@TechReport{iza:izadps:dp17943,
            	author={Immervoll, Herwig and Pasteiner, Felizia},
            	title={Weathering the Storms? Minimum-Income Benefits as a Crisis Response},
            	year={2025},
	month={Jun},
            	institution={Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)},
            	address={Bonn},
            	type={IZA Discussion Paper},
            	number={17943},
            	url={https://www.iza.org/publications/dp17943},
	abstract={Economic crises produce rapid and sizable shifts in the demand for social support. Means-tested cash transfers, such as 'social assistance' programmes and related minimum-income benefits (MIB) typically function as benefits of last-resort, filling some of the support gaps left by other government transfers and are key pillars of strategies to alleviate hardship and prevent long-term damage from episodes spent in poverty. This paper discusses crisis-related challenges for MIB programmes, focussing on support for working-age individuals and their families, and drawing on the experience of OECD countries during the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent cost-of-living crisis. It compares MIB provisions before these crises, surveys countries’ approaches and reforms in subsequent years, and distils lessons for making MIBs more effective, responsive and crisis ready.},
	keywords={minimum-income benefits;social assistance;economic crisis;COVID-19;inflation;poverty},
            }