ABSTRACT
In almost all industrial countries it is possible to make a distinction between two basic types of social protection schemes, social insurance and social assistance. Based on a study of social assistance schemes in Europe Lodomel has argued that the coverage and construction of social insurance schemes in a country nearly predict both the relative role of social assistance and its institutional design. Most OECD countries have a general social assistance scheme supplemented by some form of separate assistance for different groups. Most countries also have income related housing or rent assistance schemes which exist alongside social assistance schemes. However in all countries where social assistance is administered by local communes there are considerable differences between the countries in the role and relationship of central government to those communes. In Denmark there are national scales of social assistance and communes only have discretion over the level of one off payments.
