A new targeting: a new take-up?

Non-Take-Up of Social Assistance: Regional Differences and the Role of Social Norms

“…Third, the thesis that economic structure influences non-take-up can be developed further to encompass not only the agricultural/primary sector, but the industrial/secondary and the service/tertiary sectors as well. The economic structure influences employment opportunities, and it might therefore influence the expected duration of being in need (Bruckmeier and Wiemers 2012). People working in the dynamic tertiary economic sector are more likely to be working poor.…”

“…An argument frequently used is that the expected benefits are too low in comparison to the transaction costs of applying for social assistance (Riphahn 2001). In line with this argument, Bruckmeier and Wiemers (2012) identify the degree of need and the expected duration of eligibility as important determinants of claiming social assistance. Other authors argue that administrative errors and administrative hurdles lead to increased non-take-up rates (Currie 2004;Neuenschwander et al 2012;Van Oorschot 1991;Van Oorschot 1998;Van Oorschot 2002).…”

“…Kayser and Frick (2000) explained the difference because of the history of rigid socio-political structures in the former East Germany, where people were obliged to work and the social assistance program included punishment for those able to work but who did not. There are also several studies that find a strong urbanrural divide (Becker and Hauser 2005;Bruckmeier and Wiemers 2012;Riphahn 2001). Non-take-up seems to be higher in rural areas because the protective shield of anonymity is missing in sparsely populated areas.…”

“…On the one hand, this discrepancy could be due to the accuracy gained by using administrative data (having access to information on wealth), while on the other hand, it is not possible to cover the complete foreign population with tax data, because they get taxed differently in the first period after immigration -which might influence non-take-up estimation. Bruckmeier and Wiemers (2012), for example, showed that foreigners have a lower probability of taking up social assistance benefits, because they are less familiar with the welfare system than native citizens and because they tend to get more stigmatized. There are also legal reasons why foreigners tend to forego social assistance.…”

“…Besides the fact that this study is not able to address the situation of nontake-up for specific categories of foreigners, there are other drawbacks that might be addressed in a follow-up study. With the approach chosen, it is, for example, not possible to distinguish between the persistent and the temporary form of non-takeup (Bruckmeier and Wiemers 2012). A combination of episodic earned income data combined with episodic data on social benefits and on wealth would make that possible, and it would further increase the accuracy of non-take-up estimates.…”