Today’s news closely follows CfA’s March 2023 announcement of its second cohort of state partnerships to work with the Safety Net Innovation Lab to help increase access to benefits.
The organization has worked to improve access to benefits in this space for years, with a notable milestone being the 2019 assessment of the state of online benefits platforms across the U.S.
According to CfA Program Director Dustin Palmer, the 2019 tool was originally intended to be a static resource to assess the status of online applications. But with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, a lot changed in government service delivery as more services, including safety net benefit delivery, shifted online.
The tool builds on the work of the 2019 platform, including an updated look at the states that currently have online benefits applications. It also features some additional information — like an evaluation of the Child Care Assistance Program — and explores features within state programs like accessibility for individuals using assistive technology, readability and language support.
Although the tool was created primarily for the audience of state agencies, Palmer said the first tool was used by a lot of groups, including researchers, advocates and journalists, and he expects the same to be true for this one.
“We’re making this data available in a cool, interactive way so folks can get a sense of what this landscape is like,” Palmer said. That landscape is evolving, he added, with every state making strides towards accessible digital tools.
Other trends include online applications being significantly more widespread than in 2019, more states offering integrated benefits applications and more states ensuring mobile-responsive platforms, explained Sara Soka, CfA’s senior program manager of Safety Net Best Practices.
The positive online customer experience many states are offering applicants is not a red state or blue state issue, Soka noted, highlighting examples of welcoming “front doors” from both Mississippi and Massachusetts.
The interactive visualization allows users to compare states’ benefits programs side by side, easily toggling between characteristics of the following programs: Modified Adjusted Gross Income Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Child Care Assistance Program and Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children.
The tool also includes a feature allowing users to search by state and explore the characteristics of benefits programs: from the time it takes to complete the application process, to the accessibility score, to the reading level of the content.
As Palmer explained, there are many people who are eligible for benefits that are not getting them, but he hopes that providing this picture of the landscape to states and other stakeholders will help reduce barriers and improve these processes.
“At the end of the day, this project’s about supporting people and giving them things that they’re eligible for,” Palmer stated.
