Increasing access to benefits for older adults and people with disabilities is a core tenant of NCOA's work. The Center for Economic Well-Being works daily with our network of Benefits Enrollment Centers to help community-based organizations connect people in their communities to important benefits that can save them money on food, housing costs, and medical expenses.
Yet barriers to getting people enrolled remain, and many older adults miss out on benefits they are eligible for each year simply because they don't apply. With funding from the Administration for Community Living (ACL), NCOA sought to study the feasibility of solutions aimed at streamlining the public benefits enrollment system by incorporating an automated rules engine into the digital application process. The final report was completed in 2023, titled "Feasibility Study to Determine the Capability to Streamline and Automate Processes for Key Public Benefits Enrollment: FINAL Feasibility Report."
Some barriers to benefits enrollment highlighted by the study:
- State benefit websites often lack a comprehensive list of programs to apply for at one time, such as Medicaid, food assistance, and home energy assistance.
- Few applications cater to older adults. Most focus on children and families.
- Most applications stop short of enrollment.
- Most applications are not mobile-friendly (only 3 in 10 benefits applications are accessible on a mobile device like a smartphone).
- Applications are not in multiple languages.
- Applications are time-consuming and burdensome.
- Older adults are concerned about privacy and may not trust that their personal information will be kept confidential.
Below are four issue briefs summarizing the findings of the feasibility study, followed by the full report.
