SP Module 3

Choices on the 'adequacy' of different measures are often political and depend on the following factors, among others:

• The type of programme and its objectives. E.g. Social insurance tends to offer relatively higher transfer values than social assistance - as it acts as 'income replacement' or 'maintenance';

• The type of constraints that exist in the country: the political support for social protection measures, the fiscal/political ‘space’ and the level of administrative capacity;

• The stage of development of a certain programme (its maturity), including its capacity to set, e.g. transfer values in more complex ways - for example, in relation to household size and dependency ratios, or indexed to inflation.