Administrative Burden and Effective Access to Housing Benefit

This working paper examines whether evidentiary requirements in means-tested social assistance can create a practical barrier to housing benefit for economically vulnerable applicants. Using a September 2026 Latvian housing-benefit procedure as a documentary case study, the paper analyses the relationship between administrative fact-finding, documentary requirements, economic vulnerability and effective access to social assistance. The analysis considers the Latvian Law on Social Services and Social Assistance, Cabinet Regulation No. 809, the Administrative Procedure Law and Article 109 of the Constitution of Latvia (Satversme). It distinguishes legitimate verification from the risk of procedural overburdening and proposes a seven-question necessity-and-burden test for assessing additional documentary requests. The central proposition is that economic vulnerability may justify careful verification, but should not itself be converted into a procedural disadvantage.