ROME: The Italian government on Monday scrapped the “citizenship income,” an aid that benefits millions of poor people, and replaced it with a more limited “inclusion check,” a decision the opposition and unions have described as a “provocation.”

The ultra-conservative executive around Giorgia Meloni also voted to ease hiring on fixed-term contracts and a one-year exemption from employer’s contributions for companies that hire an “integration check” recipient on a permanent contract or as an apprentice.

The aim is to stimulate employment and encourage young people to work in the eurozone’s third largest economy, where the unemployment rate for 15-24 year olds (22.4% in February) is almost three times the national average ( 8th %).

For its defenders, the “citizenship income” is a proven social shock absorber in the precarity-hit southern regions, while it is expensive for the state (€8 billion in 2022) and keeps its beneficiaries out of the labor force.

Giorgia Meloni’s services have not released the final text, but its main lines have been leaked to the press.

From January 1, 2024, the “citizenship income” will be replaced by an “integration check” costing 5.4 billion euros annually.

While the “Citizenship Income” was intended for anyone on a very modest income – including young people – the “Inclusion Check” will be reserved for families with people with disabilities, minors or over 60s.

“We are reforming citizenship income to differentiate between those who are able to work and those who are not,” Ms. Meloni reasoned.

The government nevertheless argues that it offers fee waivers for hires under the age of 30.

The “inclusion check” is capped at 500 euros per month (630 euros for households with people over 67 years of age or with a severe disability), plus 280 euros for households without their own apartment. It lasts 18 months and can be extended by a year after a month’s absence.

The government has also announced the creation of an “instrument for access to employment”: from September, participation in training courses or “charitable projects” will be compulsory for people who are able to work, subject to compensation of a maximum of 350 euros per month for one year. The costs for the state are estimated at 2.1 billion euros in 2024.

“Provocation”

According to Italy’s Institute for Statistics (Istat), the “citizenship income” introduced by the five-star government in 2019 has lifted a million people out of poverty, although about half of the poor do not receive it, partly because they are not eligible (Less than 10 years of residence in the territory) or because they have not applied for it.

In 2022, 1.6 million households with almost four million people, mainly in the south of the country, benefited from an average grant of 550 euros, according to the social security institution INPS.

The opposition and trade unions have sharply criticized the government for convening a Council of Ministers on these issues on May 1 of all days, “a provocation”, according to former Chamber of Deputies President Roberto Fico.

“A serious government does not meet on May Day to sentence young people to lifelong precariousness and to end their dreams of home and children. They meet to introduce a statutory minimum wage,” condemned the former five-star prime minister for his part, Giuseppe Conte.

For the newspaper La Repubblica, Giorgia Meloni, by “breaking with the left’s secular calendar, wanted to demystify and desacralize May Day” and “challenge the social hegemony of trade unions over the world of work”.

Mrs Meloni defended in a press release “on the contrary, a beautiful signal and a privilege to honor the workers on this day of celebration and to give the answers that await them”.

Thousands of people demonstrated on Monday across the country, from Turin to Rome, where eggs were thrown at a government building, while the main demonstration of Italy’s major trade union confederations (Cgil, Cisl, Uil) took place in Potenza (south).