SOCIAL ASSISTANCE IN OECD COUNTRIES

This article presents selected results from the first comparative stud y of social assistance across all 24 countries of the OECD. The scope of social assistance, discussed in the first section, is drawn to incl ude all means-tested benefits in cash and kind, including those which provide benefits to higher income groups. The second section then pres ents information on the main programmes in each country, expenditures and groups of beneficiaries, trends over rime, administrative structur es, and operation of means tests. It concludes by developing a new mea sure of assistance benefit levels with which to evaluate different cou ntries' systems. The third section distils from the country difference s eight patterns, or 'assistance regimes: varying from the limited, di scretionary, decentralized models of Switzerland and Norway to the ext ensive, national, rights-based programmes of the English-speaking worl d; and from the relative generosity of Scandinavia and Australia to th e low, marginalizing benefits of the Mediterranean countries and the U SA. The last section turns to the economic pressures and Political deb ates which are driving contemporary policy changes. The concepts and e mpirical data presented here will enable means-testing, targeting and selectivity to be brought back into the comparative study of European and wider welfare systems.