Citizenship income, the committees defend it but the Meloni government is late: what to know

The committees in defense of the Basic income. The initiative starts in Rome, but similar realities are also developing in Naples and Palermo. Several associations that already deal with income support for the most fragile people have decided to form a network to help the recipients of the subsidy born with the yellow-green government and which Giorgia Meloni’s executive has announced it intends to abolish within this year.
Unions, movements, associations, students, all together will try to make their assistance services available: from the delivery of shopping at the tax counter to the right to social housing. “We want to create a meeting place for income earners who are isolated and stigmatized by both politics and the media,” he explains. Marco Filippetti of the Clap union, one of the promoters of the committees. The goal is to arrive at mobilization actions to support the rights of these people, so much so that there is already talk of a large demonstration in the spring.

Presidiums have already been organized in the INPS centers in the capital, «a symbolic place where we have met and brought solidarity to citizens frightened by the campaigns that have been waged against them. Poverty is not a fault, the basic income has been useful to many people, and while in Europe governments increase subsidies for people in difficulty, Italy is the only country to cut the allowances», continues Filippetti.

The rules for receiving the subsidy
The maneuver approved by Parliament in December provides for only seven months of basic income for 2023 for the so-called employable, who in order to receive the subsidy until July will be forced to attend training or retraining courses at employment centres. Young people between 18 and 29 will have to attend educational courses if they have not completed their studies. In addition, the rent contribution will no longer be paid to the income recipient, but directly to the landlord. Only the disabled, minors and over 60 will be entitled to the allowance until the end of the year.

The appeal to the government
The committees turn to the government: “The work decree announced by Minister Calderone does not yet exist and training courses have not started in the employment centres”. One of the demands of the committees, moreover, is to guarantee active policies: “The unemployed we have met want to work”, underlines Filippetti who adds: “Therefore we will bring them to the headquarters of the region, which is responsible for vocational training, to ask start the courses”.

Over active policies, chaos reigns supreme
The Gol program has been active since May 2022, financed with 4.5 billion euros by Europe, which is aimed at all the unemployed: income earners, Naspi, NEET, migrants, women victims of trafficking. So it is probable that some regions have started the courses of the Gol program in which the beneficiaries of the basic income also participate. Employment centers, however, continue to go in random order and the government, five months after the end of the subsidy for employable people, has not yet decided what to do.