Social Assistance – Alleviating Poverty at the Interface to the Labour Market

Austria ranks among the top quarter of EU countries in terms of its spending on social protection, yet the poverty risk continues to be relatively high – a pointer that traditional social safety systems no longer offer adequate protection in view of the increasing flexibility of the working world and the dissolution of traditional family structures. The tertiary safety net in the form of social assistance needs to be reformed in order to prevent rising poverty and marginalisation among an increasing number of long-term unemployed who have to live from social assistance.