Stigma embedded in welfare eligibility deters take-up more than information availability does.
Evidence
Information about service is an aspect of service. Withholding information depresses service demands. For example, the campaign to reform welfare by dramatically increasing the welfare rolls was based on the view that a political movement could help overcome the stigma attached by potential recipients to welfare status. It could provide the information necessary to realize a substantial increase in the number of recipients. … The failure of public welfare agencies to make sure potential recipients receive the benefits to which they are entitled contrasts dramatically with the success of social security and Veterans’ Administration benefits. The difference is that the clients of these two income support programs-the elderly, and veterans-are not socially stigmatized. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 676
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to supply-demand dynamics of service access and stigma-driven administrative outcomes discussed in earlier chapters on client-constructing practices. — connects to: Stigma shapes behavior situationally rather than by altering personality
- QUESTION: This reform-campaign claim presumes information + stigma-reduction raises take-up - worth chasing how agencies deploy or withhold information as an access-control tool.
- SEED: Article angle: why enrollment outreach is lavish for de-stigmatized programs (Social Security, veterans) and withheld for stigmatized welfare — a map of administrative dignification.
Broader Connections
- Stigma shapes behavior situationally rather than by altering personality
#corroborates(0.75)