General Safety Net Policies
This compilation shares some general family safety net policies that states can choose to put into place to support economic security for families with young children.This Urban Institute paper includes a comprehensive list of ways to improve public benefits access and retention through changing policies, processes/practices, and/or technology.
Work Requirements
- Reducing or eliminating work requirements, or defending against increased work requirements, for Medicaid, SNAP, housing, and TANF
Source:
Urban: Work Requirements Tracker
Benefit Cliffs
- Smoothing benefit cliffs so that a small increase in income doesn’t mean families lose needed benefits
- See the Leap Fund resource below for an overall 101 on benefit cliffs, as well as some examples of state legislation.
Examples:
Ohio, DC, Florida, Colorado, Indiana, Louisiana, Vermont, Iowa, Texas
Sources:
NCCP: Family Resource Simulator Policy Impact Case Studies
NCSL: Addressing Benefits Cliffs
Leap Fund: Benefit Cliffs: Policy Shouldn’t Punish Promotion
Asset Limits
- Removing or substantially increasing asset limits when determining eligibility for safety net programs
Source:
NCCP/Bank Street: Limited by Design: How Restrictive Asset Limits Punish Families and Perpetuate the Cycle of Poverty
Urban Institute: Strategies for Improving Public Benefits Access and Retention
CLASP: Eliminating Asset Limits: Creating Savings for Families and State Governments
- Expanding the types of assets that are exempt when determining eligibility for safety net programs
- Expanding the availability of exempt savings accounts
Source:
NCCP/Bank Street: Limited by Design: How Restrictive Asset Limits Punish Families and Perpetuate the Cycle of Poverty
Connecting Families to Services
- State approaches that include call centers, online directories of services, and developmental screening and referral data systems
- Community approaches that include hubs in elementary schools, coordinated eligibility and enrollment processes through community coalitions, care coordination teams in local health departments, trusted advisors in local parent coalitions, Help Me Grow expansion through sub-affiliates
- Innovative partnerships with 211, birth certificate data, home visiting, hospitals for plan of safe care, paid family/medical leave
Examples:
Louisiana, Michigan, Tennessee, Vermont, Washington
Source:
Zero to Three (ZTT): Strengthening Connections: State Approaches to Connecting Families to Services
Streamlining Through New or Updated Policies
- Making operations more efficient by reducing the use of face-to-face interviews, simplifying eligibility and verification requirements, and lengthening certification periods
- Saving time for customers and caseworkers by exploring whether existing state program application requirements ask for more documentation than is mandated by federal law
- Aligning policies across programs to reduce administrative burdens on families eligible for more than one program
- Linking eligibility across benefits programs and strengthening referrals among programs
- Aligning renewal dates across benefits programs
Source:
Urban Institute: Strategies for States to Improve Safety Net Program Access and Efficiency
Urban: Strategies for Improving Public Benefits Access and Retention
Streamlining Through New or Updated Technologies
- Creating new eligibility systems or improve existing systems and build integration into systems to help people apply for multiple benefits through a single process
- Developing online applications or web portals through which applicants can be prescreened for eligibility, apply for benefits, find information on their benefit status, report status changes, and submit documents
- Implementing lobby management technology to maximize efficiency and minimize wait times by providing information about queues to staff managers and customers
- Considering electronic data verification which speeds up application and renewal processes, and document imaging systems, which facilitate paperless processes and file sharing across programs and locations
- Creating mobile-friendly applications, and authorizing the use of telephonic and electronic signatures and online scheduling
- Expand allowable methods of proving identity and establish a reasonable compatibility threshold for identity data matching
Example: South Carolina’s First 5 portal
Source:
Urban Institute: Strategies for States to Improve Safety Net Program Access and Efficiency
Urban: Strategies for Improving Public Benefits Access and Retention
New America New Practice Lab: Lost in the Labyrinth: Helping Parents Navigate Early Care and Education Programs
Improving Business Practices
- Updating methods for greeting customers, accepting applications, making eligibility determinations, and processing changes and renewals
- Streamlining operations, such as changing the layout of lobbies in local offices, reallocating tasks among staff members, and eliminating unnecessary steps
- Integrating business processes across programs, such as by integrating intake for customers seeking assistance through multiple programs and having workers who can process applications for multiple programs
Source:
Urban Institute: Strategies for States to Improve Safety Net Program Access and Efficiency
Reducing Administrative Burden of Accessing the Safety Net
- Executing outreach and marketing efforts to increase awareness of benefit availability
- Reducing paperwork and in-person interview requirements
- Streamlining the application processes across and within programs
- Reducing the frequency and difficulty of recertification requirements
- Removing asset tests and asset limits
- Cutting work requirements
- Increasing coordination of programs at state and federal levels
- Funding and staffing benefits agencies so they are able to process claims efficiently
Examples:
Minnesota, Michigan, Massachusetts
Source:
Center for American Progress: How To Address the Administrative Burdens of Accessing the Safety Net
CLASP: Using Administrative Advocacy to Improve Access to Public Benefits
CLASP: States Can Reduce Medicaid’s Administrative Burdens to Advance Health and Racial Equity
