[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-1-en-105":3,"doc-seo-305430-105":53,"doc-detail-305430-en":126},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,14,19,24,29,34,39,44,49],{"id":8,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":11,"show_sort_weight":12,"slug":13},11,1,"Template","Presentations",90,"presentations",{"id":15,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":16,"show_sort_weight":17,"slug":18},12,"Resumes",80,"resumes",{"id":20,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":21,"show_sort_weight":22,"slug":23},14,"Invoices",70,"invoices",{"id":25,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":26,"show_sort_weight":27,"slug":28},15,"Posters",60,"posters",{"id":30,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":31,"show_sort_weight":32,"slug":33},16,"Social Media",50,"social-media",{"id":35,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":36,"show_sort_weight":37,"slug":38},17,"Forms",40,"forms",{"id":40,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":41,"show_sort_weight":42,"slug":43},18,"Letters",30,"letters",{"id":45,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":46,"show_sort_weight":47,"slug":48},21,"Paper Templates",5,"papers-templates",{"id":50,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":51,"show_sort_weight":4,"slug":52},158,"General","general-158",{"code":4,"msg":54,"data":55},"ok",{"site_id":56,"language":57,"slug":58,"title":59,"keywords":60,"description":61,"schema_data":62,"social_meta":119,"head_meta":121,"extra_data":123,"updated_unix":125},105,"en","communicating-program-eligibility-a-supplemental-security-income-ssi-field-experiment","Communicating Program Eligibility - A Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Field Experiment","","Communicating program eligibility is evaluated through a direct mail field experiment covering 4,016,461 individuals to explain low Supplemental Security Income (SSI) take-up among people aged 65 and above. Basic letters signaling likely eligibility increase take-up, and adding behaviorally informed statements further improves communication effectiveness. Despite gains, application rates across a 24-month follow-up never exceed 7%. Findings indicate trade-offs between higher application likelihood and the conditional probability of award, including award amounts.",{"@graph":63,"@context":118},[64,80,101],{"@type":65,"itemListElement":66},"BreadcrumbList",[67,71,74,77],{"item":68,"name":69,"@type":70,"position":9},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":72,"name":10,"@type":70,"position":73},"https://docshare.wps.com/template/",2,{"item":75,"name":51,"@type":70,"position":76},"https://docshare.wps.com/template/general/",3,{"item":78,"name":59,"@type":70,"position":79},"https://docshare.wps.com/template/communicating-program-eligibility-a-supplemental-security-income-ssi-field-experiment/305430/",4,{"url":78,"name":59,"@type":81,"image":82,"author":87,"headline":59,"publisher":90,"fileFormat":93,"inLanguage":57,"description":61,"dateModified":94,"datePublished":95,"encodingFormat":93,"isAccessibleForFree":96,"interactionStatistic":97},"DigitalDocument",{"url":83,"@type":84,"width":85,"height":86},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/communicating-program-eligibility-a-supplemental-security-income-ssi-field-experiment/305430.png","ImageObject",442,249,{"name":88,"@type":89},"Valentina","Person",{"url":68,"name":91,"@type":92},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-09-20","2026-09-19",true,{"@type":98,"interactionType":99,"userInteractionCount":73},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":100},"ViewAction",{"@type":102,"mainEntity":103},"FAQPage",[104,110,114],{"name":105,"@type":106,"acceptedAnswer":107},"What experiment design was used to study SSI take-up?","Question",{"text":108,"@type":109},"A randomized controlled direct mail field experiment was conducted with 4,016,461 individuals, using four treatment arms and a 24-month follow-up period.","Answer",{"name":111,"@type":106,"acceptedAnswer":112},"How did the letter messaging affect SSI take-up?",{"text":113,"@type":109},"Letters that communicated likely eligibility produced substantial relative increases in take-up, and behaviorally informed statements further increased communication effectiveness.",{"name":115,"@type":106,"acceptedAnswer":116},"Did messaging changes improve applications and awards equally?",{"text":117,"@type":109},"No. Although applications rose in relative terms, application rates during the full 24-month follow-up remained at no greater than 7%, and results show trade-offs involving conditional award likelihood and award amount.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":78,"og:type":120,"og:title":59,"og:site_name":91,"og:description":61},"article",{"robots":122,"canonical":78},"index,follow",{"doc_id":124,"site_id":56},305430,1789824827,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":127},{"doc_id":124,"user_id":128,"nickname":88,"user_avatar":129,"doc_module":9,"category_id":50,"category_name":51,"doc_title":59,"doc_description":61,"doc_content":130,"file_id":131,"file_url":132,"file_type":133,"file_size":134,"view_count":73,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":9,"is_downloadable":9,"audit_status":9,"page_count":135,"language":136,"language_code":57,"site_id":56,"html_lang":57,"table_of_contents":137,"faqs":138,"seo_title":139,"seo_description":61,"update_tm":125,"read_time":30},13056703020460,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/be000253dac470eee5d?_k=1778207105932848923","American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 2025, 17(2): 446–470  \n[https://doi.org/10.1257/pol.20210560](https://doi.org/10.1257/pol.20210560)  \nCommunicating Program Eligibility: A Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Field Experiment†  \nBy Jeffrey Hemmeter, John Phillips, Elana Safran,  \nand Nicholas Wilson*  \nWe conducted a direct mail field experiment with 4,016,461 individuals to test several key hypotheses about why take-up of Supplemental Security Income among individuals age 65 and above is so low.  \nCommunicating likely eligibility in a basic letter generated substantial increases in take-up in relative terms. Adding behaviorally informed statements increased the effectiveness of these communications. Yet, the application rate in our study sample during the full 24-month follow-up period remained no greater than 7 percent.  \nOur results reveal a modest trade-off between increasing applications and the conditional likelihood of award, as well as the award amount. (JEL C93, D12, D83, H55, I38, J14)  \nEstimates suggest that the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program has one  \nof the lowest take-up rates among federal programs in the United States. Among individuals 65 or older, take-up is thought to be particularly low, with estimates ranging from under 60 percent to 72 percent of potentially eligible individuals receiving SSI (Strand, Rupp, and Davies 2009; McGarry and Schoeni 2015) .1 Indeed, no other nondiscretionary federal program has a take-up rate below 80 percent (Barnett and Wilson 2016) . We conducted a randomized controlled field experiment with 4,016,461 Social Security beneficiaries—400,000 of whom were assigned to one of four treatment arms—to test several key hypotheses about why take-up of this large program among eligible individuals age 65 and above is so low.  \n* Hemmeter: Social Security Administration ([email: jeffrey.hemmeter@ssa.gov](email: jeffrey.hemmeter@ssa.gov)); Phillips: National Institutes of Health ([email: john.phillips@nih.gov](email: john.phillips@nih.gov)); Safran: Office of Evaluation Sciences, US General Services Administration ([email: elana.safran@gsa.gov](email: elana.safran@gsa.gov)); Wilson: Department of Economics, Reed College, and Office of Evaluation Sciences, US General Services Administration ([email: nwilson@reed.edu](email: nwilson@reed.edu)). Matthew Notowidigdo was coeditor for this article. We thank four anonymous reviewers, Crystal Hall, Nathaniel Higgins, Ruirui Kuang, Jessica Leight, Rachel Vincent, Robert Weathers, David Weaver, and seminar participants at the 2018 APPAM Fall Research Conference, the 2019 Public Management Research Conference Workshop on Behavioral Insights in Government, and the Office of Evaluation Sciences for many helpful comments. We registered this randomized control trial with theAEA RCT Registry under IDAEARCTR-0002423 (Hemmeter et al. 2024). As a test related to federal program operations, this study is categorically exempt from regulations requiring Institutional Review Board approval. A formal exemption was not sought. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Social Security Administration or the other aforementioned individuals and agencies. All errors are our own.  \n†Go to [https://doi.org/10.1257/pol.20210560](https://doi.org/10.1257/pol.20210560) to visit the article page for additional materials and author disclosure statement(s) .  \n1 McGarry (1996) finds take-up of approximately 50–60 percent using the 1984 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). McGarry and Schoeni (2015) demonstrate that this level of take-up has been observed from program inception 1972 through the first decade of the twenty-first century.  \nVOL. 17 NO. 2 HEMMETER ETAL.: COMMUNICATING PROGRAM ELIGIBILITY 447  \nSSI is a program administered by the Social Security Administration (SSA)“designed to help aged, blind, and disabled people, who have li","cbCaia3Bc2hvz91o","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaia3Bc2hvz91o","pdf",1078905,47,"English","# Communicating Program Eligibility\n## Direct mail field experiment design\n## Effects of letter content on SSI take-up\n## Application, award probability, and trade-offs","[{\"question\":\"What experiment design was used to study SSI take-up?\",\"answer\":\"A randomized controlled direct mail field experiment was conducted with 4,016,461 individuals, using four treatment arms and a 24-month follow-up period.\"},{\"question\":\"How did the letter messaging affect SSI take-up?\",\"answer\":\"Letters that communicated likely eligibility produced substantial relative increases in take-up, and behaviorally informed statements further increased communication effectiveness.\"},{\"question\":\"Did messaging changes improve applications and awards equally?\",\"answer\":\"No. Although applications rose in relative terms, application rates during the full 24-month follow-up remained at no greater than 7%, and results show trade-offs involving conditional award likelihood and award amount.\"}]","Communicating Program Eligibility - A Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Field Experiment | PDF"]