Means testing harms the mean household and is just plain mean, by design.

Study after study shows that providing social safety nets - benefits the vast majority of people support - is cheaper and more efficient when you get rid of the hurdles to prove you qualify.

Means testing punishes those most in need who are often least able to spend time and energy to complete the intentionally difficult process to access benefits, and results in higher costs.

https://www.peoplespolicyproject.org/2022/11/11/universal-benefits-cost-less-than-means-tested-benefits/

#UBI #BasicIncome

Universal Benefits Cost Less Than Means-Tested Benefits

The biggest welfare state controversy is driven by accounting games.

People's Policy Project
@FantasticalEconomics I just wish more people understood that the entire concept of means testing came about because of the popularity of Malthusian philosophy among the upper classes and was a precursor to the eugenics movement. It was never actually meant to "prevent fraud" that was always propaganda. It's purpose was always explicitly to make sure that the poor either worked or died. Because the lower classes do not have value or humanity outside their labour in this paradigm.