BenefitMe runner up for Non-profit Splash Award

Article summary: BenefitMe was the runner up for the Non-profit award at the DrupalSouth 2023 Splash Awards. BenefitMe was driven by the Digital Aotearoa Collective, with Salsa Digital donating funds and personnel to bring the vision to life.

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Date:
22 May 2023
Author:
Phillipa Martin

BenefitMe takes home runner-up award

BenefitMeExternal Link was honoured as the runner up in the Non-profit Splash Award. This project brought Drupal and Rules as Code (RaC) together. The project team consisted of members from the Digital Aotearoa Collective and Salsa Digital.

Special thanks

A special thanks to all the people who contributed to BenefitMe, including:

  • The initial crew from the Digital Aotearoa CollectiveExternal Link : Jo Allum, Pia Andrews, Jonah Duckles, Robert O’Brien, Arama Maitara, Hamish Fraser, Tom Barraclough, Ben Tairea, Brenda Wallace, Siobhan McCarthy, Regan Gilmour, and more.
  • Salsarians: Mark Calvert, Emil Jeyaratnam, Phillipa Martin, Suchi Garg and Nic Haase

More about BenefitMe

Salsa worked with the Digital Aotearoa Collective (DAC) to create stage 1 of BenefitMeExternal Link , a website where NZ citizens can check their eligibility for social security benefits. Salsa donated funds and people, working across all areas of this unique Drupal and Rules as Code (RaC) project.

Understanding and often untangling the web of social benefits an individual is entitled to can be difficult. This can be even more complicated when taking into account individual circumstances, changes over time, or other benefits that could impact entitlements entirely or partially.

NZ citizens now have an independent website they can go to and see what benefits they’re eligible for — putting some power back into the hands of NZ citizens. Importantly the website shows them how much they should receive in benefits. This means people who are currently on benefits can also double check to see if their payment is correct.

The heart of the website is driven by the Rules as Code, OpenFisca engine. This is able to digest complicated legislation such as entitlements available to NZ citizens and the conditions that apply, which are converted into code. NZ citizens answer a series of questions on the website to instantly learn the correct benefits and payments they’re entitled to.

BenefitMe is built with Drupal (backend), OpenFisca (rules coding) and CivicTheme (open source, frontend Drupal theme). A customised Drupal webform interacts with OpenFisca.