IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/soa/wpaper/265.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Why Do Eligible Individuals Fail to Enrol in Government Social Benefits? A Systematic Scoping Review of Barriers to Access

Author

Listed:
  • Mariona Tres Vilanova

    (Department of Economics, SOAS University of London)

Abstract

Why do so many eligible individuals fail to enrol in government social benefits? To address this question, I conduct a systematic scoping review of the theoretical and quantitative literature of welfare benefits take-up. I find that evidence on the significance, size, and direction of factors hindering the take-up of social protection programmes by eligible groups remains inconclusive. Benefit size and duration are the main determinants to take-up but focusing only on these offers a truncated story. Participation in other government programmes, social networks, demographic characteristics, education, employment status, geographical location, asset ownership, and migration status seem to influence individuals' decisions to participate in social protection programmes. These individual characteristics in turn proxy for the information barriers, compliance costs and psychological costs of the claiming process.

Suggested Citation

  • Mariona Tres Vilanova, 2024. "Why Do Eligible Individuals Fail to Enrol in Government Social Benefits? A Systematic Scoping Review of Barriers to Access," Working Papers 265, Department of Economics, SOAS University of London, UK.
    • Handle: RePEc:soa:wpaper:265
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.soas.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2025-02/economics-wp265.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Meredith Fowlie & Michael Greenstone & Catherine Wolfram, 2015. "Are the Non-monetary Costs of Energy Efficiency Investments Large? Understanding Low Take-Up of a Free Energy Efficiency Program," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(5), pages 201-204, May.
    2. Kerstin Bruckmeier & Regina T. Riphahn & Jürgen Wiemers, 2021. "Misreporting of program take-up in survey data and its consequences for measuring non-take-up: new evidence from linked administrative and survey data," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 61(3), pages 1567-1616, September.
    3. Halpern, Janice & Hausman, Jerry A., 1986. "Choice under uncertainty: A model of applications for the social security disability insurance program," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 131-161, November.
    4. Nichols, Albert L & Zeckhauser, Richard J, 1982. "Targeting Transfers through Restrictions on Recipients," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 72(2), pages 372-377, May.
    5. David Coady & César Martinelli & Susan W. Parker, 2013. "Information and Participation in Social Programs," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 27(1), pages 149-170.
    6. Amy Finkelstein & Matthew J Notowidigdo, 2019. "Take-Up and Targeting: Experimental Evidence from SNAP," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 134(3), pages 1505-1556.
    7. Jennifer Stuber & Karl Kronebusch, 2004. "Stigma and other determinants of participation in TANF and Medicaid," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(3), pages 509-530.
    8. Rema Hanna & Vivi Alatas & Abhijit Banerjee & Benjamin A. Olken & Ririn Purnamasari & Matthew Wai-Poi & Christian Daude, 2012. "Ordeal Mechanisms in Targeting: Theory and Evidence from a Field Experiment in Indonesia," CID Working Papers 254, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    9. Kerstin Bruckmeier & Jürgen Wiemers, 2010. "A New Targeting - A New Take-Up?: Non-take-up of Social Assistance in Germany after Social Policy Reforms," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 294, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    10. Goldin, Jacob & Homonoff, Tatiana & Javaid, Rizwan & Schafer, Brenda, 2022. "Tax filing and take-up: Experimental evidence on tax preparation outreach and benefit claiming," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 206(C).
    11. Stephen Pudney & Ruth Hancock & Holly Sutherland, 2006. "Simulating the Reform of Means‐tested Benefits with Endogenous Take‐up and Claim Costs," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 68(2), pages 135-166, April.
    12. David Moher & Alessandro Liberati & Jennifer Tetzlaff & Douglas G Altman & The PRISMA Group, 2009. "Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses: The PRISMA Statement," PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(7), pages 1-6, July.
    13. Carla Canelas & Miguel Niño-Zarazúa, 2022. "Informality and Pension Reforms in Bolivia: The Case of Renta Dignidad," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(7), pages 1436-1458, July.
    14. de Janvry, Alain & Finan, Frederico & Sadoulet, Elisabeth & Vakis, Renos, 2006. "Can conditional cash transfer programs serve as safety nets in keeping children at school and from working when exposed to shocks?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(2), pages 349-373, April.
    15. Burdín, Gabriel & Melo, Gioia de, 2009. "Social benefits in Uruguay: why do some potential beneficiaries not apply?," Revista CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), December.
    16. Mas-Colell, Andreu & Whinston, Michael D. & Green, Jerry R., 1995. "Microeconomic Theory," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195102680, Decembrie.
    17. Aizer, Anna & Currie, Janet, 2004. "Networks or neighborhoods? Correlations in the use of publicly-funded maternity care in California," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(12), pages 2573-2585, December.
    18. Mansoor, Zahra & Williams, Martin J., 2024. "Systems approaches to public service delivery: methods and frameworks," Journal of Public Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 44(2), pages 258-283, June.
    19. Richard Blundell, 2017. "What Have We Learned from Structural Models?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(5), pages 287-292, May.
    20. Duclos, Jean-Yves, 1995. "Modelling the take-up of state support," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(3), pages 391-415, November.
    21. Wei-Yin Hu, 1998. "Elderly Immigrants on Welfare," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 33(3), pages 711-741.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rosenqvist, Olof & Selin, Håkan, 2023. "Explaining benefit take-up behavior – the role of incentives and habits," Working Paper Series 2023:24, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    2. Chlond, Bettina & Goeschl, Timo & Kesternich, Martin & Werthschulte, Madeline, 2024. "Transporting behavioral insights to low-income household: A field experiment on energy efficiency investmen," ZEW Discussion Papers 24-079, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    3. Olof Rosenqvist & Håkan Selin, 2024. "Explaining Benefit Take-up Behavior – The Role of Financial Incentives," CESifo Working Paper Series 11402, CESifo.
    4. Zantomio, Francesca, 2008. "The route to take-up: raising incentives or lowering barriers?," ISER Working Paper Series 2008-35, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    5. David Coady & César Martinelli & Susan W. Parker, 2013. "Information and Participation in Social Programs," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 27(1), pages 149-170.
    6. Chlond, Bettina & Goeschl, Timo & Kesternich, Martin & Werthschulte, Madeline, 2024. "Transporting behavioral insights to low-income households: A field experiment on energy efficiency investments," Working Papers 0755, University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics.
    7. Riphahn, Regina, 1999. "Immigrant Participation in Social Assistance Programs: Evidence from German Guestworkers," CEPR Discussion Papers 2318, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    8. Tomer Blumkin & Efraim Sadka & Yoram Margalioth, 2008. "The Role of Stigma in the Design of Welfare Programs," Working Papers 0806, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Department of Economics.
    9. Hauck, Tobias & Wallossek, Luisa, 2024. "Optional (non-)filing and effective taxation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 238(C).
    10. Ha Trong Nguyen & Huong Thu Le & Luke B Connelly, 2021. "Who's declining the “free lunch”? New evidence from the uptake of public child dental benefits," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(2), pages 270-288, February.
    11. Abe Dunn & Joshua D Gottlieb & Adam Hale Shapiro & Daniel J Sonnenstuhl & Pietro Tebaldi, 2024. "A Denial a Day Keeps the Doctor Away," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 139(1), pages 187-233.
    12. Parsons, Donald O., 1996. "Imperfect 'tagging' in social insurance programs," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(1-2), pages 183-207, October.
    13. Bargain, Olivier B. & Immervoll, Herwig & Viitamäki, Heikki, 2007. "How Tight Are Safety-Nets in Nordic Countries? Evidence from Finnish Register Data," IZA Discussion Papers 3004, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Stephen Pudney & Monica Hernandez & Ruth Hancock, 2007. "The welfare cost of means-testing: pensioner participation in income support," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(3), pages 581-598.
    15. Kowalski, Amanda E., 2015. "Estimating the tradeoff between risk protection and moral hazard with a nonlinear budget set model of health insurance," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 122-135.
    16. Ethan M. J. Lieber & Lee M. Lockwood, 2019. "Targeting with In-Kind Transfers: Evidence from Medicaid Home Care," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(4), pages 1461-1485, April.
    17. Duclos, Jean-Yves, 1995. "Modelling the take-up of state support," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(3), pages 391-415, November.
    18. Janet Currie & Firouz Gahvari, 2008. "Transfers in Cash and In-Kind: Theory Meets the Data," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 46(2), pages 333-383, June.
    19. Jason B. Cook & Chloe N. East, 2023. "The Effect of Means-Tested Transfers on Work: Evidence from Quasi-Randomly Assigned SNAP Caseworkers," NBER Working Papers 31307, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Alejandro Cid & José María Cabrera & Marianne Bernatzky & María Ramírez-Michelena & Magdalena Blanco, 2019. "Strategies to increase the take-up of social benefits. Evidence from a field experiment in a deeply vulnerable population," Documentos de Trabajo/Working Papers 1908, Facultad de Ciencias Empresariales y Economia. Universidad de Montevideo..

    More about this item

    Keywords

    benefit take-up; welfare participation; public policy; institutions;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H53 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Welfare Programs
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
    • D73 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Bureaucracy; Administrative Processes in Public Organizations; Corruption
    • D78 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Positive Analysis of Policy Formulation and Implementation
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • J18 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Public Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:soa:wpaper:265. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chandni Dwarkasing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/desoauk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.