I paid into it with every paycheck I earned: How benefit type and beneficiary contributions shape attitudes about increasing or decreasing administrative burdens for social protections

• Published in: Policy studies journal 2024-09
• Main Authors: Haeder, Simon F., Sylvester, Steven
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0190-292X; 1541-0072
• DOI: 10.1111/psj.12560

Administrative burdens are an important policy tool that has received growing scholarly attention. Burdens are consequential and serve as a contributor to incomplete program take‐up. However, our knowledge is limited on how program characteristics affect public attitudes toward burden‐increasing or decreasing policies. Based on our knowledge of public attitudes toward the welfare state, two such characteristics, whether benefits are “earned” and whether they come in the form of in‐kind services or cash payments, may also affect perceptions of administrative burdens. Using a nationally representative survey ( N  = 2904), we tested support for two administrative burdens (in‐person interviews and requirements for government‐issued documents) and two administrative easings (presumptive eligibility and express lane eligibility) for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) in the United States. In general, we found no strong and consistent differences along both dimensions. However, Republicans, Conservatives, and those high in racial resentment consistently favored increasing burdens and opposed decreasing burdens with the opposite effect for Democrats, Liberals, and those low in racial resentment. Americans supported administrative burdens in the form of documentation requirements across all programs. However, they were open to burden decreases. 行政负担是一项重要的政策工具，受到越来越多的学术关注。负担是必然的，也是项目实施不充分的一个因素。然而，研究不足的是，项目特征如何影响公众对增加或减少负担的政策的态度。根据我们对“公众对福利制度的态度”的了解，福利是否是“赚取的”，以及，福利是否是以实物服务或现金支付的形式提供的，这两个特征也可能影响对行政负担的感知。通过一项全国代表性调查( N  = 2904)，我们测试了公众对美国社会保障、医疗保险、医疗补助和贫困家庭临时援助计划(TANF)的两项行政负担(面对面访谈、政府签发文件的要求)和两项行政宽松政策(推定资格、快速通道资格)的支持。总体而言，我们发现，这两个维度上没有强烈而一致的差异。然而，共和党、保守党和种族怨恨程度较高的人始终支持增加负担，反对减少负担，而民主党、自由党和种族怨恨程度较低的人则持相反态度。美国人支持所有项目中的行政负担以文件要求的形式体现。然而，他们对减少负担持开放态度。. Las cargas administrativas son una herramienta política importante que ha recibido una atención académica cada vez mayor. Las cargas son importantes y contribuyen a la aceptación incompleta de los programas. Sin embargo, nuestro conocimiento es limitado sobre cómo las características de los programas afectan las actitudes públicas hacia las políticas de aumento o disminución de las cargas. Con base en nuestro conocimiento de las actitudes públicas hacia el estado de bienestar, dos de esas características, si los beneficios son “ganados” y si vienen en forma de servicios en especie o pagos en efectivo, también pueden afectar las percepciones de las cargas administrativas.