Take-up of social assistance benefits: The case of homeless Take-up of Social Assistance Benefits: The Case of Homeless

A considerable number of studies have been interested in measuring and analyzing the phenomenon of non-take-up. The homeless portion of the population is, however, outside the domain of this research, and little is known about their non-take-up behavior. In this paper, we focus on this particular population using a French national survey. We derive measures of non-take-up for the French social assistance program " base " Active Solidarity Income (RSA). We find a substantial rate of non-take-up among the homeless, although it is significantly less than the general population rate: approximately 17% of eligible homeless persons do not claim benefits compared to 35% of the general population. Using a large set of variables, we investigate the determinants of non-take-up. We show that although some determinants are shared with those identified in the literature on the general population, the homeless population exhibits some particularities. We suggest also that an important effect of desocialization is that it increases non-take-up among the poorest homeless