Modifying income reporting on benefits applications — Evidence from households with multiple jobs

What is the agency priority?

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is America’s largest nutrition program. In fiscal year 2023, SNAP provided an average of nearly $200 a month in food assistance to 1 in 8 Americans. To receive those benefits, individuals apply on behalf of their household with their local county or state SNAP office. SNAP applications can be long and burdensome to complete, meaning applicants may struggle to make it through the process to receive benefits for which they are eligible. Reducing barriers in access to SNAP is a priority of USDA.

What did we evaluate?

We collaborated with Code for America (CfA) on an evaluation to make it easier for SNAP applicants to report their income on a “digital assister” version of the application, designed by CfA.

Together, we designed an alternative income reporting option that provides more structure to how applicants enter their income in the application. The goal of the evaluation was to make it easier for applicants to report their income by splitting a difficult task into smaller components.

How did the evaluation work?

The evaluation ran from June 6th – August 15th, 2024. All SNAP applicants who made it to the income reporting module during the study and who reported having more than one job (N=20,549) were randomly assigned to one of two income reporting options. In the unstructured reporting condition (n=10,179), applicants were asked to report their total household income from the last 30 days in a single text box. In the structured reporting condition (n=10,370), applicants were asked to report the income from each job for each earner in their household. For example, in a household with two earners who each have two jobs, applicants would start with one earner, enter the income from each of that person’s jobs, and then do the same for the second earner. For each job, applicants would select the pay frequency and enter the amount earned per pay period. Applicants in the structured reporting condition also had the option to estimate the income of each earner in the household if they preferred not to enter their income from each job.

What did we learn?

We found that application submission rates were lower in the structured reporting condition (57.9%) compared with the unstructured reporting condition (58.9%), but this difference was not statistically significant. However, some subgroups of applicants (those who had one household member and those who applied on a mobile device) were less likely to submit the application when they were assigned to the structured reporting condition. Overall, applicants in the structured reporting condition also reported significantly more income on average. As a result, these applicants were more likely to report income that was over the threshold for estimated SNAP eligibility.

The results indicate that the structure of income reporting did not have a meaningful overall effect on application submission rates for applicants in households with multiple jobs. However, adding more structure did reduce application submission for some groups of applicants, and overall, it led applicants to report more income on average.

Verify the upload date of our analysis plan on Github.