Minimum income schemes in the EU

“Minimum income (MI) schemes play a vital role in alleviating the worst impacts of poverty and social exclusion in many countries. However, in too many countries MI schemes still fall short of ensuring a decent life for the most vulnerable in society. The most common weaknesses include inadequate levels of benefit; failure to cover all those in need; low levels of take-up; a limited impact in reducing poverty. Despite some improvements, in many countries there is still not sufficient emphasis on developing an integrated and tailored approach to support those receiving benefits and to help them integrate into society and, as far as possible, into the labour market.” This is the main conclusion of a new major study by the European Social Policy Network.
In the European Social Policy Network (ESPN) we are 35 independent experts who have written the country reportsthat highlight and assess the contribution of minimum income schemes to both preventing and alleviating poverty and social exclusion, and fostering an active inclusion approach to promoting social investment.
These country reports and the related synthesis report prepared by the ESPN overall coordinators are now available from the ESPN web-page, see ESPN Thematic Report on minimum income schemes. For the Danish country report see Kvist 2016 Danish minimum income schemes.