Other existing challenges

The innovations around income support schemes are relevant not only with the view of future technological transformations but also as response to already existing problems. Low birth rates and ageing populations are shifting the dependency ratios of young and older adults to people of working age across the rich countries. The economic forces that shape the adoption of new technologies and the use of labour are unlikely to meet the challenges expressed above and reduce poverty and inequality without policy intervention. Preventing large-scale poverty calls for new models for social security. Even if all agree that there is a need for radical reforms in welfare state policies, that will not automatically lead to action.