Weathering the Storms? Minimum-Income Benefits as a Crisis Response

Herwig Immervoll () and Felizia Pasteiner
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Herwig Immervoll: OECD, Paris
Felizia Pasteiner: OECD

No 17943, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Economic crises produce rapid and sizable shifts in the demand for social support. Means-tested cash transfers, such as 'social assistance' programmes and related minimum-income benefits (MIB) typically function as benefits of last-resort, filling some of the support gaps left by other government transfers and are key pillars of strategies to alleviate hardship and prevent long-term damage from episodes spent in poverty. This paper discusses crisis-related challenges for MIB programmes, focussing on support for working-age individuals and their families, and drawing on the experience of OECD countries during the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent cost-of-living crisis. It compares MIB provisions before these crises, surveys countries’ approaches and reforms in subsequent years, and distils lessons for making MIBs more effective, responsive and crisis ready.

Keywords: COVID-19; economic crisis; social assistance; minimum-income benefits; inflation; poverty (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 E66 H12 H31 H53 I38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-06
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