Plaid for Government Benefits

Applying for benefits means proving income, household and address again for every program. YC wants a consent-based data layer that verifies once and works everywhere.

Every benefits agency runs its own portal and none of them share data, so applicants re-prove income, household and residency for each program and at every renewal, while staff check pay stubs by hand. The friction that turns away honest people still lets fraud through: the GAO puts federal fraud losses at up to half a trillion dollars a year, and AI can now forge a pay stub in seconds.

The ask: a Plaid-like layer that, with the applicant's consent, pulls verified income, tax and residency records from the source into every program at once.

Why now: from 2027, states have to re-verify millions of Medicaid enrollees twice a year, and AI agents that handle enrollment will need data they can trust.

Read the full request on YC →