Falling through the social safety net? Analysing non‐take‐up of minimum income benefit and monetary social assistance in Austria

Abstract

Non‐take‐up of means tested benefits is a widespread phenomenon in European welfare states. The paper assesses whether the reform that replaced the monetary social assistance benefit by the minimum income benefit in Austria in 2010/11 has succeeded in increasing take up rates. We use EU‐SILC register data together with the tax‐benefit microsimulation model EUROMOD/SORESI. The results show that the reform led to a significant decrease of non‐take‐up from 53 to 30% in terms of the number of households and from 51 to 30% in terms of expenditure. Following the three‐t's (threshold, trigger, and trade‐off) introduced by Van Oorschot, estimates of a two‐stage Heckman selection model as well as expert interviews indicate that the taken measures include both threshold and trade‐off characteristics. Elements such as the higher degree of anonymity within the claiming process, the provision of health insurance, binding minimum standards, the limitation of the maintenance obligations, new regulations related to the liquidation of wealth, as well as the general coverage of the benefit reform in the media and in public discussions led to an improved access to the benefit.

Towards a new consolidated framework for analysing benefit coverage

“…Analyses of eligibility and take-up are mostly conducted in relation to means-tested benefits, where policy frameworks can be simulated with reasonable levels of accuracy based on individual-level and household-level income data (Bargain et al, 2012;Frick and Groh-Samberg, 2007;Fuchs et al, 2020;Gustafsson, 2002;Matsaganis et al, 2010;Van Oorschot, 1991). It is trickier to analyse eligibility in relation to contributory benefits or public services, which often requires information not always included in socio-economic surveys.…”

Trapped in inactivity? Social assistance and labour supply in Austria

“…Federal states can, for example, increase state-wide minimum standards. 6 The Austrian system is characterised by substantial non-take-up of social assistance, as has been shown, for example, by Fuchs et al (2020). The authors analysed the development of non-take-up over time and found that in 2009, the non-take-up rate of the Austrian social assistance benefit was about 50%, as measured both in terms of number of households and expenditure.…”

The Non-Take-Up of Health and Social Benefits: What Implications for Social Citizenship?

“…To date it is common sense that non-take-up is present in relevant scope in all OECD countries (Hernanz et al 2004) and EU member states (European Commission 2006;Eurofound 2015) ranging from rates between 20 to 80 % depending on the type of benefit and the country of research. Several studies advance the country specific research agendas in Austria (e. g. Fuchs et al 2020), Belgium (e. g. Van Mechelen and Janssens 2017), Finland (e. g. Bargain et al 2012), Canada (e. g. Daigneault and Macé 2020), France (e. g. Rode 2009; Warin 2016), Greece and Spain (Matsaganis et al 2010), Germany (e. g. Becker and Hauser 2005;Bruckmeier and Wiemers 2018;Harnisch 2019) and the Netherlands (e. g. Rei-jnders et al 2018). While this list is not exhaustive it shows the existence of a lively scientific discourse around the topic of non-take-up.…”