This paper compares how European minimum income schemes for able-bodied working aged have fared during the crisis. In a first part of the paper, we analyze how the net disposable incomes of families relying on minimum income benefits have evolved in the period 2009-2012 in Portugal, Spain and Italy, as compared to trends in the other Eurozone countries, taking account of changes in minimum income benefits and additional benefits such as housing allowances and supplements for children. The focus is on the changed capacity of minimum income packages to protect against the risk of poverty. In the second part of the paper, we dig deeper into the crisis measures and reforms introduced in this period in the Southern European states. These countries were hit comparatively hard by the crisis, both in terms of the effect on their public finances as on their labour markets. Moreover, the social insurance systems that have provided a relatively well-functioning automatic stabilizer in other countries, such as the unemployment insurance scheme, are often less generous, and focus on the insiders of the labour market. Finally, and most pertinent given our focus on minimum income schemes, these countries were relatively late and/or incomplete in the establishment of a final safety net for their working age population. The institutional changes and reforms to the minimum income schemes are then compared to the changes that took place in the remainder of the EU countries. We focus on those countries that have undertaken structural reforms of their minimum income schemes since the onset of the crisis, and assess differences and commonalities of these reforms. Finally, we ask the substantive question what crisis strategies countries have pursued regarding their minimum income schemes, and what the determining factors behind these different strategies are.
