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PolicyEngine / policyengine-uk

The UK's only open-source static tax-benefit microsimulation model.
https://policyengine.github.io/policyengine-uk/
GNU Affero General Public License v3.0
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Correctly model eligibilty #35

Closed nikhilwoodruff closed 3 years ago

nikhilwoodruff commented 3 years ago

Review how eligibility is modelled, and whether the reporting requirements on some benefits is the best way to account for take-up rates.

nikhilwoodruff commented 3 years ago

In summary, I think it's OK to have "is already reporting receipt" as an eligibility filter, despite no other major microsimulation model saying they do this, because right now "is already reporting" is an eligibility condition for the legacy benefits currently being phased out. None of the other microsimulation models report handling Universal Credit in their documentation, and we definitely want to. If we didn't have this requirement, we wouldn't be able to simulate Universal Credit, because it has the same eligibility rules as the benefits it replaces.

However, we do need to add the stochastic take-up method to Universal Credit. It's a tricky one, with a benefit still in experimental stages: at the moment we're restricting to already reporting claimants to be on the safe side, but it needs some thinking over.

MaxGhenis commented 3 years ago

Thanks @nikhilwoodruff, could you create a new issue for this one so we have it on hand?

However, we do need to add the stochastic take-up method to Universal Credit. It's a tricky one, with a benefit still in experimental stages: at the moment we're restricting to already reporting claimants to be on the safe side, but it needs some thinking over.