Do the Most Vulnerable Know About Income Support Policies? The Case of the Italian Reddito d'Inclusione (ReI)

Evaluation of the non-take-up of public services and social benefits

“…Public services and social benefits exist to satisfy the population's needs; if, for whatever reason, these needs are unmet for some individuals because of NTU-and all the more so if they are underprivileged-then the outcomes are unfair from a social justice perspective. Moreover, vulnerable groups are more affected by NTU than the rest of the population, notably because they are less aware of the existence of social programs for which they are eligible (De Angelis & Van Wolleghem, 2022), because they experience greater difficulties in navigating the administrative process (Brodkin & Majmundar, 2010;Daigneault & Macé, 2020b), or because they lack the autonomy and/or material resources to fulfill the application requirements (on policy compliance, see Weaver, 2015). Yet, people in precarious situations are precisely those who have the greatest need for public services and social benefits.…”

“…It is crucial to recognize the distributive nature of administrative burdens that certain policy designs and administrative processes impose (Herd & Moynihan, 2018.). Indeed, administrative burdens undoubtedly weigh more heavily on vulnerable populations (Carey et al, 2021;Chudnovsky & Peeters, 2022;De Angelis & Van Wolleghem, 2022;Heinrich et al, 2022), thereby reinforcing the distributive impacts of NTU. Social assistance recipients are a case in point.…”

The Struggle of Being Poor and Claimant: Evidence on the Non-Take-Up of Social Policies in Italy

“…Finally, households may not claim social benefits despite being eligible because of 'psychological frictions' related to such benefits, such as stigma, inadequate information, cultural processes, low program awareness, or distrust of institutions (Lamont et al 2014;Bhargava and Manoli 2015;Eurofound 2015;Frazier and Marlier 2016;Li and Walker 2017). Regarding the low program awareness, De Angelis and Van Wolleghem (2022) recently find that this is particularly relevant among the most vulnerable groups of the population in Italy.…”