Our Top Three Tips for Improving Online Benefits Applications

For many people who are eligible for government benefits like food assistance, Medicaid, and child care assistance, the first step to accessing help is completing an online application. But too often, a complex application stands in the way of people getting what they need. The site may pose confusing questions or require applicants to upload documents they don’t readily have on hand. The process also may be time-consuming or repetitive, requiring applicants to answer the same questions more than once. Or the site may not be designed to best serve people with disabilities or people whose primary language is not English.

The good news is that we know it’s possible to overcome these challenges. Making the process of applying for and keeping benefits easier isn’t as monumental a task as it may seem. For over a decade, Code for America has partnered with government agencies, caseworkers, and clients to make applications for safety net benefits simpler, more dignified, and more effective. We’re excited to show how we take what we’ve learned and offer it to you now in the Benefits Playbook for Designing Human-Centered Applications. Here are some of our top tips for improving the benefits application experience.

Interested to learn more about improving benefits enrollment? We have the premiere guide to policy, procedures, design, and more in the Benefits Playbook for Designing Human-Centered Applications. Download the playbook, share it with your colleagues in state government, and make changes to your benefits enrollment website that prioritize client experience.

Tip #1: Your online application should have a welcoming front door for clients

Your website is the first place many clients go to start a benefits application. If they’re confused by it, they’ll be less likely to receive the support they need. Providing a welcoming front door means offering a dignified, simple, and accessible experience to clients, no matter where they are in the benefits enrollment process: applying for the first time, getting questions answered, or submitting documents.

In the Benefits Playbook, we show you how to make it as easy as possible for clients to take action on your benefits homepage—in their preferred language, while filling out the application using their phone, and without the cumbersome steps that often accompany required account creation.

We partnered with the Minnesota Department of Human Services to redesign their integrated benefits application and launch MNbenefits—a mobile-friendly application that reduced the time it takes to apply for multiple benefits from over an hour to less than 15 minutes. Want to learn more about how we did it, and the principles we applied to our process? Download the Benefits Playbook for Designing Human-Centered Applications.

Tip #2: Make the application match your clients’ experiences

Consideration of the client experience is a fundamental element of a human-centered application. If questions on the application fail to align with a client’s life experience, the end result often is them  experiencing uncertainty or anxiety as they guess the proper response, leave questions blank, or ultimately, simply give up on the application.

Through our years of learning from benefits clients, Code for America has developed expertise about how to ask these questions so clients have confidence that they’re responding accurately. For instance, among those who work in the gig economy, as contractors, or who are self-employed, many are left guessing about how to report their income when it fluctuates week to week. For years, we’ve tested and honed the best ways to frame questions to ensure applicants understand what’s being asked and how exactly they should answer.

Respect and choice are also important parts of the client experience. In addition to making sure clients understand what they’re being asked, applications must make clear why clients are being asked certain questions—especially when it comes to sensitive personal information, such as race, gender, and immigration status. Giving context about how this information is used and options to skip or answer in ways that reflect their life experience can help alleviate some of the stress many clients feel when filling out an initial application.

The Benefits Playbook for Designing Human-Centered Applications is an actionable companion to the Benefits Enrollment Field Guide, a resource offering a snapshot of online safety net benefits across America. The Field Guide was updated in August 2024 to reflect recent changes to each state’s online benefits applications.

Tip #3: Leverage changes in technology, new federal rules, and the changing landscape of digital identity to take away application barriers 

Between recent technological advances like AI, new standards for website accessibility, and new considerations about digital identity, a lot is changing for benefits applications. As states take the time to review their benefits applications accordingly, they now have an incredible opportunity to improve the process of applying for government benefits. The Benefits Playbook describes how to make these changes in a client-centered way, and connects readers to resources that go into greater detail.   

By incorporating modern standards for language translation and AI, website accessibility, and identity verification, states can make the experience of applying for benefits easier for clients.

Want to improve benefits enrollment in your state? Reach out!  We’ve partnered with states who’ve shown it’s possible.