‘Doing’ eligibility through income thresholds: Organisational practices in US financial assistance programmes for women with breast cancer

Many financial assistance programmes that target low-income individuals use income thresholds to determine eligibility. Eligibility serves as a critical interface between service applicants and providers, yet eligibility remains undertheorised in the policy literature. Drawing on interviews I conducted with both breast cancer survivors and providers of a range of health-related services, I focus on how organisations make income relevant for access to their services. This making-relevant-for-access is what I conceptualise as ‘doing’ eligibility. Eligibility is thus not a pre-existing status; it emerges through organisational practices. And when these practices change, who becomes eligible changes as well. I explore how different organisations ‘do’ eligibility through income thresholds. Focusing on processes for determining eligibility, rather than categories of eligible individuals, provides new insights into how disparities may be produced and reproduced through seemingly objective work practices such as the calculation of income thresholds.