The black hole of Citizenship Income: a job path only for 8% of earners. And for taking charge there is a 4 month wait

ROME. The main beneficiaries of income support measures, those interventions – first such as the inclusion income and then the citizenship income – introduced with the main objective of combating poverty in the our country. This is the identikit drawn up by INAPP (National Institute for the Analysis of Public Policies), presenting the results of a double survey which analyzed both the beneficiaries of measures to combat poverty and the local implementers of these measures, i.e. employment centres, municipal social services and social sectors.

Most in the South
Those who have received this type of support are equally distributed in our territory, with a greater presence in the south (33.7%), while the share of those coming from non-European countries is very low. These are subjects characterized by a generally low level of education and low qualifications from the point of view of professional qualification (78% of those who declare to be employed have a low professional profile).

These measures, says Inapp, have intercepted not only people who find themselves in conditions of mere economic and material disadvantage. In fact, the survey shows how equally fundamental are aspects linked to relational life, education and training, and lifestyle: dimensions that must not be overlooked in planning and implementing social inclusion processes.

For Rei beneficiaries, the impact of the policy on the reduction of severe material deprivation and, as expected, the increase in the average net family income is significant.

The knot of employment
The offer of work and training activities for the beneficiaries of the citizenship income is the sore point highlighted by most of the respondents, both on the social side and on that of employment services. In fact, almost 60% of the social territorial areas and employment centers identify this implementation dimension of the measure as problematic. Only a minimal share of respondents, between 3 and 8% depending on the type of service, believes that the measure has produced results in terms of job activation and training.

The network effect
With regard to the ability to reach the recipients of these measures (the so-called take-up rate), the results show the importance of the network work of services with local actors and territorial proximity done with the establishment of access points in the context of the Inclusion Income, unfortunately nullified with the abolition of the access points of the subsequent Citizenship Income. On the other hand, the network work of the territorial services has improved thanks also to the planning action, now defined by 328/00 for over twenty years.

Criticalities
Some critical issues remain, in particular with regard to the processing times of the applications: on average, about 4 and a half months pass between the authorization to obtain the Citizenship Income issued by the INPS and the taking charge of the beneficiary by the centers for the employment and municipal social services. Only half of the centers (51.6%) are in a position to summon the beneficiaries of the measure within the 30 days prescribed by law. The times taken by the employment centers are naturally affected by the volume of users that characterizes the various territories, so that they are shorter in the North, where the wait is on average 3 and a half months, while in the South they are approximately at 5 and a half months. The subsequent stages are less problematic, namely the stipulation of the agreement, the definition of an agenda of appointments and the verification of the commitments and conditionalities placed on the beneficiaries.