Receipt Of Social Assistance Research Articles

Assessing the Level of Poverty and Utilization of Government Social Programs Among Tobacco Farmers in Indonesia.

Studies examining profit suggest that former tobacco farmers do as well or better than current tobacco farmers. Research has yet to examine the relationship among current and former tobacco farmers, poverty, and receipt of government social assistance. This type of research is critical to understanding the direct and indirect subsidization of tobacco growing. This study analyzed tobacco farmers' poverty levels and receipt of government social assistance programs. We designed and conducted an original four-wave economic survey of current and former tobacco farming households in Indonesia between 2016 and 2022. We then used descriptive analysis and probit regression for panel data to estimate the relationship between tobacco farming and poverty status. Tobacco farmers' per capita income and poverty rates vary across years. The poverty rate was significantly higher in the year with a higher-than-normal rainfall as it negatively affected farming outcomes. During this year, the poverty rate among current tobacco farmers was also higher than that of former tobacco farmers. Regression estimates from the panel data confirm the association between tobacco farming and the likelihood of being poor. We also found a high share of current tobacco farmers who receive government social assistance programs, such as cash transfer programs and a universal healthcare program. Our findings show high poverty rates-particularly during bad farming years-and high rates of government social assistance among tobacco farmers. The high rates of government assistance among tobacco farmers living in poverty show that the government is indirectly subsidizing the tobacco industry.

Parental social disadvantage as a determinant of welfare reliance among young adults before and after the Great Recession

ABSTRACT We investigate the association between parental social disadvantage and later welfare reliance among their children during entry to adulthood. We ask whether this association changed after the onset of the Great Recession. We use Finnish register-based data, studying young adults aged 18–22 in the years 2003–2012. Parental disadvantage is measured as low education, low income, unemployment and social assistance receipt when the children were at the age of 14 to 15. Welfare reliance is measured as income coming mainly from unemployment benefits, housing allowances and social assistance. We analyse annual welfare-reliance states by repeated-measures logit models. All parental disadvantage indicators predict higher probability of welfare reliance, and accumulation of several types of disadvantage has stronger effects than any single indicator. The effects of parental disadvantage became stronger by the onset of the recession in 2008, indicating that young adults coming from disadvantaged families were affected more by the recession. The findings illustrate the importance of state support in the welfare mix among young people with a disadvantaged background during recessions in a Nordic welfare state.

Automating social assistance: Exploring the use of robotic process automation in the Swedish personal social services

AbstractMany European countries employ Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in the administration of public benefits. However, there is limited understanding of how RPA is applied at the client level. This article investigates the utilization and impact of RPA use on social assistance (SA) distribution in Sweden, drawing on a sample of 800 SA applications in four Swedish municipalities. The results show that RPA use correlates with applicants' country of birth, age and duration of SA receipt. Additionally, RPA implementation coincides with less generous decisions, disproportionately affecting financially vulnerable groups. Rather than a correlation between generosity and the technology itself, the results suggest a conflict between the reorganisation of SA administration during RPA implementation and the principle of individualized judgments inherent in SA casework. Hence, public organisations are encouraged to ensure that their adoption of RPA neither exacerbates unequal access to services nor compromises professional discretion in favour of efficiency‐driven measures.

Socioeconomic differences in children's victimization to maternal and paternal violence: a register-based study.

To explore the potential of administrative data in assessment of the association between parental socioeconomic position (SEP) and children's violent victimization by biological parents. A longitudinal register-linkage study based on child-mother and child-father data, including all children born in Finland between 1991 and 2017. The data included 1,535,428 children, 796,335 biological mothers, and 775,966 fathers. We used logistic regression with person-years as observations and cluster-robust standard errors to predict children's violent victimization in 2009-2018 and assessed effect modification by child's age and gender. For the SEP indicators, lower maternal education (adjusted odds ratio (OR) 2.90, secondary education OR 1.99) and lower paternal education (OR 2.24, secondary education OR 1.59) were risk factors for violent victimization. Parental social assistance receipt (OR 2.4) and non-employment (OR 1.8-1.9) increased the risk of victimization to maternal and paternal violence. Income was associated with victimization in a gradient-like manner, with ORs ranging from 1.14 to 1.98 among mothers and from 1.29 to 2.56 among fathers. Children with low parental SEP were at the highest risk of parental violence, particularly paternal violence, at ages 3-8 years. All indicators of low SEP increased the risk of children experiencing both maternal and paternal physical violence, especially at ages 3-8 years. Longitudinal register data-because of large samples, no nonresponse or self-report bias, and the possibility to analyze violence committed by mother and father and age-groups separately-have great potential for comprehensive research on the risk factors of parental violence that are difficult to reliably assess with other types of data.

North Carolina's Medicaid Transformation: the Early Enrollee Experience.

On July 1, 2021, North Carolina's Medicaid Transformation mandatorily switched 1.6 million Medicaid beneficiaries from fee-for-service to managed care plans. We examined the early enrollee experience in terms of engagement in plan selection, provider continuity, use of primary care visits, and assistance with social needs. Using electronic health records (EHR) covering pre- and post-transition periods (1/1/2019-5/31/2022) from the largest provider network in western North Carolina, we identified all children and adults under age 65 with continuous Medicaid or private coverage. We conducted primary surveys of a random sample of Medicaid-covered enrollees and obtained self-reported rates of engagement in plan selection, continuity of provider access, and receipt of social need assistance. We used comparative interrupted time series models to estimate the relative change in primary care visits associated with the transition. Our EHR-based study cohorts included 4859 Medicaid and 5137 privately insured enrollees, with 398 Medicaid enrollees in the primary surveys. We found that 77.3% of survey participants reported that the managed care plan they were on was not chosen but automatically assigned to them, 13.1% reported insufficient information about the transition, and 19.2% reported lacking assistance with plan choice. We found that 5.9% were assigned to a different primary care provider. Over 29% reported not receiving any additional social need assistance. The transition was associated with a 7.1% reduction (95% CI, -11.5 to -2.7%) in the volume of primary care visits among Medicaid enrollees relative to privately insured enrollees. Medicaid enrollees in North Carolina may have had limited awareness and engagement in the transition process and experienced a reduction in primary care visits. As the state's transition process gains a foothold, future policy needs to improve enrollee engagement and develop evidence on healthcare utilization and patient outcomes.

Classification of Receipt of BPNT Social Assistance Using the C4.5 Algorithm (Case of the Grujugan Kidul Village Office)

BPNT social assistance is a government program that is unsustainable to help the lives of people who are selected selectively and periodically, social assistance is intended for some people in villages who are considered financially unable, so they need help from the government. BPNT social assistance, commonly known as social assistance, is assistance charged by the Regional Revenue and Expenditure Budget. The Municipal Government of Bondowoso provides various kinds of assistance programs, one of which is the BPNT Social Assistance, the distribution of which is carried out by the Grujugan Kidul Village Office. In the selection process to determine the beneficiaries of BPNT Social Assistance at the Grujugan Kidul Village Office, they still have not fully used information technology to support employee performance. So there are obstacles and it takes a long time. Therefore, we need a system that can help employees more easily determine beneficiaries. The application of Data Mining is a series of processes to find added value semi-manually in the form of unknown knowledge from a data set. In this study, the parameters are income, employment, and DTKS status. By implementing the C4.5 Data Mining Algorithm, it is hoped that it will make it easier and faster for employees to determine recipients of BPNT Social Assistance at the Grujugan Kidul Village Office. Paper, we describe the formatting guidelines for Proceedings. Maximum 200 words.

Financial difficulties among youth prenatally exposed to substances: a longitudinal register-based cohort study

Aim The receipt of long-term financial social assistance (FSA) as an indicator of financial difficulties among Finnish youth with prenatal substance exposure (PSE) was investigated in comparison with unexposed youth. Methods Data from national health and social welfare registers were collected for 18–24-year-old exposed (n = 355) and unexposed (n = 1011) youth. The influence of youth and maternal characteristics and out-of-home care (OHC) on the association between PSE and youth’s long-term FSA receipt was studied by generalized linear models and mediation analyses. Results Exposed youth had an increased likelihood of long-term FSA receipt (OR 4.89, 95% CI 3.76, 6.37) but the difference with unexposed was attenuated following adjustments for youth and maternal characteristics and OHC (AOR 1.33, 95% CI 0.89, 1.98). Maternal long-term FSA receipt (0.48, 95% CI 0.35, 0.64) and OHC (0.63, 95% CI 0.47, 0.83) mediated a large proportion of the association between PSE and youth’s long-term FSA receipt. Youth’s mental or behavioral disorders partly mediated the association (0.21, 95% CI 0.14, 0.30), but the mediating effect of lack of secondary education was minor (0.03, 95% CI 0.01, 0.07). Conclusion Receipt of long-term FSA among youth with PSE likely reflects maternal substance abuse linked with maternal financial situation and care instability in childhood.

European protection of Ukrainians during the martial law: The experience of Poland

The relevance of the study is due to the need to find ways to improve the temporary protection of Ukrainians in Europe during the hostilities in Ukraine. The purpose of the work is to analyze the norms of European legislation on the protection of Ukrainians and identify directions of improvement. The following methods make a basis of methodological approach: analysis of statistical data; comparison method; graphic method; generalization method. It was identified the countries of Europe to which more people applied for protection during the war in Ukraine. Shortcomings in the Polish legislation on the organization of temporary protection were revealed; in particular, in terms of confirming the registration of the place of Ukrainians’ stay, which allows them to move within Europe. It was made an assessment of ensuring the rights to temporary protection for Ukrainians, in particular, the employment and residence, and the feasibility and benefits of changes in Polish legislation that provide for optimization of assistance for displaced persons. According to the Polish citizens’ results of assessment of the support level for Ukrainians, it has been revealed a tendency of decline of support due to an increase in the violation of rules of conduct by Ukrainians. Directions for improving the organization of temporary protection of Ukrainians in Poland are outlined, which consist in stimulating immigrants to learn the Polish language and get a more qualified job. It is proposed to strengthen the Polish authorities’ control over the receipt of social assistance by displaced persons, to prevent the misuse of such assistance and to direct it to the necessary needs for health, education and full life of people under temporary protection in Europe. The results and conclusions are of practical importance for the authorities in the EU countries when improving the policy of temporary protection of migrants and the heads of migration and social services – when assigning social benefits

The feelings of living in poverty and depending on social assistance: An exploratory study on gender differences in Dibao families in China

Little is known about the differences in feelings of poverty and social assistance receipt among the different genders of heads of Chinese Dibao families. This article makes a preliminary analysis of the feelings of Chinese female heads of Dibao families about living in poverty and depending on social assistance and compares them with those of male heads. It finds that there are gender differences in the experiences between the female and male heads of Dibao families in China. The article argues that social assistance policies should be constructed or correspondingly adjusted in a targeted manner to become gender-sensitive.

Intergenerational disadvantage: Learning about equal opportunity from social assistance receipt

We use variation in the intergenerational persistence across social assistance benefits over 18 years to study the drivers of intergenerational disadvantage. Young people are more likely to receive social assistance if their parents received disability, caring, or single parent benefits, and less likely if they received unemployment benefits. Disparity in intergenerational persistence across benefit types suggests that parental bad luck has broader consequences for youth disadvantage than do their personal choices. Using the intensive margin and timing of parental social assistance to account for unobserved heterogeneity indicates that intergenerational disadvantage is more likely driven by poverty traps than welfare cultures.

The Long Arm Of Welfare Retrenchment: How New Right Socio-Economic Policies In The 1980s Affected Contact With The Criminal Justice System In Adulthood

Abstract The socio-economic policies of the British ‘New Right’ administrations have been associated with increases in crime using aggregate data. This paper assesses if the trend remains when we test individual-level relationships using two British cohort studies (the National Child Development Study 1958 and the British Cohort Study 1970). Our results point to a set of long-term ‘period effects’ in which those reliant on the welfare state at specific time-points in the 1980 and 1990s (regardless of their age) were more likely to be drawn into the criminal justice system in adulthood (circa 2000). This paper considers (i) how British ‘New Right’ welfare policies may have had unintended, but lasting consequences for individuals in receipt of social security assistance and (ii) the interplay between micro and macro criminological analysis.

Comparing the Receipt of Social Assistance in Urban and Rural China and the Role of Ethnicity

This article compares receipt of dibao social assistance in rural and urban areas of China using household data from seven province-level units. The probability of dibao receipt is positively related to the number of persons in the household who are older, adults who do not work and to the possibility that the head of household is in poor health. Means testing based on household income is more stringent in urban areas while low household wealth is a more important factor of dibao receipt in rural areas. In rural China, membership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) increases the probability of dibao receipt. A larger proportion of ethnic minority households than majority households receive dibao.

Is there a welfare trap? Duration dependence in social assistance recipiency among young Finns

The probability of social assistance exit decreasing over time is called negative duration dependence. This is one of the most debated aspects of social assistance receipt. This study analyses duration dependence among young adults in Finland and aims to show how social assistance receipt per se affects the likelihood of exiting social assistance. It also examines whether parental recipiency is associated with duration dependence. While the intergenerational transmission of social assistance has received extensive research attention, there is a scarcity of evidence on whether parental recipiency is associated with social assistance exits and duration effects. This study uses full monthly history of social assistance receipt between the ages of 19 and 29 years. The analyses are based on Finnish register data and conducted using discrete-time event-history models (pooled logistic, random-effect logistic and fixed-effect logistic). The findings indicate that controlling for all time-invariant characteristics significantly reduces but does not completely remove duration dependence among young adults. They also show that those whose parents received social assistance are less likely to exit social assistance. In models controlling for all time-invariant characteristics, parental social assistance receipt is also linked with stronger duration dependence. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Do Red-Flagged Clients Exit Social Assistance Earlier than Others? The Case of the Finnish Social Assistance System

We examine an early ‘red flag system’ in the Finnish social assistance system and its efficiency in reducing the length of social assistance spells. We utilise the age-threshold in the policy that requires notifying social services on beneficiaries under twenty-five years of age after four months of social assistance receipt. Using monthly administrative data covering all twenty-three to twenty-six-year-old social assistance beneficiaries in Finland in 2018-2019, we compare the social assistance receipt of those below and above the age-threshold. Our findings show that those who are ‘red flagged’ do not exit social assistance earlier than others. On the contrary, four months after the notification is sent to social services, they are more likely to still have social assistance as their primary source of income compared to the twenty-five to twenty-six-year-old individuals. Our results shed light on the little discussed question on how to combine social work with digitalised and automatised welfare.

The Dynamics of Social Assistance in the Informal Economy: Empirical Evidence from Urban China

AbstractThis article contributes to the growing body of research on social assistance (SA) dynamics by analyzing patterns of SA receipt in China, a middle-income country with a large informal employment sector. Using national low-income household survey data and event history analysis, this study explored the mechanisms underlying exit from Dibao (formally known as Minimum Living Security) and changes in exit probability over time. We found that in the context of an informal economy, the ‘explicit’ change of individual characteristics and employment structure decisively affects receipt duration on the micro and macroeconomic levels, respectively. On the policy level, affected by the informal employment structure, employment services tend to be of low quality and fail to promote Dibao exit effectively. Although the specific Dibao payment strategy, which is used to address the difficulty in means tests, largely curbs the risks of declining working motivation, it considerably increases the possibility of prolonged Dibao use. With this systemic influence of informal employment, a unique pattern of SA receipt characterized by the combination of long-term use and a nondecreasing hazard rate has developed in China.

APPLICATION OF DATA MINING IN DETERMINING SOCIAL ASSISTANCE RECIPIENTS WITH C4.5 ALGORITHM

The Gunung Maligas District Office is a government agency tasked with running a government program, namely the Social Assistance Receipt program, to run the social assistance program, many residents complain that they do not receive assistance, while some residents who are considered capable actually get assistance, where each aid program is have different criteria in determining the recipient. Due to the large number of existing aid programs with different criteria in determining the acceptance of the aid program, of course, local government staff will have difficulty in conducting the selection process. So we need a system that is able to help local government staff to more easily determine the recipients of the social assistance. Based on the historical data of beneficiaries, recommendations for the classification of beneficiaries can be made that will assist government staff. Classification can be done using the C4.5 algorithm. In this study, it has parameters, namely, occupation, income, housing conditions and number of dependents. By applying the C4.5 data mining algorithm, it is hoped that it will make it easier and faster for government staff to determine the recipients of social assistance at the Gunung Maligas District Office.

Comparing Receipt of Social Assistance in Urban and Rural China and the Role of Ethnicity

Dibao receipt in rural and in urban areas of China is contrasted using household data from seven province-level units. The probability of Dibao-receipt is positively related to how many persons in the household who are older, adults who do not work, and if the household head is not healthy. Means testing of household income is more stringent in urban areas while low household wealth is more important for Dibao-receipt in rural areas. In rural China, membership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) increases the probability of Dibao receipt. A larger proportion ethnic minority households than majority households receive Dibao.

Application of Data Mining in Determining Social Assistance Recipients With C4.5 Algorithm in Maligas Mountain District

The Gunung Maligas District Office is a government agency tasked with running a government program, namely the Social Assistance Receipt program, to run the social assistance program, many residents complain that they do not receive assistance, while some residents who are considered capable actually get assistance, where each aid program is have different criteria in determining the recipient. Due to the large number of existing aid programs with different criteria in determining the acceptance of the aid program, of course, local government staff will have difficulty in conducting the selection process. So we need a system that is able to help local government staff to more easily determine the recipients of the social assistance. Based on the historical data of beneficiaries, recommendations for the classification of beneficiaries can be made that will assist government staff. Classification can be done using the C4.5 algorithm. In this study, it has parameters, namely, occupation, income, housing conditions and number of dependents. By applying the C4.5 data mining algorithm, it is hoped that it will make it easier and faster for government staff to determine the recipients of social assistance at the Gunung Maligas District Office.

Changes in selection policy and refugee welfare use in Canada

AbstractWith the introduction of the 2002 Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA), Canada shifted its refugee selection criteria from adaptability to vulnerability. Little is known about the long‐term impact of this policy change on the economic self‐sufficiency of Government‐Assisted Refugees (GARs). Using data from the Longitudinal Immigration Database (IMDB), we compare the long‐term receipt of social assistance (SA) incomes among three GAR cohorts: those admitted pre‐IRPA (1997–2001), during the transition period (2002–2004) and post‐IRPA (2005–2009). We find GARs admitted during the transition period and post‐IRPA have higher SA rates than their pre‐IRPA counterparts three to eight years after arrival, and the gap is explained mostly by the former's lower employment rates. After year eight, however, the gap starts to decline. This suggests while post‐IRPA GARs require a more extended financial assistance, prioritising humanitarian goals in refugee admission policies does not lead to their prolonged welfare receipt.

Financial hardship and social assistance as determinants of mental health and food and housing insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.

BackgroundWhile social assistance through the U.S. federal CARES Act provided expanded unemployment insurance benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic until the summer of 2020, it is unclear whether social assistance was sufficient in subsequent months to meet everyday spending needs and to curb the adverse health-related sequelae of financial hardship.MethodsUsing multivariable Poisson log-binomial regression and repeated cross-sectional Household Pulse Survey data between September and December 2020 on 91,222 working-aged U.S. adults and 28,842 adult housing renters, this study explored the associations of financial hardship with mental health outcomes and food and housing insecurity after accounting for receipt of social assistance.ResultsFinancial hardship rose progressively from September to December 2020, and disproportionately affected Black non-Hispanic and Hispanic Americans and lower-income households. Experiencing considerable financial hardship (vs no hardship) predicted nearly 3-fold higher risks of anxiety and depressive symptoms (e.g., adjusted prevalence ratio, PR of depression = 2.75, 95% CI = 2.54–2.98, P < .001), a 23-fold higher risk of food insufficiency (PR = 22.71, 95% CI = 15.62–33.01, P < .001), and a 27-fold higher risk of a likely eviction (PR = 27.20, 95% CI = 10.63–69.59, P < .001). Across outcomes, these relationships were stronger at each successively higher level of financial hardship (all P values for linear trend <0.001), and more than offset benefits from social assistance.ConclusionsEven after accounting for social assistance receipt, working-aged adults experiencing financial hardship had markedly greater risks of anxiety and depressive symptoms, food insufficiency, and an anticipated housing eviction. These findings point to the urgent need for direct and sustained cash relief well in excess of current levels of social assistance to mitigate the pandemic's adverse impacts on the well-being of millions of Americans, including vulnerable minority and low-income populations.