¿Por qué las personas sin hogar no solicitan ayuda económica? El caso de la RMI en España

In Spain, the minimum income guarantee (RMI) is one of the key monetary state assistance program targeted to fight against social exclusion. Homeless people suffer a great degree of social exclusion. However, a large share of the homeless population does not claim for the assistance despite fitting the eligibility criteria. In this paper, we try to find the characteristics of the individual, the personal circumstances and the characteristics of the program, which can influence the take up. The research relies on microeconomic consumer theory, according to which the individual makes the take up decision taking into account the expected benefits of the assistance and the take up costs. Making use of a logistic regression model, we did not find any evidence contrary to our hypothesis, according to which the benefit amount, the expected duration of the aid and variables associated with information costs –contact with the public administration, disability, telephone availability, etc.– influence the take up decision of homeless.