Family First Prevention Services Act (Family First) offers to accelerate the shift toward a prevention-oriented child well-being system.

American Public Human Services Association (APHSA)
Policy Brief

How Well Insured are Job Losers? Efficacy of the Public Safety Net

An extensive literature in economics documents large and persistent declines in earnings following involuntary job loss. Though Unemployment Insurance provides the largest buffer against lost income, due to the structure of the program, the neediest are less-well insured (in terms of dollars transferred and percentage of lost earnings replaced) compared to middle and higher income job losers. This has important implications in light of the historic number of job losses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

National Bureau of Economic Research
Academic Article

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.

Benefits Data Trust
Case Study

Digital Benefits Network Quarterly Call: What’s Next for Digital Identity in Public Benefits?

Identity proofing, authentication, and online access to benefits applications have been increasingly important issues for benefits agencies since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. During the call, we heard from two speakers: April Dunlap, Policy Administrator for Arizona’s Department of Economic Security and Professor Michele Gilman, Venable Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Faculty Research and Development at the University of Baltimore School of Law.

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University
Video

A Public Transformed? Welfare Reform as Policy Feedback

This article analyzes the strategic use of public policy as a tool for reshaping public opinion. Though progressive revisionists in the 1990s argued that reforming welfare could produce a public more willing to invest in anti-poverty efforts, welfare reform in the 1990s did little to shift public opinion. This study investigates the general conditions under which mass feedback effects should be viewed as more or less likely.

American Political Science Review
Academic Article

Using Data Matching and Targeted Outreach to Enroll Families With Young Children in WIC

WIC enrollment has declined over the past decade, but evidence from randomized control trials indicates that using data from other programs to identify WIC-eligible families and following up with text-based outreach can boost program participation.

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Case Study

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.

Benefits Data Trust
News

Evaluating CX with Survey Design

In the Fall of 2022, the USDOL Office of Unemployment Insurance Modernization (OUIM) consulted with the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) to provide hands-on support with IT modernization and customer experience strategy. Primary discussions focused on making informed product, service, and business decisions based on qualitative and quantitative data— how might IDES leverage existing data streams to identify the most pressing technology issues in their unemployment insurance system, and how might IDES act upon this information in a timely and impactful manner?

U.S. Department of Labor
Government Documents

Documenting Pandemic EBT for the 2020-21 School Year

The Pandemic Electronic Benefits Transfer (P-EBT) program was launched as an effort to address the loss of access to free and reduced-price school meals due to widespread school closures at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. As schools reopened in a shifting mix of fully virtual, hybrid, and inperson formats and families lacked consistent access to school meals, these benefits were extended through the 2020–21 school year and were highly valuable to families in buffering the full extent of food insecurity they may have faced during this uncertain time. However, the complexity of administering this program was a fundamental barrier in providing timely support to families, who ultimately went without benefits for at least half of the school year. In this report, we dive into the challenges state administrators faced in launching this new program during the 2020–21 school year and reflect on considerations for the future.

Urban Institute, American Public Human Services Association (APHSA)
Report

Reddit Is America’s Unofficial Unemployment Hotline

Thousands of Americans have begun frequenting the r/Unemployment subreddit to get help navigating state and federal unemployment systems.

The New York Times
News

How Data Sharing Can Improve Equitable Access to Public Programs

Accessing safety net benefits can involve complicated and duplicative processes that create barriers to access. Using cross-enrollment strategies can minimize the difficulties community members face in getting access to life-saving resources.

Alluma
Toolkit

Login.gov to provide authentication and identity proofing services to a limited number of federally funded state and local government programs

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.

Login.gov
Non-Academic Article

Sprint 2 Report | Michigan Unemployment | Improving the delivery of unemployment insurance benefits

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
Report

Reconceptualizing Public Procurement to Strengthen State Benefits Delivery and Improve Outcomes

Drawing on interviews and convenings with experts and practitioners from the field of public interest technology, this report contains recommendations across five core priority action areas for cross-sector innovation and collaboration to improve state benefits systems through procurement practices.

New America
Report

The Federal government is redesigning how it delivers services

Article announcing five new projects by the Office of Management and Budget that will improve experiences the public has with the government during significant movements in their lives. These “life experience” projects are at the center of a new model for how the Federal Government should better design and deliver benefits, services, and programs to the American people during the moments in their lives that matter most.

Performance.gov
Non-Academic Article

Exiting Technology Projects

This booklet is designed to help procurement officers and other stakeholders ensure continuity of service, enable seamless future technology upgrades, and plan for contingencies. You can use it to evaluate a prospective vendor contract or bid, or to document how a project went.

SmallScale, National Center for State Courts
Toolkit

Digital Identity and Public Benefits: Announcing a New Research Agenda

An announcement about the Digital Benefits Network's new research agenda on digital identity in public benefits.

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation
News

Coordinating SNAP and Nutrition Supports

Coordinating SNAP and Nutrition Supports (CSNS) is a cohort program funded by Share Our Strength, No Kid Hungry and administered by the American Public Human Services Association (APHSA) with the goal of aligning the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) with other federal, state, and local nutrition supports to combat childhood hunger.

American Public Human Services Association (APHSA)
Link to Other Resources

States Can Make Applications More Accessible During COVID-19 Crisis

The inability to apply for Medicaid and SNAP in person during the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated a new way of interacting with social service agencies through online application submission. States can facilitate this by making online applications and systems more accessible and allowing for telephonic signatures on benefits applications.

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Non-Academic Article

The Consequences of Decentralization: Inequality in Safety Net Provision in the Post–Welfare Reform Era

Study examining cross-state inequality in social safety net programs due to decentralized social provision. The authors find substantial cross-state inequality in provision, with increased inequality due to the devolution of authority under the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA).

The University of Chicago Press Journals
Academic Article

Roadmap: NIST Special Publication 800-63-4 Digital Identity Guidelines

The Revision 4 of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication 800-63, Digital Identity Guidelines, intends to respond to the changing digital landscape that has emerged since the last major revision of this suite was published in 2017 — including the real-world implications of online risks. This roadmap outlines NIST's project milestones and opportunities to provide feedback through March 2023.

National Institute of Standards and Technology
Government Documents

Building an Accessible Long-Term Care System for the Future

The nation’s long-term care system has struggled for many years, and those constraints are expected to deepen as our nation ages. In 2019, Washington State became the first in the United States to pass legislation that would enable a public state-operated long-term care insurance program, the Washington Cares Fund. We conducted research with the goal to identify concrete ways for Washington State to implement this fund so that it is accessible to all and it supports living-wage jobs for care workers. In this report, we discuss our research methods, we present personas of individuals seeking long-term supports and services from the Washington Cares Fund, and we offer a list of recommendations that, while intended for Washington State, we see as applicable to other states that will embark on offering similar long-term services to residents.

New America
Report

Mass Layoff in Maine: Lessons Learned from the Maine Department of Labor and Peer Workforce Navigators

This report explores the Maine Department of Labor’s (MDOL) remarkable response to this layoff through collaboration with the Peer Workforce Navigator project—a coalition of community-based organizations in partnership with the MDOL—which made a huge difference in the lives of these laid off workers. The report also examines aspects of the state’s unemployment insurance (UI) system that might be improved to account for similar situations in the future.

The Century Foundation
Report

Potential and Progress for Benefits Eligibility: A Recap of Rules as Code Demo Day

Building on our February 2022 report Benefit Eligibility Rules as Code: Reducing the Gap Between Policy and Service Delivery for the Safety Net, the Beeck Center’s Digital Benefits Network (DBN) recently held a convening to share progress and potential in digitizing benefits eligibility and to begin addressing how a national approach could be started. At Rules as Code Demo Day, on June 28th, 2022, there were eight demonstrations of projects and code followed by a collaborative problem-solving session on how to continue advancing rules as code for the U.S. social safety net.

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University
News

Best Practices for Accessible Content

Drawing on the Beeck Center’s research on government, nonprofit, academic, and private sector organizations that are working to improve access to safety net benefits, this report highlights best practices for creating accessible benefits content.

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University
Report

The Wait List as Redistributive Policy: Access and Burdens in the Subsidized Childcare System

This article theorizes the wait list as an underexamined vehicle of administrative burden. Focusing on the example of subsidized chidl care, the article's findings suggest wait lists as understudied but consequential sites of opaque policymaking that shape access to critical social services and the legibility of unmet need.

RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences
Academic Article

Helping Policy Makers Put People First: A Step-by-Step Tool for User-Centered Policy Making

Policymakers, lawmakers, and government leaders are increasingly exploring new ways to ensure that laws and policies are centered around people’s needs while improving how services are delivered to the public. To help policymakers interested in following these successful models, the Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation launched the User-Centered Policy Organization Assessment. Teams crafting policy inside and outside government can use the assessment to center their policy-making activities around those most impacted by their proposed programs and policy ideas.

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University
Toolkit

Implementing rules without a rules engine

It is frequently assumed that when rules are implemented as code, a rules engine is necessary. However, it is possible for policy people and engineers to effectively work together to code logic that drives technological system without needing a mediating rules engine at all.

18F
Non-Academic Article

Administrative Burdens and Economic Insecurity Among Black, Latino, and White Families

This study investigates how administrative burdens influence differential receipt of income transfers after a family member loses a job, looking at Unemployment Insurance, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences
Academic Article

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
Report

State Software Budgeting Handbook

Handbook by 18F designed for executives, budget specialists, legislators, and other “non-technical” decision-makers who fund or oversee state government technology projects that receive federal funding and implement the necessary technology to support federal programs. It aids in setting projects up for success by asking the right questions, identifying the right outcomes, and equally important, empowering decision-makers with a basic knowledge of the fundamental principles of modern software design.

18F
Toolkit

The Adoption and Implementation of Artificial Intelligence Chatbots in Public Organizations: Evidence from U.S. State Governments

Although the use of artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots in public organizations has increased in recent years, crucial gaps remain unresolved, and this paper explores adoption and implementation of chatbots in state government contexts.

The American Review of Public Administration
Academic Article

Better Identity in America: A Blueprint for Policymakers

This policy report offers recommendations for improving digital identity practices in the United States, emphasizing the role of government in creating secure, accessible digital identity resources.

The Better Identity Coalition
Report

Rules as Code Demo Day | Demo 7: MITRE Corporation (CCASH) | Joe Ditre and Frank Ruscil

MITRE’s Joe Ditre and Frank Ruscil demoed the code for the Comprehensive Careers and Supports for Households (C-CASH) at Rules as Code Demo Day. The MITRE team expanded the accessibility of the Policy Rules Database and the Cost-of-Living Database (the prior demo) by creating a web service API and a front-end Window’s application called C-CASH Analytic Tool (CAT). CAT provides a more scalable, flexible, and portable functionality which allows end-users to generate various households to run eligibility scenarios across different U.S. counties and states. They are currently working to create a national data hub and analytics tool, starting with utilizing U.S. Census data and populating the data warehouse by pushing large amounts of data through the PRD.

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University
Video

Code for America and GetYourRefund.org Non-filer Learnings and Recommendations

This report outlines key lessons and recommendations from Code for America's collaboration with the Voluntary Income Tax Assistance program, which served over 800,000 clients via GetYourRefund.org.

Code for America
Report

18F Methods: Usability Testing

18F describes how to implement usability tests to understand how intuitive a given design is, as well as how adaptable it is to meeting user needs.

18F
Toolkit

Why Framing Matters: Ways to Move Forward

Prior issues of Policy & Practice have introduced framing and what effective framing can do to make our shared narrative more productive and impactful. In this column, APHSA's President and CEO shares two framing strategies that can help us avoid the most common mistakes and produce more effective frames: Widening the lens and using numbers more effectively.

American Public Human Services Association (APHSA)
Non-Academic Article

The Transformative Power of a People-Centered, Digital-First Safety Net

Code for America discusses the importance of a people-centered, digital-first safety net. Tools of technology, policy, and good implementation can advance a bold vision that will allow the nation to push through the end of the COVID-19 crisis.

Code for America
Non-Academic Article

Design Justice Network Principles

Design justice rethinks design processes, centers people who are normally marginalized by design, and uses collaborative, creative practices to address the deepest challenges our communities face.

Design Justice Network
Toolkit

Accessible Numbers

Use the accessible numbers project to design services for people who need help with numbers.

Accessible Numbers
Toolkit

Pandemic EBT Policy + Delivery Memo

Policy memo by Code for America regarding how to deliver P-EBT benefits during the COVID-19 crisis.

Code for America
Policy Brief

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 Center for Law and Social Policy
Report

How to create an inclusive user research environment

This article describes the necessity of building an inclusive research environment that empowers participants, as well as techniques for creating such environments in both in-person and remote capacities.

Ad Hoc
Toolkit

LIFT Voices Describe Hardships Among Black and Latina Mothers in Pandemic

Black and Latina mothers have faced intensified material hardship during the pandemic due to institutional racism and sexism. LIFT describes the lessons it learned through working with parents to improve their personal well-being, increase their social connections, and strengthen them financially through coaching and direct financial assistance.

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Report

WIC Policy Memorandum #2023-5: Data Sharing to Improve Outreach and Streamline Certification in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)

This policy memorandum from the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) provides guidance on data sharing activities that support targeted outreach and streamlined certification processes aimed at increasing the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) participation and retention.

Food and Nutrition Service
Government Documents

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.

18F
Non-Academic Article

What the Digital Benefits Network is Reading on Automation

In this piece, the Digital Benefits Network shares several sources—from journalistic pieces, to reports and academic articles—we’ve found useful and interesting in our reading on automation and artificial intelligence.

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University
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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.

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Report

Making Public Benefits More Accessible in Minnesota

This report highlights work with Minnesota and includes nine suggestions for states seeking to launch their own integrated benefits applications

Code for America
Report

Improving Customer Service in Health and Human Services Through Technology

This paper outlines common challenges agencies face while administering benefits and gives examples of how technology can streamline the process. It also discusses the importance of user-centered design, and the necessity of utilizing technology as part of a holistic strategy to implement public benefits.

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Report

Surveillance, Discretion and Governance in Automated Welfare

This academic article develops a framework for evaluating whether and how automated decision-making welfare systems introduce new harms and burdens for claimants, focusing on an example case from Germany.

Science and Technology Studies
Academic Article

On the Myths of Waste, Fraud, and Abuse

Though the rhetoric of “waste, fraud, and abuse” is ubiquitous when it comes to welfare programs, low-income households receive little relief from benefits programs. Most efforts to make public benefits systems more “efficient” actually just waste time and money in practice. They instead serve to stigmatize low-income families and chip away at the little assistance that remains available to them.

New America
Non-Academic Article

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.

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Non-Academic Article

Digital Authentication and Identity Proofing in Unemployment Insurance (UI) Applications

On May 19, 2023, the Digital Benefits Network published a new, open dataset documenting authentication and identity proofing requirements across online SNAP, WIC, TANF, Medicaid, child care (CCAP)applications, and unemployment insurance applications. This page includes data and observations about authentication and identity proofing steps specifically for online unemployment insurance applications.

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University
Dataset

Who Audits the Auditors? Recommendations from a Field Scan of the Algorithmic Auditing Ecosystem

Through a field scan, this paper identifies emerging best practices as well as methods and tools that are becoming commonplace, and enumerates common barriers to leveraging algorithmic audits as effective accountability mechanisms.

FAccT '22: Proceedings of the 2022 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency
Academic Article

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.

Government Accountability Office
Report
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Automation + AI
Text Messaging
Data Sharing
Outreach + Awareness
Eligibility
Applying + Enrolling
Buying Design + Technology Services
Maintaining Benefits
Human-Centered Design
Digitizing Policy
Digital Services
Diversity, Equity + Inclusion
Policy Analysis
Digital Identity
Basic Income
CCDF: Child Care and Development Fund
COVID-19 Assistance
CTC: Child Tax Credit
EITC: Earned Income Tax Credit
Housing
LIHEAP
Medicaid/CHIP
Other Supplemental Nutrition Programs
P-EBT
Paid Leave
SSDI: Social Security Disability Insurance
SSI: Supplemental Security Income
TANF: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
Tax Assistance
UI: Unemployment Insurance
Veterans Benefits
WIC: Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children
SNAP: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
Executive Branch
Academic
Community Members
Community-based Organization
Legislative Branch
Non-profit
Private
Government Agency
Federal/National
State/Provincial
County
Local/Municipal
Territorial
Tribal/Indigenous