133P
Frayed Safety Net: Households in Economic Need & Non-Participation in Income Support Programs
The American welfare state is composed of numerous programs intended to serve particular populations and to address specific needs. Under this fragmented system, not all who would benefit from aid are protected. Some in economic need may not be captured by the categorical requirements of these assistance programs. Additionally, even among those eligible for support programs, only a portion will enroll. Reasons for non-participation despite eligibility include, as examples, lack of awareness of the availability of support (Coe & Hill, 1998; Daponte, Sanders, & Taylor, 1999), degree of economic need (Purtell, Gershoff, & Aber, 2012), and stigma regarding benefit receipt (Coe & Hill, 1998).
Examination of non-participation is important to understanding the context of economic hardship in the United States. Studies of non-participation, however, tend to focus on single programs and individual clients. This project bolsters existing scholarship by providing a descriptive analysis of household-level non-participation. What are the characteristics of households in economic need that do not receive assistance from any cash or near-cash social programs? By conducting this analysis using the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), a large representative survey of households in the United States, it is possible to generalize findings to all U.S. households in economic need.
Method
The study uses the fourth, fifth, and sixth interview waves of the 2008 SIPP panel. Households with income at or below the relevant poverty threshold were retained for analysis (n=3829). Non-participation was defined as no member of the household receiving benefits from Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Supplemental Security Income, Social Security, cash veteran’s benefits, unemployment insurance, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program/Food Stamps, energy assistance, or rental assistance/government housing.
The relationship between a variety of demographic, employment, educational, and household composition characteristics and non-participation was evaluated. Two types of analyses were conducted: bivariate, characteristic-by-characteristic comparisons of participating and non-participating households and a multivariate analysis simultaneously considering all characteristics of interest. Specifically, a logit model was estimated predicting the probability of household non-participation.
Results
A number of differences were found between non-participating and program participating households. In general, findings were consistent between bivariate and multivariate analyses. Compared to program participating households, non-participating households were more likely to be headed by an individual identifying as white and less likely to be headed by an individual identifying as black. Non-participating households were also more likely to have at least one full-time worker and had a higher level of educational attainment. While presence of adults with a work-limiting disability or recent layoff was associated with a reduced probability of non-participation, households with retirees were more likely to be non-participating. Finally, among households with children, non-participating households tended to have fewer and older children.
Conclusions and Implications
Consistent with existing scholarship, the study demonstrates that there are systematic patterns of non-participation in American economic support programs. A new perspective is provided, however, by simultaneously examining non-participation in multiple programs at the household level. Results facilitate the identification of service gaps and barriers in the American welfare state.