PROJECT OVERVIEW
Easing the Burdens Associated with Matching to Categories Can Increase Benefits and Services Uptake
Highlights
We examined the administrative burdens created when individuals attempt to match themselves to state-created categories, i.e. the “matching problem”. People’s success at matching to administrative categories matters to whether they receive benefits to which they are entitled, and the state can define and explain these categories to make benefits access easier or harder.
One example of a state-created category that matters for benefits access is self employment. This project reduced learning costs for SNAP applicants by clarifying its definition. This intervention led to about a one-third increase in claimants selecting into this category, thereby allowing them to claim larger SNAP (food stamp) benefits for which they were eligible.
Our experiment models a relatively easy way for enterprising administrators to exert their discretion and help the public solve the matching problem.
Overview
Matching requires time and effort, and failure to match to an advantageous category can mean a loss of material benefits. The matching problem may sometimes result from obscure categories. The matching problem is also amplified when the state uses identity categories where individuals hold pre-existing beliefs about such identities that map poorly onto equivalent state categorizations.
This study focused on applicants to a California safety-net program, CalFresh, the state version of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). We conducted an experiment that aimed to reduce the learning and compliance costs that individuals face when matching to CalFresh’s “self-employed” category.
Approach
To study the matching problem and ways to reduce it, we undertook a field experiment in a California safety-net program, CalFresh, the state version of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The experiment was delivered on the GetCalFresh website, which provides digital assistance to applicants seeking to receive CalFresh. The website was developed by a civic tech nonprofit, Code for America, and served about 2.6 million people in 2020.
Claimants often fail to select into the category of “self-employed” even though it would be more favorable for them to do so, allowing them to claim a higher deduction and obtain larger SNAP benefits. For example, for a two-person household earning about 70% of the federal poverty level, claiming the self-employed deduction increases the value of the CalFresh benefit from about 19% to 28% of their income.
The field experiment contained two treatments administered to actual applicants. The first treatment sought to reduce learning costs, making the category of “self-employed” more intuitive for users. We consulted with eligibility workers, advocates who help people sign up for benefits, examined income verification documents, and talked to low-income Californians about which terms were most understandable. The result was to provide more intuitive terms and relatable examples, information about benefits, and access to more information if needed.
This treatment increased the rate of those declaring as self-employed from 8.8% to 12.1%, or about one-third.
The second treatment dealt with the problem of documenting whether the applicant fell into the self-employed category. To do so we provided a self-attestation template (see below). In other words, we gave applicants a model letter to complete, guiding them to include personal details in a format that in most cases the state will accept. This treatment sought to reduce learning costs — since many self-employed individuals would not know what serves as acceptable documentation — but was primarily intended to reduce the compliance costs of providing documentation - since self-employed people don’t typically have access to documentation that companies provide to employees.
Of those offered the template, 22.8% used it, making them significantly more likely to provide an acceptable form of documentation to state officials.
Findings
The construction and interpretation of everyday and seemingly mundane categories can be used to make program access easier or harder through administrative changes.
The presentation of administrative categories is one example. While administrative categories themselves might be relatively fixed, the presentation of categories is not something that typically requires changes to the law or rules, but can be modified with relative ease.