From this Year’s Annual Report: Making Benefits Eligibility Information More Accessible
Many New Yorkers are not aware of government benefits for which they are eligible. To make benefits information more widely available, NYC Opportunity released the first-ever NYC Benefits Screening Application Programming Interface (API). It makes eligibility criteria for 30+ social service benefits easily available to anyone using or creating other technology-based tools. This expands the network and accuracy of tools New Yorkers and social service professionals can use to find benefits.
New Yorkers can go to ACCESS NYC, the City’s award-winning online benefits screening platform, and answer a set of questions to find out what benefits they may be eligible for and how to apply.
The API extends the reach of ACCESS NYC by making the programming rules that produce ACCESS NYC’s screening results available for use in other technology applications. Community-based and civic technology organizations and other groups can use the API to make benefits screening part of their existing technology tools, making it easier to advise their clients on which benefits to apply for and how to do so.
The API is an innovation in the benefits landscape, demonstrating how technology can make crucial poverty-fighting tools more widely available and empowering more organizations to support their clients in new ways.
