«There are more than 14,000 recipients of basic income in Calabria who have had their economic support suspended. Overall, the beneficiaries who see the measure disappear are around 45,000, taking into account the composition of the households.
The general secretary of the CGIL Calabria writes it in a post on his Facebook profile, Married Angel, member of the union’s national directive. “These are families below the poverty line – adds Sposato – who are experiencing a social drama, without any job prospects and income support. This government is getting everything wrong, absolutely everything, and risks setting the country adrift”. According to Married, «the instrument of Citizenship Income was to be given to the needy and was certainly to be improved, verified and controlled. It was necessary to prosecute the squatters, who are scammers of the community. But be careful not to make the mistake of venting social anger against the poor and not against tax evaders, which cost the country 120 billion a year, while the basic income, if controlled, would cost 5 billion”. “There is also the risk – continues Sposato – that the discomfort caused by the Government is passed on to the local public administrations, which especially in the south experience social emergencies and difficulties on a daily basis”.
The note signed by Luigi Veraldi (secretary of CGIL Calabria) and Alessandra Baldari (general secretary of FPCGIL Calabria)
“Cgil and Fp Cgil have asked the Government to extend the terms at least until the conditions for continuity have been created so as not to leave anyone behind. Local institutions, the Region for the CPI, Municipalities, INPS are asked to urgently activate discussion tables to overcome the critical issues that will arise There will be 14384, in Calabria, the recipients of the infamous text message with which INPS will communicate or has already communicated the suspension of the Citizenship income which represented the anchor to which the socially and economically weakest citizens clung to in order not to sink from poverty to despair. In a region like ours, where the opportunities to find stable, dignified and permanent work are very rare, so much so that there are currently still large pools of precarious or involuntary part-time jobs even in public services, it is a measure that will hit heavy those who have struggled to make ends meet in recent years. It should be pointed out, to those who missed it, that the Citizenship Income was not only a support measure for the unemployed and vulnerable (i.e. those who cannot work), but it also restored those whose jobs are so poor that they do not reach the minimum subsistence. The suspension provision at the end of the seventh month provides that, in the presence of a minor, disabled or over 60 member in the family unit, in order to continue receiving the RdC until December, the social services will be taken over and that, in the event of suspension, the reactivation including unpaid arrears is envisaged if the taking charge is carried out by the social services by 31 October. This is the first almost insurmountable obstacle, given that in Calabria the territorial areas and municipalities are particularly lacking in these professional figures, despite the funds allocated and the possibility of hiring and stabilizing even as an exception to the restrictions on personnel expenditure in order to achieve the expected level of guaranteed service delivery, i.e. one assistant for every 5,000 or 6,500 inhabitants depending on the size of the Municipality, structurally financed by the Ministry of Labour. Together with the serious shortage of personnel which should be filled as soon as possible, the technical difficulties of taking charge must be considered (the systems of the Municipalities do not communicate with those of the EPCs) after the evaluation which, certainly, will require the necessary time, a time of suspension that could generate very serious inconvenience for those who are in absolute need of economic support simply to live. The suspension also applies to households that do not have characteristics of fragility, but which have a member between the ages of 18 and 59, therefore “employable”, in which case they will have to contact the employment centers to sign the service and from which, starting from 1 September, they will be able to request Support for training and work for which a participation allowance for 12 months, equal to 350 euros, is foreseen from January, in the presence of ISEE not exceeding 6 thousand euros. In this case, our concern is no less profound, for two reasons: the first, the CPIs of Calabria are not yet equipped to deal with this dramatic workload quickly, starting with the offices that have not yet been set up, overcrowded with staff and users because lacking the necessary structural characteristics, at least in the large centers of Cosenza and Reggio Calabria, with computer systems not updated to current legislation and deficient instrumentation; the second because we are well aware of the meager job offer in Calabria, due to the scarce presence of productive activities, but also to the weakness of active policies which, although strengthened by recent new hirings still being completed, have never structured effective pathways of training and retraining of people who need to return to the labor market. Ignoring this context of alarming vulnerability means abandoning thousands of people to despair who will in any case be left without a minimum income to meet daily needs and put the workers who will have to take care of them in difficulty, a serious attack on the weakest people who once again marks the profile of this government. The Cgil and the Fp Cgil have asked the Government to extend the terms at least until the conditions of continuity have been created in order not to leave anyone behind, we ask the local institutions, the Region for CPI, Municipalities, Inps to urgently activate tables comparison to overcome the critical issues that will arise”.