The effectiveness of minimum income benefits in poverty reduction in Spain

Publication type

Journal Article

Authors

Publication date

July 29, 2020

Summary:

One of the greatest peculiarities of the Spanish system of minimum income benefits is its complex organisation. There is a wide variety of specific means‐tested benefits whose management and financing depend on the central government. They are designed to protect different contingencies, providing very different levels of protection. On the other hand, the general risk of poverty is covered by regional governments without any coordination and financing from the central government. In this article, we provide a picture of the possibilities and limits of the current set of welfare benefits, focusing especially on its effectiveness in terms of reducing poverty. Our findings show that most benefits are clearly insufficient to cover the risk of poverty in terms of both incidence and intensity. The results show the need for the redesign of the system to better articulate existing benefits in order to prevent new forms of poverty and to respond to emergency situations.

Published in

International Journal of Social Welfare

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1111/ijsw.12447

ISSN

14682397

Subjects

Link

- https://lib.essex.ac.uk/iii/encore/record/C__Rb2328383

Notes

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