Abstract

Former research regarding the dynamics in Basic Income Support is nearly exclusively based on survey data. By linking survey data of the Panel Study “Labour Market and Social Security (PASS)” with administrative data from the Federal Employment Agency it becomes apparent that a non-negligible fraction of the welfare benefit recipients states that they do not receive benefits although they do. A unique data base facilitates to assess the structure and extent of underreporting in PASS. As a first step, we investigate whether households continuously underreport benefits or whether this happens rather randomly. Subsequently, the obtained results facilitate to assess the validity of former research regarding the dynamics in Basic Income Support.