The case of citizen's income breaks out. Announced in May, the stop to basic income – replaced by the Meloni government with the inclusion check – arrived punctually via SMS to 169 people. Briefly, the SMS explained the cut in the measure starting from August, for all families where the disabled, minors or over 60s do not live. A few days notice and the uproar is unleashed.
Stop the basic income: how the cut came about
The Council of Ministers of May 1st - the symbolic date chosen by Meloni to launch the package of measures on work - approved the decree of May 4th n.48, then definitively converted into law in July – “containing urgent measures for social inclusion and access to the world of work”. Last July 13, the INPS instructions on who from August would no longer receive the citizen's income and under what conditions the inclusion allowance could be maintained. As often happens, the information was not disseminated in such a capillary way to those directly involved who received the fateful SMS last Friday. For many, a bolt from the blue. Hence the protests and INPS switchboards under siege.
«No one will be left alone: about half of these people are in a situation of discomfort and will be able to turn to social services. The others will have to go to the employment centers», Roberto Bafundi, director of the INPS of Naples, explains to Corriere della Sera. But it is the social workers themselves who raise the alarm, both on the fear of aggression and on the lack of personnel: «At least 15 employees are missing, out of a total of 30 needed. We risk the explosion of a social bomb», underlines the CGIL.
The epicenter of the protest is Naples. Naples is the province where the most suspensions have arrived (over 21), Rome is on the second step with over 12, followed by Palermo with 11.573. Naples is the city where the highest number of applications for citizenship income was presented and the most were accepted. The double of Rome, out of a total national total of applications accepted - based on INPS data which indicated over 895 supports disbursed.
Now, however, the fear is that the protest will also spread with demonstrations or marches in cities where social unease is greatest.
Stop basic income: it's a political clash
«Send a text message to people who have difficulty putting lunch and dinner together. Brutal. The answer of the right to these people is: "Fatti yours"», attacks the secretary of the Democratic Party Elly Schlein. "A shameful choice, badly thought out and worse executed," writes the vice president of the M5S Alessandra Todde on Facebook. Brothers of Italy replies with the request of a commission of inquiry into the former INPS president Tridico: "There is a serious risk - says the FdI group leader in Montecitorio Thomas Foti - that undue economic resources have been stolen from the state coffers by giving the citizen's income to those who were not entitled to it. We believe it is necessary to set up a parliamentary commission of inquiry, limiting the responsibility to Tridico for not having consciously activated the controls".
