Welfare receipt and the risk of vitamin D deficiency in Japanese patients on maintenance hemodialysis: a cross-sectional, retrospective study

Background Vitamin D deficiency is often observed in patients undergoing maintenance hemodialysis and is associated with significantly increased risk of overall mortality. Despite reports of poor nutrition/intake, vitamin D status among patients on maintenance hemodialysis receiving welfare remains unknown. This study investigated the vitamin D status in welfare recipients undergoing maintenance hemodialysis. Methods This cross-sectional study investigated vitamin D status among 106 outpatients undergoing maintenance hemodialysis at two medical facilities in Japan. Patients were divided into welfare and non-welfare groups based on their status as of September 2018. Patients were divided into two categories: serum vitamin D deficiency, defined as serum 25(OH)D concentrations < 12 ng/mL, or non-deficiency. Vitamin D deficiency was used as a dependent variable, while welfare receipt was used as the main predictor variable. Results Mean [± standard deviation] patient age, median [interquartile range] body mass index, and hemodialysis duration were 66.9 [± 10.8] years, 21.5 [19.6, 24.3] kg/m2, and 7.9 [2.9, 12.3] years, respectively. Among 106 patients, 45 were women (42.5%) and 16 (15.1%) were receiving welfare. The welfare group had a higher diabetes prevalence (P = 0.003) and significantly lower median serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations (11.5 [8.7, 14.0] vs. 14.8 [11.2, 19.9] ng/mL, P = 0.005). Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that welfare receipt was a significant risk factor for vitamin D deficiency (odds ratio [95% confidence interval], 4.41 [1.08, 18.07]). Conclusions Welfare recipients undergoing maintenance hemodialysis are at significantly increased risks of vitamin D deficiency compared with patients not receiving welfare.

Behaviors in kindergarten are associated with trajectories of long-term welfare receipt: A 30-year population-based study

This study examines the link between behavior in kindergarten and adult-life welfare receipt. Teacher-rated behavioral assessments were obtained for inattention, hyperactivity, aggression–opposition, anxiety, and prosociality when children (n=2960) were aged 5–6 years and linked to their tax return records from age 18–35 years. We used group-based based trajectory modeling to identify distinct trajectories of welfare receipt and multinomial logistic regression models to examine the association between behaviors and trajectory group membership. The child's sex, IQ, and family background were adjusted for. Four trajectories of welfare receipt were identified: low (n = 2,390, 80.7%), declining (n = 260, 8.8%), rising (n = 150, 5.2%), and chronic (n = 160, 5.4%). Relative to the low trajectory, inattention and aggression–opposition at age 6 years were associated with increased risk of following a declining, rising, and chronic trajectory of welfare receipt, independent of hyperactivity and anxiety. Prosocial behaviors were independently associated with a lower risk of following a chronic trajectory. This study shows that kindergarten children exhibiting high inattention and aggression–opposition and low prosocial behaviors may be at increased risk of long-term welfare receipt in adulthood. The implications for early screening, monitoring, and prevention are discussed.

Marginalization or Incorporation? Welfare Receipt and Political Participation among Young Adults

Prior scholarship finds that participation in means-tested welfare programs, including cash assistance and food stamps, deters political participation among groups that are already politically and socioeconomically marginalized. We revisit these findings within a contemporary context using nationally representative data, along with fixed-effects models that adjust for time-stable unobserved and time-varying observed characteristics. In contrast to prior research, we find little evidence that cash assistance is related to participation. However, food stamps—a benefits program that has undergone substantial changes in recent years—is positively associated with being registered to vote. Moreover, food stamps has countervailing associations with voting—e.g., marginalizing and incorporating—that depend on a person’s attention to politics. Together, these findings revise our understanding of how welfare influences political inequalities and advances policy feedback scholarship by identifying heterogeneity by political attentiveness as a focus of future inquiry.

New administrative data on welfare dynamics in Germany: the Sample of Integrated Welfare Benefit Biographies (SIG)

The Sample of Integrated Welfare Benefit Biographies (SIG) is a new administrative longitudinal microdata set representative of recipients of Germany’s main welfare programme, the Unemployment Benefit II (UB II, Arbeitslosengeld II). The data set contains detailed longitudinal information on welfare receipt and labour market activities, and hence enables researchers to analyse the dynamics of benefit receipt, income and employment. A distinct feature of the SIG is that it provides information not only for individual benefit recipients but also for family members, including children and partners. This is possible because eligibility for UB II benefits depends on the household structure, and it is means-tested on household income. In addition to socio-demographic and regional information, the SIG contains extensive information on the employment biographies of benefit recipients and their household members from the Integrated Employment Biographies (IEB) of the Institute for Employment Research (IAB). This allows researchers to examine the interaction between labour market participation and benefit receipt. The SIG is available to researchers at the Research Data Centre (FDZ) of the Federal Employment Agency (BA) at the IAB.

Misreporting of program take-up in survey data and its consequences for measuring non-take-up: new evidence from linked administrative and survey data

The international literature studies non-take-up behavior of eligible populations to evaluate the effectiveness of government programs. A major challenge in this literature is the measurement error regarding benefit take-up. In our data, we observe both actual welfare receipt and respondents’ survey information on their program take-up. This allows us to observe the measurement errors that other researchers must estimate. We describe survey misreporting and investigate how it biases the estimates of the magnitude and patterns of benefit take-up among eligible households. Our findings suggest that the extent of measurement error can be substantial. It varies with the characteristics of the misreporting population and is associated with the drivers of misreporting. This indicates that survey-based analyses of take-up behavior are likely subject to severe biases.

State supervision, punishment and poverty: The case of drug bans on welfare receipt

This article explores the relationship between supervisory approaches to governance, punishment, and poverty among people with drug convictions. Tying government assistance to supervision could improve employment and economic outcomes. However, if experienced as punishment, recipients may forgo financial assistance and be more likely to experience poverty. Using information on policies that restrict access to welfare for people with drug felony convictions in the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) and the Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Programs (SNAP), this paper makes two contributions. First, it documents state variation in the balance between supervision and punishment in these bans. Second, using data from NLSY97, it estimates how individuals’ likelihood of being in poverty is related to state SNAP drug ban policies. States have shifted away from overtly punitive policies denying access to welfare toward policies that increase supervisory requirements, especially for SNAP. This shows that punitiveness extends beyond work activation programs like TANF. Additionally, poverty among people with drug convictions is almost half in no ban states compared to those in full ban states. While poverty is lower in states that include supervisory requirements than in those for which a drug conviction fully blocks access to welfare, this difference was not statistically significant.

Work and thrive or claim and skive: Experiencing the ‘toxic symbiosis’ of worklessness and welfare recipiency in Ireland

The purpose of this paper is to shed much needed light on lived experience in the context of worklessness coupled with welfare receipt in Ireland. In doing so, the work ethic is presented as an objective social force that can be imposed externally and in a number of social and administrative contexts. Coupled with this, receiving welfare is argued as being a ‘problematic’ and potentially shameful social position. On this basis, it will be shown how worklessness and welfare receipt can coalesce to form a ‘toxic symbiosis’, something which can deeply and negatively affect those who experience it. The claims made in this paper are based on original research conducted in Ireland, in which 22 people were interviewed about their general experiences of being welfare recipients and their interactions with the Irish welfare state. Drawing on rich qualitative data, epistemic integrity is offered through depth of understanding meaning that what is presented here sheds lights on the social implications of the continuous denigration of welfare recipiency coupled with the continuous valorisation of work. In a practical sense, this suggests that, on the one hand, a new, less corrosive societal relationship with work is both desirable and necessary in respect to the well-being of persons, while on the other, a more holistic approach to the administration of welfare, in which a return to work is only one part of an overall approach, is both needed and ultimately more humane.

Long-Run Effects from Comprehensive Student Support: Evidence from Pathways to Education

Offering comprehensive education support services to disadvantaged students shows promise for improving academic attainment. We explore longer-term impacts of the Pathways to Education program, a set of coaching, tutoring, group activities, and financial incentives initially offered in 2001 to grade-nine students living in the largest public housing community in Toronto. Using a difference-in-difference methodology and matching school records to income tax data through age 28 for a sample of students living in public housing under similar circumstances, we find that Pathways eligibility increased adult annual earnings by 19 percent, employment by 14 percent, and reduced welfare receipt by more than 30 percent. (JEL I22, I23, I24, I26, I28, L31)

Minimum Wage as a Social Policy Instrument: Evidence from Germany

The minimum wage is often considered a social policy instrument that can help reduce both poverty and welfare receipt. The introduction of the statutory minimum wage in Germany in 2015 provides an interesting case study to analyse not only the potential but also the limitations of minimum wages as an instrument to achieve socially desirable goals such as reduced welfare receipt or poverty. Based on the results of simulation models, descriptive analyses and causal effects studies of the short-term effects, we argue that minimum wages are a rather badly targeted measure when attempting to reduce poverty and welfare receipt.