This report describes the situation and experience of families during the economic crisis and examines how family-focused policies have changed since 2010 in the European Union. In some countries, benefits have been reduced, affecting disadvantaged families disproportionately. Other countries have introduced new measures to help those families worst affected by the economic crisis. This report also looks at the social situation of different types of families with dependent children and examines what kind of responses can help mitigate the effect of the crisis on disadvantaged families. It focuses on in-depth analyses of developments in 10 EU Member States.
The report's key findings include:
- Throughout Europe, lone-parent families and large families with three or more dependent children face the greatest difficulties: their situation has worsened during the crisis. Differences in the situation of families depend in part on the extent to which the crisis has affected them; they also depend on how Member States responded to the crisis, reflecting different family policy regimes.
- There is evidence of a shift towards more means-tested support; this may create new groups of disadvantaged families who, before the crisis, had access to universal support measures.
- Some Member States have more enabling family policy regimes that help families move away from the traditional breadwinner model. In these countries, cuts to family-targeted benefits have focused on cash and tax benefits. This might indicate that a focus on work–life balance and social investment has been maintained despite the crisis.
- In countries with more limiting family policy regimes, the findings point to significant pressures that mean national and local governments are no longer able to fund some pre-crisis services and measures.
- Changes since 2010 are largely the result of a range of conflicting issues: the evolution of family needs; demands for cuts in public spending; and the need for equitable distribution of limited resources. This means family policies often lack a coherent and integrated policy framework.
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