At the same time, income losses, greater job insecurity and much higher rates of joblessness in many countries go hand in hand with greatly elevated needs for income supplements and other types of government support. In combination with the sharp post-recession falls in government revenues, the resulting tension has fuelled an intense debate about the relative roles of expenditure and tax measures in bolstering public finances, and about spreading the economic costs of the downturn in a socially and politically acceptable way. This paper examines the combined effects of benefit and tax reforms on the distribution of household incomes, both before and after the onset of the downturn. The aim is to place countries’ recent policy responses in the context of both the immediate crisis-related challenges, and the broader trends in redistribution patterns observed since the 1980s.