Worked example

Automated eligibility denial

An automated eligibility denial on an income mismatch, with a receipt, a named owner, an appeal path, and 4-, 48-, and 120-hour clocks.

Receipt issued at decision time

The receipt names the reason code, the owner, and the appeal route, so the applicant can challenge the denial.

{
  "schema_version": "1.0.0",
  "receipt_id": "RCP-2026-1124",
  "issued_at": "2026-05-06T08:27:41Z",
  "owner": { "name": "Eligibility Operations", "role": "System owner" },
  "subject": { "id": "app-99114", "type": "application" },
  "action": { "class": "WRITE", "description": "Deny eligibility", "reversible": true },
  "decision": { "decision_type": "eligibility_denial", "reason_codes": ["INCOME-MISMATCH"] },
  "clocks": { "ack": { "hours": 4 }, "review": { "hours": 48 }, "remedy": { "hours": 120 } },
  "appeal_path": { "url": "/appeals/eligibility", "channel": "in-product form" }
}

Visible acknowledgment, review, and remedy clocks

Applicants and reviewers see the same clocks.

The clocks, drawn to one scale

Each bar runs from the decision to its deadline, on one scale of hours.

Hour 0 The denial is issued with its receipt.

  1. Acknowledge 4 hours
    Due
    Eligibility Operations confirms it has the case and tells the applicant when review will finish.
    If missed
    The case goes to a steward.
  2. Review 48 hours (2 days)
    Due
    A person upholds the denial, reverses it, or records an exception.
    If missed
    The applicant keeps support as if eligible until a person decides.
  3. Remedy 120 hours (5 days)
    Due
    The applicant gets a reversal, compensation, or a fallback that keeps essential support in place.
    If missed
    Essential support continues, and the breach is logged against Eligibility Operations.

Exceptions must preserve the appeal path

An exception can delay the remedy. It cannot close the appeal.

  • A data-quality exception needs a written plan to check the income again.
  • A legal exception needs a steward's sign-off and a date for its next review.
  • Exceptions are logged in the Exceptions framework.

Remedy path is mandatory

The applicant can see the remedy, it runs on the remedy clock, and it names the next step.

  • If the income is verified, the denial is reversed.
  • An applicant who would struggle to gather documents gets a caseworker's help with the review.
  • The applicant is told the next step and which documents are needed.
  • Each INCOME-MISMATCH denial reversed after a challenge is counted against the income-matching rule. The count goes to Eligibility Operations, which owns the rule. When the count passes a set number, it reviews the rule and records what changed.

Where this fits

Public benefits and debt recovery

Whether a person gets a benefit, how much, and whether they owe it back.

Scored cases
Standards to adopt
Run first
VAL-01 Journey burden check. Score how long the claim or appeal journey takes the claimant, and whether it is hard enough to amount to a denial.

Each denial record carries its evidence pack, and a release gate checks each record against its pack. The anti-weaponization constraints apply to burden checks.

Terms used: Time transparency Stable clock Bounded duration Decision artifact Traceable ownership Safe pause Time to restore (TTR) Time to halt (TTH) Appeal passage rate

The full entry, and where the framework does less →