ABSTRACT
Effective poverty alleviation strategies do not depend only on the amount of money that is redistributed, but also on the mechanisms by which this redistribution process is achieved. The combination of micro-data and institutional information proposes a new perspective on the incidence of poverty in highly-developed welfare states. The assessment of recipients' benefit packages shows that social assistance benefits do not always guarantee a benefit level that is sufficient to bring claimant households over the poverty line. The evaluation of the institutional conditions for the alleviation of poverty has exemplified that the ineffectiveness of social assistance schemes is part of the explanation of the persistence of poverty in highly-developed welfare states. If welfare states endorse the goal of poverty alleviation, social assistance schemes should provide universally effective protection from poverty. British social assistance will be more effective in alleviating more severe forms of poverty, while being relatively less effective in improving the income position of claimants in moderate poverty.
