Assessing non-use of social assistance

Non-use of income tested social benefits has many causes. Three hypotheses on non-use of social assistance based on data for Sweden collected in 1985 and 1997 are investigated. The results indicate some support for the view that it is more socially acceptable to apply for social assistance when a larger proportion of the population are receivers. Non-use of social assistance seems to be widespread. There are no signs of non-users as a fraction of those eligible changing across the years. Among the eligible, household income per capita as recorded the year before the interview was found to be negatively related to use. This indicates that people who expect to receive larger sums of social assistance are more likely to take up social assistance than those who expect smaller amounts.