Jan Brülle shows how poverty risks in Germany between 1992 and 2012 increased concentrated on
those with low educational levels in lower occupational positions and with precarious
employment careers as the country's welfare state failed to adapt to widening inequalities in
households' market incomes. Contrasting the German experience with Great Britain where social
transfers to low-income families in concert with favourable labour market conditions helped to
reduce poverty between 1992 and the global financial crisis he presents the most comprehensive
comparative study on poverty trends in these two countries to date. Moving beyond a
cross-sectional perspective on poverty the author analyses why it became not only more
frequent in Germany but also more persistent in individual life-courses and why faster exits
have driven the decline in poverty in Great Britain.
