Template-type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Pudney, Stephen
Author-Name: Hancock, Ruth
Author-Name: Hernandez, Monica
Title: The welfare cost of means-testing: pensioner participation in income support
Abstract: We estimate parametric and semi-parametric binary choice models of benefit take-up by
British pensioners and use a revealed preference argument to infer the cash-equivalent
value of disutility arising from stigma or complexity of the claims process. These implicit
costs turn out to be relatively small, averaging about £ 3-4 per week across Income Support
recipients. Using the Foster-Greer-Thorbecke measure of poverty among pensioners, we
find that allowing for implicit claim costs incurred by benefit recipients raises the measured
degree of poverty by not more than 13%.

Creation-Date: 20060401
Number: 2006-12
Publication-Status: published
File-URL: https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/files/working-papers/iser/2006-12.pdf
File-Format: Application/pdf
Handle: RePEc:ese:iserwp:2006-12