New anti-poverty benefit will up poverty says EC

(ANSA) - ROME, MAY 8 - The government's new 'inclusion cheque' anti-poverty benefit will actually increase poverty in Italy, the European Commission said Wednesday.
    The benefit will raise absolute poverty by 0.8 percentage points and child poverty by 0.5 percentage points, with respect to the previous regime, said the EU executive.
    New and more rigorous criteria for getting the benefit will reduce the impact in easing poverty, said Brusels. (ANSA).