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Worlds of last-resort safety nets? A proposed typology of minimum income schemes in Europe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 April 2020

Marcello Natili
Marcello Natili*
Affiliation:
Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Milan, Milan, Italy
*
CONTACTMarcello Natili marcello.natili@unimi.itDepartment of Social and Political Sciences, University of Milan, Via Conservatorio 7, 20122Milan, Italy
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Abstract

Over the past twenty years, minimum income schemes (MIS) have undergone major transformations in their functions and role. From mainly residual instruments that aimed to guarantee minimum income support and to prevent extreme marginality, in most countries they now have an ambiguous function of providing income support and favouring social and labour market inclusion. Against this background, this article provides an analytical grid that allows describing the different features of last-resort safety nets across Europe, building on the definition of key main dimensions of variation of MISs in Europe – generosity, eligibility and conditionality requirements, institutional configuration, active inclusion profiles. Then, it introduces a new typology of MIS in Europe, building on a new dataset with data on expenditures and coverage collected from National Statistical Offices.

Keywords

Minimum income schemespovertyactivationwelfare regimes
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy , Volume 36 , Issue 1 , March 2020 , pp. 57 - 75
Copyright
© 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

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Footnotes

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

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