Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 27th NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview WG5: Public Finance and Public Financial Management Author(s) Jana Godarova Masaryk University Brno Czech Republic Starhova Iveta, Title Is the Non-take-up Problem present in the Czech Republic? File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Abstract The concept of a social state and its size differs from state to state and it is influenced by characteristics such as its history, measure of solidarity, citizen's mentality which is expressed in their wishes, etc. Through social system state wants to help the risk group of people such as seniors or families with children. The main question remains how extensive social system the Czech Republic can afford under the conditions that the state budget should be balanced. In addition to the budget constraints on the system, states are also struggling with the non-take-up phenomenon. The situation where an individual or a household is entitled to relief or a social benefit under the legislation in force, but these benefits are not used in reality for various reasons. There are several reasons for this lack of use: (1) complexity or frequent changes to the system (2) difficulty of the application procedure (3) low awareness (4) stigma or shyness when the household would take it as a personal failure. The non-take-up rate can also depend on the income situation or the number of people in the household. In the Czech Republic, insufficient attention is paid to this problem, despite the fact that a high rate of non-take-up can warn states about problems in setting up or targeting the system. Previous studies vary greatly in quantifying the effect of this phenomenon. They range between 30-90%, depending on the benefits system or the risk group definition. The aim of this paper is to identify the extent of non-take-up phenomenon of social benefits in the Czech Republic and factors influencing them. To identify the gravity of the problem, authors use the microsimulation modeling with the data from the Czech EU-SILC survey from 2008 to 2017. The data from this sample survey give representative information on income distribution of individual types of households, information on the way, quality and financial demands housing, household long-term use equipment, and working, material and health conditions of adults living in households. The Czech EU-SILC survey covers approximately 8,000 households annually, which is approximately 18,000 individuals living in the Czech Republic. Part of the final discussion of the results will be the discussion of methodological and data constraints.
