Thus, they tend to mitigate the negative impact on well-being of the lack of sufficient income. Normally, the absence or recurring insufficiency of income leads to deterioration in well-being or access to it, which makes it impossible for families to invest income to develop their own capacities or take advantage of the (often scarce) opportunities for long-term human capital formation. Also significant are transfers in the form of subsidies on public or private services that, for the families concerned, result in smaller out-of-pocket expenses in comparison with the market price of those services. The present study analyses cash transfers which act as subsidies on demand, whether in the form of discretionary spending or vouchers for a particular social service for which they can choose only the supplier, although in many cases the geographical concentration of supply is such that the user actually has no freedom of choice.