First of all, employment opportunities, despite their expansion, may not be sufficient to employ all those who are willing to work. Second, certain segments of the population may not be, for various reasons, in a position to take part in the labour force and thus benefit from employment expansion and wage income. Third, even the employed may experience the need for extra protection when wages are too low, which creates the problem of the “working poor”. While most of these programmes were launched and used as ex post measures to help affected people cope with economic downturns, in more recent years, they have been increasingly used ex ante as measures to reduce the exposure of the poor to insecurity.