There are pervasive stereotypes that Americans who are low income and access government assistance are lazy, lack a work ethic and are even morally inferior. This stigma has been shown to have many negative consequences.
But until now, there’s been little research on whether this stigma influences the willingness to use government assistance.
We studied the effect of stigma in the context of Emergency Rental Assistance. The purpose of rental assistance programs is to help low-income people avoid eviction by helping them pay overdue rent. While these programs have long existed, they received a large influx of new funds as part of the federal government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This offered an opportunity for our team at The People Lab, which is based at the Harvard Kennedy School, to examine some of the barriers that low-income populations face in accessing safety net programs.
There are pervasive stereotypes that Americans who are low income and access government assistance are lazy, lack a work ethic and are even morally inferior. This stigma has been shown to have many negative consequences.
But until now, there’s been little research on whether this stigma influences the willingness to use government assistance.
We studied the effect of stigma in the context of Emergency Rental Assistance. The purpose of rental assistance programs is to help low-income people avoid eviction by helping them pay overdue rent. While these programs have long existed, they received a large influx of new funds as part of the federal government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This offered an opportunity for our team at The People Lab, which is based at the Harvard Kennedy School, to examine some of the barriers that low-income populations face in accessing safety net programs.
The federal government helped low-income Americans pay overdue rent during the pandemic – but they had to apply for this benefit.Bethany Reeves for Unsplash.com, CC BY-SA
The European Union's next long-term budget should focus on fewer programmes and link reforms to investment to help channel EU cash into areas that the EU
Japan's Seven & i will be looking to convince shareholders it can deliver long-term growth on its own when it speaks to them on Thursday, after announcing a sweeping