The health benefits of a targeted cash transfer: the UK Winter Fuel Payment

Thomas Crossley () and Federico Zilio
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Federico Zilio: Institute for Fiscal Studies and Institute for Social & Economic Research

No W17/23, IFS Working Papers from Institute for Fiscal Studies

Abstract: Each year the UK records 25,000 or more excess winter deaths, primarily among the elderly. A key policy response is the “Winter Fuel Payment” (WFP), a labelled but unconditional cash transfer to households with a member above the Female State Pension Age. The WFP has been shown to raise fuel spending among eligible households. We examine the causal effect of the WFP on health outcomes, including self-reports of chest infection, measured hypertension and biomarkers of infection and inflammation. We find a robust and statistically significant six percentage point reduction in the incidence of high levels of serum fibrinogen. Reductions in other disease markers point to health benefits, but the estimated effects are not robustly statistically significant.

Keywords: benefits; health; biomarkers; heating; regression discontinuity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H51 I12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-10-18
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-ene, nep-eur, nep-hea, nep-pbe and nep-reg
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Related works:
Journal Article: The health benefits of a targeted cash transfer: The UK Winter Fuel Payment (2018)
Working Paper: The health benefits of a targeted cash transfer: the UK Winter Fuel Payment (2017)
Working Paper: The Health Benefits of a Targeted Cash Transfer:The UK Winter Fuel Payment (2017)
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