All across the world, people experience burdens in their daily interactions with the public administration. Citizens applying for welfare benefits have to fill in complicated forms to prove eligibility, they often have to show up at public offices to apply and re-apply or to prove continued eligibility, and they often face long waiting times. They may also face requirements that seem unnecessary and indicative of mistrust, such as when they are told to provide excessive information beyond what is needed to prove eligibility for benefits programs or when unemployed people are asked to update their CVs on a weekly basis to maintain eligibility for unemployment benefits.

The POAB project offers insights into the psychological processes by which individuals experience burdens when dealing state actions tied to welfare benefit programs. In order to effectively mitigate administrative burden and inequalities in citizens’ experiences of these burdens, we need a deep understanding of the psychological processes by which individuals experience burdens when dealing with state actions. We will identify and explain how, why, and for whom state actions are experienced as burdensome.