By prioritizing empathy over bureaucracy and focusing on people's real-life experiences, we can help people find the assistance they need

Imagine for a moment that you have experienced a tragedy in your life: your home was destroyed in a natural disaster. This is a painful and pivotal moment. You know the government may be able to help and may offer several benefits that are designed to help people in your situation, including inexpensive loans for rebuilding, emergency food assistance, and changes to your tax obligations. But where do you start?

Finding and learning about benefits information should be easy and intuitive. People should not have to navigate a complex matrix of siloed government websites when events in their lives call for grief — or even celebration. The Benefits Eligibility Awareness Resource Service (BEARS) laid the foundation for a human-centered approach for the public to learn about benefits, which is a top priority for the government.

BEARS was designed as an online resource that streamlines information for multiple benefits — from many different agencies — into one experience that allows users to check their eligibility with just a few simple steps, all by starting with the question, "What have you experienced in your life?"

We collaborated with several federal agencies to learn about eligibility requirements for benefits programs they oversee, and mapped them to the events many people will face at some point in their lives, such as a death in the family, reaching retirement age, or becoming a parent for the first time. We designed an integrated tool, so the applicant only has to answer each question once. The applicant receives a custom list of benefits they are most likely eligible for after answering a few, short questions. We standardized the benefits descriptions so they can quickly assess what works for them and how to apply.

BEARS graduated Phase 4 in 2024 and now is a fully operational product at USA.gov, which will continue to improve on the experience going forward. 10x is proud of the role we played in imagining and building digital capabilities for an empathetic future of public service.

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