means test

means test, requirement that applicants for public assistance submit to investigation of their needs and resources. The means test originated as a method of limiting the payment of public assistance to those truly in need in order to reduce the cost of such programs to taxpayers. Because of its tendency to be intrusive, however, it often deterred needy persons from applying for assistance.

In some of the older forms of the test, applicants were required to exhaust all or most of their savings, and relatives whom the authorities viewed as possible sources of support were also required to submit to means tests. Practices in most countries retaining means tests have been altered in efforts to eliminate these characteristics.

Critics of means tests have pointed out that they are very costly to administer, particularly in view of the fact that applicants’ economic circumstances change, and that they reduce the number of skilled administrators available for real social service programs. One alternative is a social insurance program based on right rather than need. Other alternatives include scales of flat-rate benefits applied according to levels of applicants’ income.