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The lens of administration burden is used to examine the behavior of nonprofit organizations when managing regulations attached to public funding and public policy implementation. Interviews with leaders of nonprofit domestic violence advocacy organizations dependent on public funding streams were qualitatively content analyzed to answer three questions. How do nonprofit managers respond to burdensome bureaucratic reporting measures when they are at odds? How do they determine when to comply and when compliance is not possible? What is the outcome for service recipients? The authors find that these nonprofit organizations simultaneously implement multiple public policies while absorbing the accountability costs. They do this to shield their clients from the laborious task of obtaining a spectrum of services across public systems.

The Irish Government in March 2008 set a target to identify measure and reduce the Administrative Burden (AB) of domestic regulation for businesses by 25% by the end of 2012 – on foot of a European Council invitation to all member states in March 2007. As part of a cross-Government process led by the Business Regulation Unit of the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (DJEI), the Department of Health carried out a measurement exercise in 2012 on the main Information Obligations placed on business by legislation in the areas of Food, Nursing Homes and Pharmacy sectors.The AB baseline measurement for those information obligations is described in this report. Click here to download PDF 322KB Â

Abstract
Social work is widely recognized as a human rights profession. The commitment to protect and advocate for social and economic rights has been incorporated into official definitions and codes of ethics of the profession globally, undergirding social work models and services. However, despite the overwhelming recognition of the importance of social work advocacy, a unified framework for research and practice has not been agreed upon, and new challenges to welfare states have somewhat contested the existing, primarily European advocacy framework built on the literature on take-up of social and economic rights. The purpose of this integrative context review is to introduce the administrative burden (AB) literature as a potential framework for meeting social work advocacy challenges by emphasizing a subjective viewpoint, a multifaceted understanding of the bureaucratic encounter, and the secondary effects of burden. The article concludes by identifying directions for future research and practice concerning the nexus between AB and social work.

AbstractAdministrative burdens are widespread and likely to generate unequal opportunities in access to government programs and other important entitlements. Whereas a large body of research has examined administrative burdens in citizen‐state encounters, little is known either theoretically or empirically about burdens in business–government interactions. In this article, we argue that private businesses, just like individual citizens, experience administrative burdens in encounters with the government, and that these burdens are the result of bureaucratic procedures as well as the administrative capital resources in the businesses themselves. We present empirical evidence from an original study of Danish businesses' learning and compliance costs in government purchasing contracts. The findings suggest that businesses' learning and compliance costs are shaped more by bureaucratic procedures and requirements than by the administrative capital resources businesses can mobilize in response. We propose steps governments can take to reduce administrative burdens and harness public values in business‐government interactions.

The key objective of the paper is to identify and assess the administrative burdens for businesses in Bulgaria according to the selected national laws related to the EU Internal Market. The study relies on objective data and analytical frameworks with a view to identify and assess the information obligations stemming from selected laws and regulations, including national rules implementing or transposing European legislation. This is an important step in strengthening Bulgaria's national policy on better regulation for businesses. Information obligations are those arising from regulation to provide information and data to the public sector or third parties. Administrative burdens represent the "extra" administrative costs linked to collecting and providing information that businesses would not normally have to do in the absence of a legal obligation. While regulation is important and necessary, these additional costs represent a burden for businesses. It is a burden for business both in terms of money and time, which diverts resources from productive investments and generally discourages entrepreneurship. The methodology used in the paper is based on the Standard Cost Model for Estimating Administrative Costs established for assessing administrative costs imposed by the EU legislation. The paper is developed taking into account the findings of the OECD and the European Commission. The study outlines the results of the administrative costs and administrative burdens for businesses in Bulgaria of totally measured 742 information obligations (IOs) in 16 national laws and regulations to them in 9 selected priority areas during 2013. Even though the study is limited to specific legal acts and to an assessment of costs to business, the results are helpful in understanding the mechanisms by which the administrative costs and administrative burdens accrue. All IOs identified and verified in the paper, related both to national rules implementing or transposing European legislation, are distinguished by specific laws and by specific priority areas. The data collection methods include interviews with business entities (field work) and expert assessments. The results obtained from the study show that more than half of all IOs examined in the paper are concentrated in three selected national laws – the Medicinal Products in Human Medicine Act, the Law on Statistics and the Law on Technical Requirements for Products and Conformity Assessment. More than half of all IOs are associated with implementation of national requirements related to the EU Internal Market. As concerns the value of the administrative burden, the highest share of administrative burden of all identified and evaluated IOs is observed under the Excise Duties and Tax Warehouses Act and the Law on Support for Farmers. The lowest share of the administrative burden of all IOs is found under those laws where the identified and assessed IOs are only a few (the Law on Social Assistance, the Bulgarian Chamber of Builders Act, the Independent Assessors Act and the Cadastre and Land Registry Act).

peer-reviewed ; Compliance with occupational health and safety (OHS) regulation requires a significant commitment in terms of time, money and personnel which is potentially difficult for many organisations who are struggling to survive in the current economic climate. The study initially evaluated the levels of OHS awareness and knowledge and established the OHS administrative burdens in small, medium and large organisations in Ireland. This was done by means of a questionnaire distributed to organisations nationally. The questionnaire identified that the completion of risk assessments, safety statements and OHS training were the most significant OHS administrative burdens in participating organisations. Online or electronic applications were identified by 88% of participants (n=180) as the preferred method of completion of OHS administrative activities. Small organisations (1-49 employees) have been identified as having greater difficulties with OHS legislative compliance than medium (50-249 employees) and large organisations (250+ employees). The responses obtained in the initial questionnaire (n=205) were used to develop an online tool, namely SME Safety, to assist in addressing the administrative burden posed by OHS regulation, specifically in small organisations. A four month trial of the online tool, SME Safety, took place in 77 small organisations across Ireland. Questionnaires were distributed to the organisations before and after the trial. The final responses indicated that the participants' awareness of their OHS legal responsibilities, the risk assessment process and safety statements contents had increased significantly. Participants indicated that they would be more willing to allocate time and money to OHS following the trial of SME Safety and that they felt significantly more positive towards OHS. The findings highlight the potential value of an online OHS information tool, specifically tailored to small organisations, as a means of addressing the administrative burden of OHS regulation.

AbstractThe digital transformation in the public sector is a converging trend in many social protection systems. In France, it is being combined with the gradual closure of many government offices, particularly those responsible for managing social security benefits. This article focuses on one of the consequences of these developments. They lead to an increase in requests for support and help from individuals experiencing administrative burdens. They make their requests to a range of very different local actors, who do not always have the skills or the responsibility to respond to them. Based on a study carried out in social centres in France, this article presents the role of third parties in reducing the administrative burden. More specifically, it investigates the types of costs associated with the administrative burden to which social centres have to respond, and who meets them. The article analyses the tensions posed by this growing role, which range from professional and organisational to political.

AbstractAdministrative burden research has highlighted the multiple costs imposed by public policies and their impact on citizens. However, the empirical understanding of citizens' responses to such burdens remains limited. Using ethnographic data of doctors applying for maternity leave in Pakistan, this article documents strategies used by citizens to navigate the administrative burden faced by them. Our findings suggest that these strategies are based on an individual's cache of social, cultural capital, and economic capital. Based on our data, we also theorize the significance of another form of capital for navigating administrative burden. This administrative capital is defined as an individual's understanding of bureaucratic rules, processes, and behaviors. Our findings further illustrate that the different costs imposed by public policies can be interchangeable, which may be used by citizens to their advantage. Propositions for future research on the intersection of different forms capital and administrative burden are also included.

Drawing on interviews with disability and income support beneficiaries, the article examines the encounters of Israeli citizens with the National Insurance Institute. Using the administrative burden conceptualisation, our analysis highlights three known types of costs: compliance, learning and psychological. The current study provides further conceptualisation of these burdens by unfolding the role of three concrete elements involved in generating these burdens: waiting, communication breakdowns, and administrative errors. These elements are discussed in terms of their contribution to a better understanding of bureaucratic procedures that constitute administrative burdens in the context of the benefit claiming process.

Using a survey of nearly 2,000 federal government employees, we test the extent to which civil servants are willing to use their position to impose administrative burdens on political opponents. Such an act would create a burden of bad intentions. Rather than discovering that administrators are partisan actors through their use of burdens, we find that federal public employees support administrative burdens when they reduce fraud and waste. Furthermore, these civil servants are also not politically motivated. More precisely, federal government employees do not support administrative burdens that will give unequal benefits to members of their own political party or that will create uneven challenges for members of the opposition. Therefore, we theorize that administrators' decisions relating to burden are motivated by a general concern for efficiency and ethics, even as decisions related to compliance and discretion may be divided into partisan lines.