Means Tests and Earnings Tests Make Family Benefits More Burdensome to Access and More Vulnerable to Future Cuts

Last Updated October 22, 2021

Dr. David Brady (UC-Riverside), Shawn Fremstad (CEPR), and Indi Dutta-Gupta (Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality) provided helpful comments in preparation of this explainer. 

As Congress continues to negotiate provisions in President Biden’s Build Back Better package, there have been calls to significantly scale back the measure. One component of the bill that is being debated is to limit some of the proposed social programs by implementing means and earnings tests. Means tests directly exclude otherwise eligible families because they don’t have income or assets above a certain level. Earnings tests (also known as “work requirements”) exclude otherwise eligible families because they don’t have earnings from employment above a certain level. These tests don’t just harm the families who fail them-- they also impose paperwork and other burdens that reduce the likelihood that families who meet the requirements are able to receive the benefits they’re eligible for.