It is not true that the South is assisted

The tightening of the Citizenship Income announced by the government will lead to spending savings, according to what was declared by the MEF, of 743 million euros. In practice, from 1 January 2023 to people between 18 and 59 who are able to work but who do not have disabled people, minors or dependents aged 60 or over in their household, income will be recognized within the maximum limit of 7/8 months instead of currently 18 renewable. it is clear that out of a total expenditure of around 8 billion a year, the expected savings do not constitute a significant figure. The data released by the INPS president, Pasquale Tridico, describe a complex picture that distances itself from the simplifications that are too often proposed in the public debate to reduce the measure to a form of state parasitism, which in the back thought of those who use these arguments, attributes to the usual Noon. In fact, Tridico explains that around 20% of the recipients were already working, with minimal earnings, from the beginning of the measure and have not stopped doing so, on the contrary, they have increased their offer on the market. A sufficient figure to point out that income does not encourage you to stay on the couch. And – he adds – the data show that the citizen’s income program is not static, on the contrary it has a very sustained mobility, with a replacement rate of around 50%: 5 million people have entered since the beginning and half have left . The permanence is above all for those who are most distant from the labor market: minors, the elderly, the disabled and individuals who have not had employment relationships in recent years or who have never had one.

Still looking at the data, it turns out that with the recovery of the economy in October, the recipients fell to around 2.45 million people, corresponding to 1.16 million households and around 350,000 in the three-year period have entered into a contract of work. Given these that demolish the narrative of the typical earner as one lying at the expense of the state. It is actually a measure in support of poverty, which has allowed an audience of around 5 million people to have a little help to emerge from a condition of social desperation. In fact, it should always be remembered that the average allowance received is 550 euros and that two-thirds is given to people who cannot work (elderly, disabled, minors), or have never worked. One of the arguments that is most frequently used to reaffirm the need to reduce this subsidy is that, for young people in particular, they should be guaranteed not a subsidy but real employment. This thesis is largely shared, a pity that it risks being empty rhetoric. In the last 45 years, in fact, the employment rate in the Southern regions has increased from around 50% to 44.3% in 2020. This means that the unemployment rate in the Mezzogiorno and in the islands has increased with peaks approaching 36% in the d age from 15 to 29 years. The long-term unemployed in the South represent 10.3% compared to 1.2% in Germany, the most alarming figure in all of Europe.