the most sizable gains are shown for loneparent and twoparent families in australia italy and germany more generous benefits in germany lift many twoparent families and some loneparents almost a full decile further up in the income distribution although gains were smaller for the large number of lowpaid lone parents in most countries inequality among nonelderly household have widened during most phases of the economic cycle and any episodes of narrowing income differentials have usually not lasted long enough to close the gap between high and low incomes that had opened up previously across countries with data covering different points in the past two decades the gini coefficient for market income has on average increased by every ten years