21 research outputs found
Falling through the social safety net? Analysing nonâtakeâup of minimum income benefit and monetary social assistance in Austria
Nonâtakeâup 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 EUâSILC register data together with the taxâbenefit microsimulation model EUROMOD/SORESI. The results show that the reform led to a significant decrease of nonâtakeâup from 53 to 30% in terms of the number of households and from 51 to 30% in terms of expenditure. Following the threeât's (threshold, trigger, and tradeâoff) introduced by Van Oorschot, estimates of a twoâstage Heckman selection model as well as expert interviews indicate that the taken measures include both threshold and tradeâoff 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