Indeed, before the GR, the United States (2.2% of GDP) spent less than half the EU average (around 5%) on cash transfers for working-age individuals (Immervoll and Richardson, 2011, Table Al). Although discretionary and automatic policy changes did significantly improve support for jobless and low-earning individuals in the United States, the redistributive capacity of tax-transfer systems in the EU as a whole will remain much bigger despite recent policy developments. Based on the available evidence, we do not interpret the recent narrowing of gaps between income support systems in the US and some European countries as the beginning of a longer-term convergence towards more similar redistribution levels. Instead, we see it as a symptom of redistribution systems being in flux in all countries affected by the consequences of the 2007/8 financial crisis and the resulting deep labour-market downturn.