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The Route to Take‐up: Evidence from the UK Pension Credit Reform
Author(s) -
Zantomio Francesca
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
oxford bulletin of economics and statistics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.131
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1468-0084
pISSN - 0305-9049
DOI - 10.1111/obes.12080
Subject(s) - entitlement (fair division) , incentive , cash , pension , outreach , business , public economics , finance , actuarial science , economics , accounting , labour economics , economic growth , microeconomics
Viable routes to increase the take‐up of cash transfer programs include raising the financial incentive to claim and reducing claiming barriers. Older people's response to both is evaluated exploiting the introduction of Pension Credit in the UK. The reform involved improved application assistance, simplified claiming procedure, extended recertification interval, less intrusive reporting requirements and outreach campaigning; also, the cash entitlement was increased for a subgroup of pensioners. The behavioral response is identified using Family Resources Survey data. Results support the effectiveness of financial incentives, while no effect is found in the case of reducing barriers policies when unaccompanied by financial incentives.