How to read an algorithm that’s deciding your benefits — a plain-language guide.

If an automated system is helping decide your benefits, your housing, or your child’s school placement, you have the right to understand it. You don’t need to be a programmer to start. You need the right questions.

Five questions to ask

• What is it actually deciding? Is it making the decision, or flagging a case for a human? Those are very different things.
• What information does it use? Which facts about you go in — and where did they come from? Old or wrong data is a common source of bad outcomes.
• Who is accountable? Which agency or vendor runs it, and who do you contact when it gets something wrong?
• Can you see your own record? You often have a right to the data and the reasoning behind a decision about you. Ask for it in writing.
• How do you appeal? There is almost always a process to contest a decision. Find the deadline early.

A system you can question is a system that can be corrected. A black box can only be obeyed.

Plain language isn’t a courtesy here — it’s a safeguard. If a system can’t be explained to the people it affects, it isn’t finished, no matter how well it runs.