New rule requires compensation from families who join the “citizenship income”, the “Bolsa Família” in Italy.
A new rule in the program “Basic income“, a kind of “Bolsa Família” of Italy, came into force: it is now mandatory to work for the municipality. Anyone who does not comply with the rule, which came into effect this Monday (13), loses the benefit.
Beneficiaries of “citizenship income” must be available for projects useful to the community in the areas of culture, artistic activities, the environment and the protection and conservation of common goods.
The activities – unpaid – must not be related to public works, and those dependent on the program cannot carry out tasks in place of staff employed by the public body (or by the administrative body in the case of outsourcing services).
The workload must be a minimum of 8 hours, and a maximum of 16 hours, per week. Non-compliance by one of the family members leads to loss of citizenship income.
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The program
Just over 1 million families have already joined the “citizenship income”, created by the Italian government to try to reduce poverty rates in the country.
The program provides a monthly subsidy for families with an income of less than 12,6 euros per year (around R$57), or 6 euros in the case of singles.
Interested parties also cannot have real estate assets – with the exception of their first property – exceeding 30 thousand euros nor more than 6 thousand euros in bank balance (the value of this last requirement increases to 10 thousand euros in the case of large families).
The minimum amount of the benefit is 500 euros per month per family (in the case of singles), and the maximum, 1.050, for a nucleus with a couple, one adult child and two minors.
The maximum usufruct period is 18 months, which can be renewed after a break of one month.
Recipients of Italy’s “Bolsa Família” sign up to a job platform, and the first job offer within 12 months can be within a radius of 100 kilometers from their residence; the second, within a radius of 250 kilometers; and the third, throughout Italy.
Anyone who rejects three proposals in a row loses the benefit.
'Bolsa Família' numbers in Italy
Until October 31, 2019, according to the National Social Security Institute (INPS), 900.283 requests for citizenship income and 120.327 requests for citizenship retirement, the version of the program for the elderly, had been accepted.
As a result, the measure benefits 1.020.610 families, compared to a figure of 1.555.588 requests submitted – the government's forecast was to serve 1,375 million centers. The number of beneficiaries is equivalent to almost 4% of the total number of families in Italy.
Campania leads the ranking of accepted requests, with 19,1% of the total (194.925), followed by Sicily, with 17,3% (176.672). Both regions are in southern Italy, which suffers from economic growth and unemployment rates worse than the national average.
The citizenship income was established in the first half of this year and is the main banner of the populist 5-Star Movement (M5S) party.
