Activation requirements are a key part of modern income support systems. They set conditions for receiving unemployment or minimum income benefits, such as actively looking for work, taking part in training or employment programmes, or accepting suitable job offers. These requirements aim to help people return to work more quickly and reduce the length of unemployment, while also managing demand on benefit systems and employment services. However, if requirements are too strict, they can discourage some people from applying for support and may unintentionally exclude those who need financial and employment help most.
To understand how activation requirements work in practice, the OECD has developed two complementary tools. The first is a detailed policy database that describes what people receiving benefits are expected to do and what happens if they do not meet these requirements. The second is a quantitative indicator that sums up how strict these rules are, making it easy to compare approaches across countries and track changes over time.
