ABSTRACT
European social protection systems were mostly developed at the end of the Second World War, when states wished to encourage women to return home so that men could take back the jobs they had left during the war. Even in social insurance systems, to develop mechanisms through which the protection generated by the contributions paid by the husband was extended to his wife and children. This is the context and family model which gave rise to the family modulations of social benefits and derived rights which still exist in current social protection systems, without ever having really been questioned. The individualization of rights implies the elimination of any reference to the composition of household or life style in the provision of social security benefits. The means-tested benefit depends on the number of hours worked by the partner. This means that unemployment benefit has been individualized in the case of the contributory allowance, but quite the contrary for the means-tested system.
