The report presented above is the result of collective work undertaken by six teams of the EXNOTA consortium, created as part of the Thematic Network project which was selected for the 5th FPRTD. It synthesises national reports drawn up by the teams. The complete versions of these national reports are available on www.exnota.org http://www.exnota.org ; Non-take-up of social rights, which in all countries consist of social benefits and services, is a serious cause for concern and a threat to social cohesion in Europe. Irrespective of whether NTU is explained in terms of unintentional behaviours (non-take-up) or deliberate ones (exit from), or in terms of institutional factors (public policies, territorial distribution of the public offer, administrative functioning, etc.), the very existence of this phenomenon is a fundamental challenge to the effectiveness, if not the validity, of the social welfare systems implemented throughout Europe, in some cases decades ago. The issue seems particularly urgent in light of the fact that in many countries the choice of policies and measures targeted more specifically at vulnerable groups – primarily via means-tested or even behaviour-tested benefits –, has not curbed this phenomenon. The fact that NTU has been recognized as a public problem either directly, with the emergence of “new poverty” in countries that have sound social welfare systems (here, the Netherlands, Germany and France), or indirectly, in new EU member countries (here, Greece, Spain and Hungary) through debates on the development of social protection and its opening up to minorities, does not fundamentally alter the problem. The reforms introduced to take into account priorities which change in tune with social demands and budgetary constraints simply highlight the difficulties of access to social rights. The emergence of NTU, presented in the first part of the report, does not seem to be curbed by measures which redefine rights to welfare benefits, introduce increasingly selective criteria for family ...