Every day, millions of Americans interact with state public benefits systems—to apply for health coverage for their family after losing a job, to seek food assistance when paychecks run short, or to get help keeping the lights on through the winter. For every American served by these programs, they are a lifeline during moments of stress and vulnerability that ripple outwards—supporting families and strengthening neighborhoods and communities.
The Administrative Burden Crisis
Yet far too often, interactions with these systems leave people feeling frustrated and defeated rather than supported. People find themselves trapped in lengthy, bewildering applications filled with contradictory instructions, or listening to hold music for hours. They’re forced to repeat the same information across multiple forms and phone calls, struggle with websites that barely function on their phone—the only way 28 percent of households making less than $30,000 can access the internet at home—or face impossible choices between keeping their job and attending mandatory in-person appointments. In some states, like Idaho and Wyoming, residents can’t even apply for critical programs like food and cash assistance online at all, leaving paper forms and in-person visits as their only options.
This administrative burden has real consequences for families across the country. For example, about four million people who are eligible for SNAP never receive it, including 45 percent of eligible older adults. And almost $3 billion in Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) benefits go unused, even though funding is still available to serve everyone eligible. That’s food kept off family tables—not because people don’t qualify, but because the systems meant to serve them fall short. The sheer time burden, too, is staggering: in a single year, Americans spent a collective 10 billion hours on paperwork requirements from just federal agencies—an average of 45 hours per adult. Although that figure spans all federal programs, it offers a glimpse into the magnitude of administrative demands on people. State public benefit systems add another layer to that already high burden. For the state agencies delivering public benefits, each frustrating interaction represents a missed opportunity to build trust and meet needs quickly. Each breakdown chips away at the social contract—the shared understanding that the government protects its people, especially in moments of need.
It’s worth noting here that states are often hamstrung by federal funding caps, and even the most streamlined application process can’t solve for growing waitlists when Congress routinely fails to appropriate enough dollars to serve everyone who qualifies for a public benefits program. (For example, about 12 million children are eligible for federal child care subsidies, but there’s only enough funding to serve 2 million of them.) However, even with these funding constraints, many states are doing everything in their power to remove barriers to access and improve the interface between families and the systems meant to serve them.
States Leading the Way
Across the country, some states are proving that public benefit systems can be simple, fast, and dignified. Mobile-friendly applications take less than 20 minutes to complete, saving hours that can be spent at work or with family. Nebraska’s Medicaid and Tennessee’s SNAP applications, for example, take just 15 minutes each. Pennsylvania’s and Vermont’s WIC applications take just 5 minutes to complete—the fastest public benefit applications in the nation. States like Georgia, Nevada, and Colorado have integrated multiple programs into a single portal so families don’t have to repeat the same information again and again. And numerous states have tackled the root causes of these frustrations—reducing paperwork, automating routine tasks, and investing in in-house teams who can respond quickly when policies change or provide informed oversight of vendor relationships.
These states are showing that modernization isn’t just about technology—it’s about reimagining the design and delivery of public services. It’s about building systems that meet people where they are, that work on the devices they use, and that adapt to their needs without unnecessary hurdles. If more states adopted these approaches, millions more people could access the help they need, billions in unclaimed benefits could reach households and help stabilize families, and trust in government could grow.
Introducing the People-Centered Digital Benefits Project
This is where Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality’s new People-Centered Digital Benefits Project comes in. Building on the powerful work of our colleagues to modernize and strengthen public benefits delivery, such as the Digital Benefits Network at Georgetown’s Beeck Center, Better Government Lab at Georgetown’s McCourt School of Public Policy and University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, and Financial Security Program at the Aspen Institute, we are documenting state innovations—digging into what they’ve achieved, how they’ve made progress, and why it matters. Through in-depth case studies and issue briefs, we’ll unpack the governance structures, procurement strategies, in-house capacity, and design practices that make meaningful change possible.
Our goal is to create practical, accessible resources for policymakers, agency leaders, and practitioners. We want states to be able to see what’s working elsewhere, adapt those lessons to their own context, and avoid the pitfalls that have slowed progress.
This work is all the more urgent in light of the devastating cuts to core public benefits programs—especially Medicaid and SNAP—in the 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The new law will leave states facing over a trillion dollars in cuts to public benefits programs as federal support recedes. In this new budget reality, states committed to strengthening their public benefits will need to find creative, cost-effective ways to protect access and ensure their systems are functional, resilient, and equitable.
Our case studies will highlight where states have managed to build capacity and deliver smarter—showing how, even in tight fiscal conditions, some have found ways to stretch resources further while improving families’ experiences and outcomes. This project will pay particular attention to states that are making progress not because they received new funding, but because they have rethought how to govern, procure, and build capacity with the resources they already have. These examples show that public delivery modernization isn’t only possible in moments of abundance—it can also be achieved in times of scarcity, when innovation and discipline matter most.
A Vision for Fast, Fair, and Dignified Access
By surfacing proven models and sharing them widely, we hope to accelerate a shift toward public benefits systems that are:
- People-centered, meeting all families where they are and removing unnecessary barriers;
- Responsive—able to adapt quickly to crises, policy changes, and emerging needs; and
- Resilient, with strong public-sector capacity that doesn’t rely exclusively on expensive, inflexible vendors.
Reimagining public benefits delivery isn’t an abstract ideal—it’s a set of concrete practices that states are already putting into action. Our work is to make those practices visible, transferable, and scalable, so that no matter where we live, the experience of accessing public benefits is fast, fair, and dignified.