On Monday, Labour Undersecretary Claudio Durigon told Corriere della Sera that claimants of Italy's ‘citizenship wage’ basic income, job seeking, and anti-poverty benefit will now lose the benefit if they refuse one job offer, and not three. as was the case prior, under government reforms to the controversial benefit.
The benefit will no longer be assigned on an open-ended, life basis, he added.
Instead, it will be renewable for increasingly shorter periods, and with a cheque that gets progressively smaller, said Durigon, a leading member of Matteo Salvini’s Lega party.
"The subsidy cannot be for life. A term beyond which you cannot go must be set, like for the (other poverty benefit) NASPI," said Durigon.
Giorgia Meloni's new governmet has vowed to reform the basic income payment, which is currently helping millions of people stave off poverty, especially in the poorer regions of Italy’s south.
