Pandemic Income Support Programs and Adolescent Mental Health in the UK, Ireland and Australia

After cutting social security in recent decades, the UK, Ireland, and Australia expanded income-support programs during the pandemic. Relatively overlooked, this paper investigates policy responses among younger generations, the socioeconomic disparities therein, and whether and which of these policies, now rolled back, were most beneficial. To answer these questions, I rely on longitudinal survey data on adolescents and their caregivers. In value-added regressions adjusting for pre-pandemic health reports, I find that children reported better average health in households with access to the relatively generous scheme adopted by Australia. Girls reported better health in households targeted by previous cutbacks, including those with lower incomes (UK, Ireland) or headed by a single parent (Australia). The more far-reaching programs in Ireland and Australia were associated with better health also among children in well-off households. On the other hand, some children reported worse mental health despite receipt of payments in all three countries and especially in the UK. Further distributional analyses suggest that programs might have reduced adolescent health disparities in Australia, whereas overall effects were negative or mixed in the UK and Ireland. Hence, policy changes during the pandemic did not equally fit the needs of all children. Nonetheless, drawing lessons from that period, changes to existing income-support programs hold some promise to temper distress and associated inequalities across generations.