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Harrisburg, PA – Secretary of Administration Michael Newsome introduced in the present day that expertise initiatives for the Division of Income and Division of Human Providers have been chosen as finalists by the Nationwide Affiliation of State Chief Info Officers (NASCIO) for its 2022 State IT Recognition Awards.
The initiatives are amongst 31 finalists chosen from over 100 state nominations. Winners in 10 classes can be introduced at NASCIO’s annual convention in October.
“Yearly, the Workplace of Administration companions with businesses on lots of of expertise initiatives to enhance customer support, enhance effectivity and obtain higher outcomes for his or her packages,” mentioned Newsome. “To have two of those initiatives chosen for nationwide recognition is a testomony to the Wolf administration’s management and the commonwealth’s IT professionals.”
The 2 Pennsylvania finalists are:
Division of Income: My Pennsylvania Tax Hub (myPATH)
The Division of Income’s modernization effort replaces legacy mainframe functions from the Nineteen Eighties and expands the array of on-line taxpayer companies obtainable from the division. Up to now, 40 new companies have been added to myPATH, the web portal that provides submitting and fee choices for taxpayers. By way of myPATH, clients can file a wider array of tax return varieties electronically, obtain correspondence on-line, talk with the division by means of a web based service, test the standing of a refund or rebate and think about estimated funds and credit.
The web software for the Property Tax/Hire Rebate (PTRR) program demonstrates the advantages of myPATH. The Property Tax/Hire Rebate program advantages older and disabled Pennsylvanians, amongst others. Previous to myPATH, there was no on-line submitting possibility for PTRR. In 2021, residents submitted roughly 35,000 on-line PTRR functions. In 2022, the division acquired 56,000 on-line PTRR functions by means of the primary seven months, which is already 60% greater than in 2021. Practically 80% of property tax/lease rebate candidates who offered buyer suggestions “strongly agreed” that they had a constructive expertise utilizing myPATH.
Private Earnings Tax (PA-40) return processing has additionally improved with myPATH. In 2021, the division acquired 176,000 Private Earnings Tax returns by means of myPATH, with solely 2% requiring handbook assessment. For comparability, paper returns had a ten% error fee and Modernized e-file (MeF) returns a 4.5% error fee. Within the first 4 months of 2022, the division acquired 212,000 PA-40 returns by means of myPATH.
Along with changing legacy tax techniques, myPATH will exchange the companies at present provided within the e-TIDES and PA-100 on-line functions, making it the central location for all the web companies provided by the division.
“One in every of our fundamental targets at our company is to push ahead with modern initiatives like this one which enormously enhance customer support,” Income Secretary Dan Hassell mentioned. “On the similar time, we’re creating efficiencies for our staff and offering them with new instruments to make their day-to-day jobs simpler. We’re additionally happy with the truth that this venture has remained on time and on price range since its launch in 2018.”
Division of Human Providers: Occasion-Primarily based Mass Texting for Advantages
The Division of Human Providers is utilizing textual content message notifications to extend responsiveness to different correspondence it’s legally required to ship by means of the mail, corresponding to renewal packets and requests to offer verification paperwork to help a advantages software. When households don’t reply in a well timed method, their advantages could also be closed, or they might not be licensed for a brand new program or profit – risking pointless disruption to well being care, meals help and different supportive companies. When this occurs, County Help Workplace (CAO) employees should perform actions to resume the family’s profit or carry out outreach for the lacking data.
“Implementing textual content messaging outreach permits us to raised talk with Pennsylvanians we serve by offering necessary updates and data in real-time,” mentioned Human Providers Appearing Secretary Meg Snead. “By serving to the people and households we serve preserve entry to important companies and helps, we’re enhancing effectivity by decreasing cases of avoidable disruption.”
People can subscribe to obtain textual content messages by means of COMPASS. When a renewal packet is mailed, for instance, a textual content message is instantly despatched to the top of family informing them that they will count on their renewal packet within the mail. This mixture of time-based textual content messaging paired with bodily mailed correspondence helps straight enhance open charges and actions taken by the recipient. The division measured a 30 % enhance within the well timed submission of on-line renewals amongst profit recipients who opted to obtain textual content messages.
DHS has despatched over 850,000 textual content messages to over 475,000 households since October 2021. Primarily based on the constructive outcomes, DHS plans to develop the textual content messaging capabilities sooner or later and is exploring further communications capabilities to streamline interactions between CAO employees and profit recipients.
NASCIO presents the Excellent Achievement within the Discipline of Info Expertise awards to states which have applied distinctive packages which have made an necessary contribution to the operation of state authorities. To study extra in regards to the awards, go to nascio.org.
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Dan Egan, Workplace of Administration, degan@pa.gov
Jeffrey Johnson, Income, ra-press@pa.gov
Brandon Cwalina, Human Providers, ra-pwdhspressoffice@pa.gov
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