Income security which provides bare subsistence levels of income use either a means test or an income test to determine whether or not someone applying for assistance gets monetary help. A means test looks only at the income of an applicant. It is sometimes also called an income test. A needs test involves an assessment of the person's budgetary needs, as well as, assets and resources. It generally includes a formula to calculate the gap between resources and budgetary needs. When this idea was used in the Unemployment Insurance program in 1956 it was thought that the new test would allow assistance that would provide a social minimum or an adequate standard of living.

Adequate standard of living, also known as social minimum refers to the realization that in a civilized society there is a certain minimum of conditions without which health and a chance in life are impossible.