Session: Beyond Eligibility: Administrative Burden, Work Instability, and Financial Capability Among Low-Wage Workers (Society for Social Work and Research 31st Annual Conference)

Despite expanded social programs and formal eligibility for assistance, many low-wage and low-income workers remain unable to access or sustain the benefits designed to support their health, employment, and financial stability. Administrative burden, employment instability, and fragmented institutional processes often function as hidden barriers that undermine policy effectiveness. These challenges are particularly pronounced for workers in precarious labor market positions, including those in low-wage and nonstandard employment arrangements. At the same time, emerging evidence suggests that both institutional design and organizational contexts may shape how workers access, interpret, and navigate these systems. This symposium examines how administrative systems, labor market conditions, and organizational environments jointly influence access to resources, compliance with program requirements, and financial capability among low-wage and low-income workers.

The first paper (Despard & Roll) examines access to hospital financial assistance programs (FAPs) among low-wage workers using nationally representative survey data. Despite federal requirements under the Affordable Care Act, the findings reveal substantial gaps in awareness and access, with many eligible workers either unaware of available assistance or unable to successfully obtain it. The study highlights how administrative burden and institutional variation limit the effectiveness of health policy and contribute to delayed or forgone care.

The second paper (Zhang, Despard, & Roll) investigates compliance burden in Medicaid, focusing on how employment instability affects individuals’ ability to meet documentation requirements. Using longitudinal data, the authors show that workers with unstable or nontraditional employment, such as gig or self-employment, face significantly greater challenges in complying with program rules. These findings raise concerns about the implementation of work requirements and the likelihood of unnecessary coverage loss among eligible workers.

The third paper (Kim et al.) shifts attention to organizational context by examining how worker cooperative membership influences financial consciousness and behavior among precarious immigrant home care workers. Drawing on qualitative interviews, the study compares cooperative members and non-members within the same union, allowing for clearer identification of organizational effects while holding occupation and demographic characteristics relatively constant. Findings indicate that cooperative membership is associated with greater critical awareness of systemic financial exclusion, different orientations toward financial risk and technology, and greater reliance on collective strategies for financial security. These results suggest that financial capability depends not only on access to resources but also on organizational environments that structure how workers interpret and navigate financial systems.

Together, these papers demonstrate that inequality in access to resources among low-wage and low-income workers is not simply a function of eligibility or individual behavior, but is produced through the interaction of administrative systems, labor market conditions, and organizational contexts. The symposium contributes to social work research and policy by integrating perspectives on work, public policy, and financial capability, highlighting the need for policy designs that reduce administrative burden and for practice approaches that recognize the role of collective and organizational supports in promoting equitable outcomes for workers.