Abstract
Scholarly literature is inconclusive on how economic crises impact on minimum income protection. Earlier studies found small increases in the generosity of safety nets at the onset of the crisis. Yet an increased focus on budget austerity substantially altered the social policy context. This paper assesses how minimum income floors weathered the austerity tide following the crisis using purpose-collected data for 23 EU countries. Generally, social assistance benefit trends did not deviate much from pre-crisis growth levels. Yet retrenchment did occur through more technical measures, the combined impact of which was quite significant in some countries. Jel codes: I380
Highlights
This article looks at what 23 EU countries undertook in the crucial area of minimum income protection (MIP) for able-bodied persons at working age during the first 5 years of what Jenkins et al (2013) have dubbed the ‘Great Recession’, with a particular focus on the period when austerity started to take hold
We focus on what happened to MIP in the later stage of the crisis, as the austerity tide washed over Europe
We focus explicitly on minimum income schemes, an area that arguably offers a clear indication of the changes at the floor of the welfare state
Summary
This article looks at what 23 EU countries undertook in the crucial area of minimum income protection (MIP) for able-bodied persons at working age during the first 5 years of what Jenkins et al (2013) have dubbed the ‘Great Recession’, with a particular focus on the period when austerity started to take hold. This article follows up on Marchal et al (2014a), in which we assessed how MIP schemes weathered the onset and initial phase of the crisis. Minimum income provisions had by and large deteriorated during the two decades preceding the crisis, as social policy in many EU countries had come to rest on the idea that work offered the best way out of poverty. The size of these increases did not point towards a sea change in MIP policies. All in all, these first supportive measures seemed relatively short-lived, as additional efforts became rarer from the end of 2009 onwards. European governments were concerned with reducing debts and deficits while EU budgetary control strengthened, through the Excessive Deficit and Macro-Economic Imbalances Procedures
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