The most sizable gains are shown for lone-parent and two-parent families in Australia, Italy and Germany. More generous benefits in Germany lift many two-parent families, and some lone-parents, almost a full decile further up in the income distribution, although gains were smaller for (the large number of) low-paid lone parents. In most countries, inequality among “non-elderly” 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 16% every ten years.