however while marketincome inequality continued to rise after the mid s much of the stabilising effect of taxes and benefits on household income inequality declined figure cash redistribution relies on three instruments benefits income taxes and social security contributions overall the redistribution trends were driven chiefly by benefits or to be more precise by changes in their receipt patterns and generosity changes in the numbers of unemployed and reforms to benefit eligibility criteria appear to have been particularly important factors whereas benefit targeting seems to have played less of a role