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Welfare Benefit Entitlement - Where is it spent ? 

wbamic
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Mind in Croydon

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HI,  I was wondering is anyone was aware of any academic work that focused on how benefit recipients use their entitlement . 


My gut feeling is that when we help people gain their entitlement we are also in some part contributing to increased money circulating locally (all be it a high proportion going to private landlords).


I would also assume that a high proportion of benefit entitlement is spent locally , possibly at a higher proportion to other forms of income such as wages?  (Based on some anecdotal evidence /  assumptions I have based on delivering benefit advice in 3 difference regions in England).


Would be really interesting in doing some further reading on this subject , so if anyone had a direction they could point me that would be brilliant.

[ Edited: 16 Sep 2020 at 04:12 pm by wbamic ]
Va1der
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Welfare Rights Officer with SWAMP Glasgow

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There are mountains of research on spending patterns, much of it focusing specifically on low-income spending.
If you wanted to account for benefit spending specifically, you have to be careful about accounting for variables - i.e. many other factors will influence how claimants spend their money, that have nothing to do with the fact that they are benefit claimants. Not all claimants are addicts, but many addicts are claimants etc.
I wouldn’t think that claimants are more likely to spend their money locally, compared to say low-income employed. Unless of course you are looking at disability claimants with mobility issues.

If you have a more specific target group in mind, I’m sure we could find some useful materials.

Google Scholar is a useful resource. JSTOR has a lot of free articles.

 

Andyp5 Citizens Advice Bridport & District
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This dates back to 2006 and touches on that theme.

O)ne of the key findings page 6

‘The extra resources acquired by clients, tends to be directed toward extra
spending on fuel, food, education, recreation and transport. Findings suggest
improvements in living standards and reduction in social exclusion’.

[ Edited: 16 Sep 2020 at 05:23 pm by Andyp5 Citizens Advice Bridport & District ]

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Gareth Morgan
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For the benefits to the local economy, Google for the work don by the Fraser of Allander institute at the University of Strathclyde.  They did a couple of very good studies on this which I used when building an algorithm (sorry) to assess the local value of benefit take up work.

wbamic
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Mind in Croydon

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Thank you both for your replies.  Va1der, you make some good points there and has certainly got me thinking.  Andy, thank you for the link.  This has given me a lead in the broad idea I was looking at (probably not worded very well in my initial post).

‘Further research and evaluation of the impact on local economies of increased benefit
take-up from welfare rights advice reinforces this point. Ambrose and Stone (2003)
calculate that Brighton and Hove Citizen’s Advice Bureau raised an additional
income for its clients of £676,000. This is the ‘first run’ figure - the direct increase in
spending power attributable to the CAB’s advice activity - the true economic benefit
is, however, much higher because of the multiplier effect in the local economy. This
is created as the money circulates through spending on local goods and services,
before it ‘leaks’ out and spending spills over into other communities. ‘

wbamic
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Mind in Croydon

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Gareth Morgan - 17 September 2020 09:07 AM

For the benefits to the local economy, Google for the work don by the Fraser of Allander institute at the University of Strathclyde.  They did a couple of very good studies on this which I used when building an algorithm (sorry) to assess the local value of benefit take up work.


Amazing, thank you