FAMILY 500 PLUS AND SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING OF THE RECIPIENTS: 2016–2021 EVIDENCE

The study is aimed at evaluating the impact of the ‘Family 500 plus’ benefit system in Poland on the subjective perception of the beneficiaries’ economic conditions. Special attention is paid to the psychological effects of pressure on the recipient. Those effects are examined by comparing subjective assessments with more objective indicators of economic status, especially the household equivalent incomes. It is assumed that discrepancies between ‘subjective’ and ‘objective’ indications may be partly attributed to social attitudes towards the recipients of the 500 plus. To evaluate the subjective well-being of the household members, five questions on their subjective material situation are utilised. The answers are employed as dependent variables in ordered logit models, while the shares of the 500 plus in the household income create a core explanatory variable. The estimates of marginal effects on this variable demonstrate relatively positive, though unstable in time, psychological effects of the 500 plus. This is especially true for the 2019–2021 period. Such effects may be observed not only in comparison with the recipients of other social benefits, but also with the remaining part of the society for the last three years. Therefore, one can conclude that the 500 plus, in spite of the negative attitudes of a significant part of the society, has a generally positive psychological effect on the recipients.