ABSTRACT
Income support systems typically combine selective instruments, mainly means-tested benefits and allowances, with universal ones, commonly one or both of flat rate benefits-based and wage-related social insurance. In the social insurance countries of Germany and the United States means-tested income played a comparatively small role, accounting on average for less than 10 per cent of gross income. The concept of social citizenship is often equated with universality. At the most stringent poverty standard, poverty rates were very low in the two countries with the most selective income support systems, Australia and the UK. The issues raised in the Strategic Review of the Pensions’ Incomes and Assets Test suggest that means testing in Australia has reached the point where adverse effects of selectivity begin to be felt. At the most stringent poverty standard, poverty rates were very low in the two countries with the most selective income support systems, Australia and the United Kingdom.
