Policy brief: Falling through the social safety net? The case of non-take-up in Austria

PUBLICATION YEAR

2019

CITATION

Fuchs, M., Hollan, K., Gasior, K., Premrov, T. & Scoppetta, A. (2019). Falling through the social safety net? The case of non-take-up in Austria, Policy Brief 2019/2. Vienna: European Centre.

DESCRIPTION

A key performance criterion of social protection systems is whether benefits reach their target groups. Means-tested programmes, however, tend to be characterised by a certain extent of take-up problems. With the aim to increase target efficiency by facilitating access and introducing new minimum standards, the Austrian benefit of last resort 'monetary social assistance' was replaced by the 'minimum income benefit' in 2010/11. This policy brief quantifies the success of the reform by assessing the size and social determinants of (non-)takeup of those benefits, and points at potentials for further policy improvement.