Labour Minister Elvira Calderone will
report to the Senate on Thursday over the phasing out of the
'citizenship wage' (RdC) minimum-income benefit, Democratic
Party (PD) Upper House whip Francesco Boccia said on Tuesday.
The opposition centre-left PD made a request for the government
to report to parliament amid concern about what will happen to
the people losing their welfare cheques and confusion about the
benefits that will replace the RdC.
Protestors demonstrated on Monday in Palermo and outside the
Naples office of pensions-and-social-security agency INPS after
some 169,000 families in Italy were told by text message that
their RdC was being cut on Friday.
"We asked Minister Calderone to come to the floor (of the
Senate) at 15.30 on Thursday to report on the citizenship wage
and the dramatically mistaken way that its end was communicated
to beneficiaries," said Boccia.
He added that the PD would raise the issue of the 'assegno
unico' allowance for parents of children who are minors or young
students, as RdC beneficiaries had not been eligible for it.
The left-wing CGIL trade union has said that hundreds of
thousands of Italians are set to lose all forms of income
support.
Premier Giorgia Meloni says the RdC failed because it took away
jobless people's incentive to seek work and was too susceptible
to fraud.
Two new benefits are coming in, but there is confusion about the
application procedures and when payments will arrive.
The new benefits are the inclusion cheque (ADI), worth a maximum
of 500 euros a month per individual, for households in which
there are minors, disabled people or people over 60; and the SFL
benefit of up to 350 euros a month for people who are fit for
work for a maximum of 12 months.
Payment of the SFL is conditional on recipients doing training.
PD leader Elly Schlein on Monday accused the government of
waging "war on the poor".
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