“Pensions are increasingly poor and their purchasing power has dropped significantly in recent years.” This was stated by Francesco De Biase, general secretary of Uil Pensionati Calabria.
«Inflation and revaluations – he adds – have not walked hand in hand. Pension benefits have increased nominally, but not adequately to the cost of living, drastically compromising the purchasing power of pensioners and pensioners.” «From this situation – states De Biase – a series of detrimental consequences have arisen for average pensioners: the reduction in consumption and spending, a quality of life that has significantly worsened, disadvantageous effects from a social and health point of view, in the possibility of accessing basic necessities, food, home and personal care. And if it is true that in the month of January inflation in Italy fell to 1%, it is equally true that the prices of the shopping cart (food and personal care) increased by 2.1%. All critical issues that are amplified exponentially in Calabria where access to services is particularly problematic, especially in internal areas experiencing the scourge of depopulation, and transport systems are more precarious.” «To these critical issues – states the secretary of Uil Pensionati Calabria – there is a further fact: Calabria records the record for poor pensions and the lowest pension amounts in Italy. And it also records a significant emigration of the younger and, often, qualified part of the population. Skills, contributions and GDP move to other areas of the country. This determines the presence in the regional territory of a growing percentage of the elderly and frail population who live in conditions of economic hardship due to the increase in the cost of living, consumption and services”.