The effects of field office closures on social assistance take-up and targeting

Jeffrey Hicks

No 87, CLEF Working Paper Series from Canadian Labour Economics Forum (CLEF), University of Waterloo

Abstract: How does in-person support affect access to safety net programs? I study this question by examining how the closure of field offices has changed welfare and disability assistance caseloads. Using rich administrative data and a staggered difference-in-differences design, I estimate that closures, on average, reduced local caseloads by 11.5% for welfare and a statistically insignificant 1.6% for disability assistance. Declines in welfare caseloads (i) occurred across demographic, health, education, and eligibility groups, (ii) were somewhat larger among young and healthier individuals, and (iii) were suggestively larger among persons less familiar with the programs. On the whole, I find limited change in the relative targeting of benefits.

Keywords: welfare; disability assistance; screening; take-up (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H31 H53 H75 H83 I32 I38 J18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea, nep-lab and nep-pbe
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:clefwp:325487

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