The citizens' income () is a social

welfare Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifical ...

system created in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

in January 2019. Although its name recalls one of a

universal basic income Universal basic income (UBI) is a social welfare proposal in which all citizens of a given population regularly receive an unconditional transfer payment, that is, without a means test or need to work. It would be received independently of a ...

, this provision is actually a form of conditional and non-individual guaranteed minimum income. The citizens' income was proposed by the Five Star Movement (M5S) and was approved under the

Conte I Cabinet The first Conte government was the 65th government of the Italian Republic. It was led by Giuseppe Conte, an independent, and it was in office from 1 June 2018 to 5 September 2019. The cabinet was formed by a coalition between the Five Star Mo ...

. According to research from Italy's National Institute of Statistics, there are "one million fewer poor people thanks to the citizen' income" and was useful in reducing excess poverty especially during the

COVID-19 pandemic in Italy The COVID-19 pandemic in Italy is part of the ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The virus was first confirmed to have spread to Italy on 31 January 2020, when ...

and the subsequent

COVID-19 recession The COVID-19 recession, also referred to as the Great Lockdown, is a global economic recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The recession began in most countries in February 2020. After a year of global economic slowdown that saw stagnati ...

. Poverty in Italy remains high, as 56% of the poor do not receive the allowance because they have not resided in Italy for at least 10 years, do not turn to the Centre of Fiscal Assistance and patronages, or already have savings. The citizens' income received attention during the campaign for the

2022 Italian general election The 2022 Italian general election was a snap election held in Italy on 25 September 2022. After the fall of the Draghi government, which led to a parliamentary impasse, President Sergio Mattarella dissolved the parliament on 21 July, and called ...

, as the centre-right coalition wanted to either abolish it or strongly modify it but disagreed among themselves, while the centre-left coalition wanted to reform and improve it, and the M5S defended it from right-wing criticism.

References

Economy of Italy Welfare in Italy {{Italy-law-stub

See also

References