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 specificall ...

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 Guaranteed minimum income (GMI), also called minimum income (or mincome for short), is a social-welfare system that guarantees all citizens or families an income sufficient to live on, provided that certain eligibility conditions are met, typical ...

. The citizens' income was proposed by the

Five Star Movement The Five Star Movement ( it, Movimento 5 Stelle , M5S) is a political party in Italy. Its leader and president is Giuseppe Conte, Prime Minister of Italy from 2018 until 2021. The M5S was founded on 4 October 2009 by Beppe Grillo, a comedian a ...

(M5S) and was approved under the

Conte I Cabinet The first Conte government was the 65th government of the Italy, Italian Republic. It was led by Giuseppe Conte, an Independent (politician), independent, and it was in office from 1 June 2018 to 5 September 2019. The cabinet was formed by a co ...

. 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 The economy of Italy is a highly developed social market economy. It is the third-largest national economy in the European Union, the 10th-largest in the world by nominal GDP, and the 12th-largest by GDP (PPP). Italy is a founding member of t ...

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 f ...

, as the

centre-right coalition The centre-right coalition ( it, coalizione di centro-destra) is an alliance of political parties in Italy, active—under several forms and names—since 1994, when Silvio Berlusconi entered politics and formed his Forza Italia party. Despite ...

wanted to either abolish it or strongly modify it but disagreed among themselves, while the

centre-left coalition The centre-left coalition ( it, coalizione di centro-sinistra) is an alliance of political parties in Italy active, under several forms and names, since 1995 when The Olive Tree was formed under the leadership of Romano Prodi. The centre-left ...

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