Paper for purchases for poor families, the government excludes those who receive the income

The government excludes citizens’ income recipients from the support measure for the purchase of basic necessities. The Ministry of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty and that of the Economy have signed the implementing decree of the 500 million euro fund set aside for poor families.

The resources will be distributed through a prepaid Postepay card and intended for people residing in Italy who have all members of the family unit registered in the Resident Population Registry and are holders of an ISEE not exceeding 15,000 euros. Starting from July, each eligible household will receive up to 382.5 euros, which can be spent on basic necessities (therefore excluding alcoholic beverages) in affiliated shops that undertake to contain prices. The agreement with Mase may also contain the provision of discounts dedicated to card holders.

However, the decree provides for some significant exclusions. In this way, families in which there are holders of Citizenship Income, Inclusion Income or any other measure of social inclusion or poverty support will not be entitled to the contribution. Nor will the support be granted to those who receive the new social insurance for employment (Naspi), monthly unemployment benefits for collaborators, mobility allowances, solidarity funds for income integration, redundancy fund and any other form of integration salary, or support in the case of involuntary unemployment, provided by the State.

INPS will select the recipients on the basis of three priority criteria. It will then communicate the names to the Municipalities which will be able to distribute up to 1.3 million cards, according to the ceiling assigned to each of them. The Municipalities will communicate to the beneficiaries the right to the aid and the modalities for withdrawing the card.

The recipients will then have to make a purchase by 15 September 2023, under penalty of forfeiture of the benefit. Any remaining sums in the half-billion fund will be divided among the households that have used the card regularly in the previous months.