Eligibility rules are the rules that are used by the various social welfare groups and organizations to determine the individuals who are eligible to receive benefits that are on offer. In order to determine the qualifications of the people who are eligible to receive the benefits on offer, there needs to be a set of criteria or rules to help in the determination of those who are best suited to receive them.
There are various criteria that can be used to determine eligibility for receiving the public benefits; one of these rules is the ‘first come, first serve basis.’ However, in most of the cases this criterion has negative effects as those who get these benefits are not the deserving ones; instead those who are needier end up mission out on the benefits.
The criteria that are used for determining eligibility include the prior contribution rule whereby the members of the society who are eligible to receive the social welfare benefits are required to have contributed a certain amount prior to that date so as to be able to benefit in the later days. An example of this scheme is the US Social Security System and the income for disabled workers (Chambers & Wedel, 2005).
Other means of eligibility include the Administrative rules whereby an interpretation of the rules is needed so as to determine the extent to which these rules can be used to determine eligibility for the benefits. Others are private contracts, whereby private companies are contracted to collect and cover all the members who are to receive benefits such as medical cover.
Discretion on the basis of either professional or administrative judgment can also be used to determine the eligible ones; a judicial judgment can be used in case there is a dispute that needs to be resolved; the other rule is to use a means of testing to set a benchmark for the standards that need to be met by those who are eligible to receive the benefits.
Finally in cases whereby one needs to be attached to a certain organization to receive a benefit, there are rules for determining the attachment to that workforce before the benefits are given out.
Depending on the rules that are applied, it is possible to end up having cases of stigmatization or benefits that end up with the wrong people. Some of the rules are left at the discretion of the interpretation of the individual administrators in charge of the implementation of these rules; however, in such a case, the concerned party may make an interpretation that will favor a certain people.
The use of private contracts might also result in cases of stigmatization because some of the people who might be ultimately worthy of receiving the benefits might not be in a position to afford the contributions that might be required by the private contributors. It is mandatory to make these contributions in order to be eligible to benefit from the schemes which have been set up through the private contractors (Chambers & Wedel, 2005).
Another rule which might contribute to the stigmatization is the rule which is based on the administrative discretion, since the decision on the recipients of the benefits is made depending on the administrative powers which the administrator receives from the superiors; there is always a chance of a biased decision being reached.
One of the eligibility rules that can be a cause of controversy as well as extreme costs is the private contracting rule. The fact that the qualification for entitlement to public benefits is based on an individual subscription which might be in the form of a private contract such as an insurance scheme means that each and every worker will be required to pay for these schemes.
In most of the cases, the costs that are associated with the private contractors are quite high and therefore since it is mandatory, it can be regarded as an exploitation of the workers as they are not given a choice. For the workers who might not have any medical problems, they may end up contributing money for services which they may ultimately never utilize.
Generally some of the rules are quite weak in their formulation and application and these include the administrative rule, the private contractor rule and the administrative discretion rule; these rules are not clearly formulated to prevent misuse by some of the parties for their own benefits.
The members of the public are not given a chance to make their own decisions and in some cases they are forced to make mandatory contributions (Chambers & Wedel, 2005). However the Judicial decision gives a leeway for fairness to be expressed by providing a channel through which the aggrieved parties can be able to seek legal redress and have a fair resolution in case there is dispute.
Another rule which ensures that fairness is observed in eligibility testing is the attachment to the workforce rule and the means testing rule. The means testing rule is quite useful because it ensures that a standard is set to determine the needs of the members of the public.
This ensures that only the needy people are eligible to receive public benefits. It is important to note that this is usually based on the assets that are owned by the members of the public and it is a very useful means of ensuring that fairness is observed.
Reference
Chambers, D.E. & Wedel, K.R. (2005). Social Policy and Social Programs: A Method for the Practical Public Policy Analyst (4th Edition). NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.