Get Started with Benefit Management Objects

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

Describe the steps of the benefit application process.
Explain the common challenges associated with managing financial benefits.
Describe the purpose and advantages of Benefit Management.

Before You Start

Before you start this module, consider completing the following recommended content.

Explore the Benefit Application Process

Throughout centuries, governments and other public institutions have used financial assistance to alleviate economic hardship and promote societal well-being. Unemployment and housing benefits, food and nutrition security, disaster relief, and countless other social safety nets provide essential protection to the most vulnerable people, families, and organizations in our communities. These benefits and programs help constituents thrive, become self-sufficient, and avoid hunger, poverty, homelessness, or other difficult situations.

A mother paying an electric bill at her computer while holding hands with her child.

These days, this monetary aid arrives in the form of social insurance, tax benefits, subsidies, credits, or direct cash payments. Because monetary aid initiatives are publicly funded, supporting agencies must make the best use of available resources and carefully determine who is eligible to receive support.

More often than not, constituents must fill out digital or paper applications to request assistance. This process involves submitting proof that shows their circumstances meet the specific criteria of the program or benefit, which might focus on the applicant’s age, income, expenses, employment status, or other conditions.

Intake officers and caseworkers carefully review applications to make sure that the application data is complete and accurate. Based on the information, the caseworker then determines if the applicants are eligible for the requested benefits, and how much they receive. This determination requires strict compliance with laws and regulations to prevent fraud and misuse of funds.

Let’s go through the typical steps of the benefit application process that constituents and caseworkers follow.

Process Step	Description
Discovery	The constituent reviews available benefits and programs on a government website.
Application Submission	The constituent submits an application and supporting documents for the benefit.
Application Review	The intake officer, caseworker, case manager, and other authorities review the application and associated documentation. They assess the constituent’s eligibility, and either approve or reject the application, or return the application to the constituent for correction.
Eligibility Determination	If the reviewing agency determines that the constituent is eligible, the caseworker assigns the benefit to the constituent and notifies them of the approval and amount that they can expect to receive.
Benefit Disbursement	The caseworker sets up one-time or recurring payments of the eligible amount.

Diagram showing the steps of the benefit application process.

Seems pretty straightforward, right? Unfortunately, time and again, this process presents many complex challenges for both the constituents who request aid and the caseworkers who process the applications.

Benefit Management Challenges

Let’s explore some of the challenges associated with benefit management processes.

Challenges for Constituents

Agency websites and application processes are often frustrating to navigate and lack visibility of key contextual information, such as clear eligibility requirements or delivery timelines. As a result, constituents can’t easily find out what benefits are available and whether they meet the requirements to receive the benefits.

After constituents learn what's required, they need to gather and provide supporting documentation, which can be difficult and time-consuming. After constituents submit their application, there’s often no clear communication on the status of their request, the reasoning behind eligibility decisions, or disbursement schedules.

Delays in application processing or issues with payment systems disrupt the flow of aid, which can prolong or even worsen the constituent’s hardship. Constituents who receive benefits must often recertify their eligibility on a regular basis, which is a tedious process.

Challenges for Caseworkers

Behind the scenes, caseworkers must sort through loads of applications and supporting documents, examine the unique circumstances of each applicant, and request additional information when needed. Moreover, the eligibility requirements of each individual benefit vary in complexity and periodically change. Due to large and complicated workloads, caseworkers have a hard time prioritizing tasks, making accurate decisions, and maintaining communication with applicants.

Upon application approval, caseworkers must manually calculate the amount of aid that the constituent receives. The absence of identity verification and data validation tools leads to miscalculations or payment issues during disbursement. Disconnected and unintuitive back-end systems and paper documents make this work all the more difficult and even harder to implement updates to reflect policy changes.

All of these challenges can result in setbacks, errors, or fraudulent activity that erodes public trust and slows the impact of these vital initiatives.

Benefit Management in Public Sector Solutions

Financial assistance programs and benefits are crucial to countless individuals and families. That’s why Public Sector Solutions includes Benefit Management, a reimagined, person-centered service delivery application that’s built with trust and transparency in mind. Benefit Management uses automation, integration, and collaboration to deliver timely assistance and reduce administrative burden.

Use Benefit Management in Public Sector Solutions to:

Guide the constituents and help them to quickly identify benefits and programs that will meet their needs and associated requirements–all through a convenient and mobile-friendly online portal.
Automate eligibility calculations so that constituents can see a list of all the benefits they qualify for based on their income, expenses, household size, or other criteria that they enter in an online form.
Quickly and collaboratively process digital applications and supporting documents with eligibility review and approval flows that align with the requirements of each program or benefit.
Set up automatic status updates and self-service accounts to give constituents visibility into the status of their application, insights and reasoning behind eligibility decisions, and disbursement schedules—throughout the application process.
Disburse benefits to eligible recipients with one-time or recurring payments through integration with third-party payment systems.
Make it easy for constituents to report changes in their circumstances through the online portal, and for caseworkers to reassess eligibility and update disbursement amounts based on these changes.

Benefit Management includes an innovative and powerful toolset that simplifies and accelerates benefit application, eligibility review, and disbursement. In this module, you learn about the Salesforce objects that support these processes, and how you can use them to roll out financial benefits swiftly and efficiently.

This module includes information about the Public Sector Solutions objects that you use to provision financial benefits. To learn more about how to set up non-monetary benefits, such as food delivery and counseling sessions, see the Social Program Management Data Model in Public Sector Solutions Trailhead module.

You’ve explored the longstanding challenges that constituents and public agencies encounter when it comes to financial assistance. You’ve also caught a glimpse of how Benefit Management can improve the efficiency and transparency of these processes. In the following units, you explore the objects that power this Salesforce app.

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