Social Assistance as a Livelihood Strategy Among the Working Poor: A Case Study from Türkiye

The present qualitative study attempted to elicit the working poor’s views on the social assistance system in Türkiye. We held in-depth interviews with 30 conveniently selected participants between March and June 2022 in Ankara and analyzed the findings descriptively. Accordingly, the results highlighted the working poor’s experiences with the social assistance system, the role of this system in their employment, and their expectations of the system. In a nutshell, our findings implied that the working poor should be granted minimum income support to improve the efficiency of the Turkish social assistance system further in combating in-work poverty.