Basic security

As basic or minimum income , including primary care , need-based and means-tested are social benefits to ensure the livelihood designated. These benefits arose from poor relief or welfare .

National

Minimum income schemes in Europe

Basic or minimum social security systems to avoid poverty exist in most European countries. When moving to another EU country, all EU citizens receive basic security benefits under the conditions of the respective other country. In addition to a general and living basic pension (e.g. the Swedish “national pension ” , guaranteed pension from 1999 ), social assistance benefits are required to avoid poverty, as certain groups of people (including migrants ) would otherwise not receive any living wage benefits. The benefits generally include a socio-cultural subsistence level . A minimum income could, however, also include higher benefits - taking into account, for example, a low individual standard of living .

Germany

In Germany, basic social security is defined as a social benefit financed from taxpayers' money , which is opposed to the social security system ( e.g. pension insurance and unemployment insurance ). In the Social Code (SGB) there is a subdivision into social assistance benefits according to SGB XII and unemployment benefits and subsidies according to SGB II .

According to the judgment of March 4, 2010, Chakroun (C 578/08), the term “social assistance benefits of the Member State” has an independent meaning in Union law. According to settled case law, a benefit under the regulation can then be regarded as a social security benefit if it is granted to the beneficiary on the basis of a legally defined fact without any individual assessment of personal need at any discretion and if it is based on one of the conditions set out in Art. 3 (1) of Regulation No. 1408/71 relates to the risks expressly listed according to the judgment of December 18, 2007, Habelt et al. (C 396/05, C 419/05 and C 450/05). Thus, a member state is prohibited from refusing basic social security for reasons other than neediness (cohabitation, etc.).

Accordingly, there are basic social security benefits (SGB XII):

as well as basic security for job seekers (SGB II):

Unemployment benefit II (Alg II) and
Associated with this for non-employed persons (children, partners) the social allowance .

The latter two services are colloquially - albeit incorrectly and also with a derogatory tendency - referred to in the legislative package with which they were introduced as " Hartz IV ". In many cases this designation is only used in the sense of Alg II or equated solely with this service.

Furthermore, the term stands for models under political discussion:

Basic child security (depending on needs or unconditionally) as a possible form of family benefit equalization for children.

Austria

In Austria, the needs-based minimum income - as a replacement for social assistance organized at the state level - was introduced from September 1, 2010.

However, following the temporary unemployment benefit, unemployed people still receive emergency assistance designed as an insurance benefit , which enables an individual standard of living at a low level. Depending on the amount, this can be supplemented by the needs-based minimum income.

There is also basic provision for asylum seekers .

Switzerland

In Switzerland there are cantonal regulations with widely differing benefits, see social assistance (Switzerland) .

Spain

On June 10, 2020, the Spanish parliament passed a law on basic security - with no votes against, with only 52 abstentions. It says that the eligible households - depending on size and composition - receive between 462 and 1015 euros per month. Eligible are people between the ages of 23 and 65 who have been running an independent household for at least three years, have been subject to social insurance for one year and whose income per person in the household is less than 230 euros per month.

Other countries in Europe

In 2009, France replaced the Revenu minimum d'insertion ( RMI ) social assistance with the new Revenu de solidarité active ( RSA ) minimum income .

Italy introduced the Reddito di inclusione (REI) social assistance scheme in 2017 . The performance aims to provide immediate and concrete financial support (from € 187.50 to € 534 per month) to people in need while at the same time leading them to social and professional integration. In 2019, the Reddito di Cittadinanza (RDC) welfare scheme was introduced. The benefit is very similar to the German basic security for job seekers and replaces the previous REI social assistance . Support amounts to € 780 per month for a single person, up to € 1180 per month for a family with two adults and two minor children and up to € 1,280 per month for a family with two adults and one minor child and one adult.

The European Missoc statistics list Greece as the only EU member state without a general needs-based minimum income.