Integrating Social Safety Net Benefits: Options for State and County Agencies Informed by Recent Integration Successes
Millions who qualify for one public benefit program (like SNAP) will also qualify for others, but each program’s complex application and renewal process can make it difficult to enroll in one program, let alone multiple. While many people in government know that it would be less burdensome for residents and caseworkers if benefit applications, renewals, and enrollment outreach were integrated across programs, making this change can seem daunting, and it is difficult to know where to begin.
We created a series of guides to showcase how government agencies in Michigan, Minnesota, Louisiana, and Vermont have worked with organizations like Code for America, Nava, Civilla, and Benefits Data Trust to successfully pilot and scale different ways to integrate benefits that can help make more programs more accessible. We hope that all state and local government agencies can find ways in these guides to take manageable steps that can build upon each other to create large-scale change, especially now with funding from the American Rescue Plan.
Find all of the guides on the Digital Benefits Hub:
- Incremental Steps to Integrated Benefits
- Build and Fund Staff Capacity in Your Government Agency to Integrate Benefits
- Using Human-Centered Design to Integrate Benefit Applications
- Making Integrated Benefits Easy to Access Online and on Mobile Phones
- Building Modular, Reusable, and Flexible Components, Tools, and Formats
- Integrating Renewals and Correspondence
- Matching and Verifying Client Data Using Linkages Across Benefit
- Conducting Outreach for Benefits Cross Enrollment
- Cross Training Government Staff and Community Assisters on Multiple Benefits
Reach out to us if you have questions about these guides or want to share how your government agency or organization is making information about public benefits more accessible: digitalbenefits@georgetown.edu