Association between Individual Level Characteristics and Take-Up of a Minimum Income Guarantee for Pensioners: Panel Data Analysis Using Data from the British Household Panel Survey 1999-2002

Abstract

A Minimum Income Guarantee (MIG) ensures people have a minimum amount of income for essentials such as healthy food, housing, health care, social and digital networks to support health and well-being.  MIGs could be a useful tool to reduce inequalities.  A MIG will only be effective if those who are eligible take it up. The aim of this paper is to explore how individual characteristics were associated with take-up of a MIG for pensioners (aged 60+ for women and aged 65+ for men) in England.  The data used is from the British Household Panel Survey including 9430 observations from 1,893 people, from 1999-2002.  We estimated a random effects stepwise logistic regression.  Results show that women were less likely to claim than men (OR ranging from 0.17-0.73), and couples were less likely to claim (OR ranging from 0.04-0.01) than single person households. People with better mental health (OR 1.05 95% CI 1.02-1.08), older pensioners (75+) (OR ranging from 1.98-2.81), those who were registered disabled (OR 4.03 95% CI 2.50-6.52), and those with no formal qualification (OR ranging from 1.74-2.07) were more likely to claim. Understanding who is likely to claim MIGs is important to avoid social security policy inadvertently increasing inequalities.

Keywords: Social Policy, Health inequalities, Older people, Social Determinants, health