Creating Government Forms that Build Trust

When people fill out forms for government programs and benefits, they’re asked for a lot of sensitive information—including things like their social security number and citizenship status. It can be nerve wracking to enter this kind of information into a form, and clients disproportionately drop-off on pages that request Personally Identifying Information (PII). When they do, they miss out on critical benefits like food programs, childcare support, and housing assistance.

Too often in government applications, sensitive information is requested without an explanation as to why data is required or how it will be used. While a well-established best practice in user interface design is to create systems that don’t need additional explanation, our research with clients has consistently shown that when asking for sensitive information, providing additional explanation is critical in building trust and assuaging anxiety, particularly for marginalized populations. 

Here’s what clients have told us about two major types of PII, and how we make it more comfortable for them to share this information. 

Social Security Numbers feel particularly sensitive for clients

We’ve seen clients across various states and programs drop off at high rates on pages in applications when they’re asked to provide their Social Security number. PII has “tiers of sensitivity,” with Social Security numbers often occupying that top tier for clients. 

Clients say fears of fraud and scams are a key reason for their hesitancy—and for good reason. The Federal Trade Commission received 1.13 million identity theft reports in 2024. This discomfort is heightened when clients are required to provide their Social Security number in order to move forward with their application or when their full Social Security number is visible on the page, creating privacy concerns if completing the form in public. 

To help clients move through the application and improve retention, our best practices are to:

• Make the Social Security number optional or provide alternative forms of verification, like a driver’s license, whenever possible 
• Make it clear why a Social Security number is needed
• Reinforce that the information is secure and hide the full Social Security number on screen

Asking about non-primary applicants can feel invasive   

Clients tell us that it can feel irrelevant or intrusive to include every household member as part of an application, especially if income or expenses aren’t shared or those family members don’t consistently live in their home. Clients sometimes live with spouses, family members, or roommates that they omit from the application because they will not be the ones receiving the benefit, and worry that including those household members might make them ineligible. Some also worry that including the PII of others early in an application process, before knowing if they’re eligible for their desired program, may put them at risk.

To mitigate client discomfort with including household members and non-applicant information, and to help clients only include sensitive information that is strictly necessary, applications should:

• Be explicit about who must be included on the application and why
• Make explicit which questions are required and which are optional
• Provide clarifications to help clients answer broad questions about others, such as by: 
  • Gating questions to tailor to clients’ situations and prevent extraneous data collection
  • Including thresholds for who counts as being part of a household (e.g., percent of the time a member must live at home to be counted)
  • And the regularity or amount of financial help from family members for it to be considered reportable 

Better forms can meaningfully build trust

Our work with clients has consistently shown that it’s critical to provide reassurance when asking about questions that can cause anxiety. An application should be balanced in how sensitive questions are asked, how often they are asked, and provide context on why clients are being asked to provide this information, particularly when questions ask about topics in the higher tiers of sensitivity. When providing sensitive information upfront is meaningfully helpful to the applicant—for example, if including it is optional but doing so would accelerate application processing time—it should be clearly explained as such. 

By anticipating and acknowledging concerns clients have, well-designed applications can rebuild a sense of trust with government. Making these applications trustworthy can help us maximize the number of eligible families who can access and receive critical government services.