Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Millions of working parents qualify for food, medical, and child care assistance that can help them support their families. However, accessing these supports can be difficult or confusing. Six states participated in the Work Support Strategies (WSS) initiative to help modernize and streamline state benefit delivery systems so low-income families can get and keep the full package of work supports for which they are eligible.

This paper will focus on the experience of parents applying for SNAP benefits and other work supports, and the extent to which there were measurable improvements in client experience during the course of the Work Support Strategies (WSS) Evaluation. It will briefly review the changes that states made in technology, policy and business practices to improve the connections of parents to work support programs. The focus, however, will be on the client experience in accessing work supports, drawing on client experience surveys conducted in three states, as well as focus group interviews in two states, qualitative data (i.e., what state/local workers said they heard from clients), and some administrative data (i.e., percentage of applications submitted online).

The paper (which will be released in June 2017) will share client perspectives on the overall application process, including the ease or difficulty of applying, the clarity of instructions, and satisfaction with the process. In addition, the paper will describe the different ways in which clients apply for benefits, with an emphasis on the use of on-line applications (discussing whether use varies by client education level, the satisfaction of those applying on-line, reasons clients do not use it, etc.). It also will explore multi-benefit access and the extent to which SNAP applicants received information about Medicaid and child care, and had options for applying for them (and reasons they did not apply if they did not). We will focus on measurable differences over time, observed in either administrative data (i.e., an increase in same-day benefit service, or an increase in the use of online applications) or by comparing the two waves of surveys in Colorado and Illinois (i.e., reduction in time spent waiting in the office, and reduction in number of visits to the office). We will show that state efforts’ to change the way they deliver work support benefits had measurable effects on clients.