A benefit that is difficult to claim can exist more fully in an announcement than in a life.

A benefit is only as real as its claim rate. If the application is long, the eligibility unclear, and the process demanding, the announcement may be the fullest expression the thing ever achieves. It gets counted as delivered, discussed as delivered, and never actually enters most of the lives it was written for. Nobody has to obstruct anything for this to be the outcome.

If something exists that you might be entitled to, spend one hour finding out how the claim works before deciding it is not worth it. If you administer such a thing, measure uptake rather than availability. A programme with a low claim rate has a design problem, not a population problem.