The opposition centre-left PD made a request for the government to report to parliament amid concern about what will happen to the people losing their welfare payments and confusion about replacement benefits.
Protestors demonstrated on Monday in Palermo and outside the Naples office of pensions-and-social-security agency INPS after 169,000 families in Italy were told by text that their RdC was being cut.
A sign in Naples read, “Wars between the poor, the rich win”.
“We asked Minister Calderone to come to the floor (of the Senate) at 3:30pm on Thursday to report on the citizenship wage and the dramatically mistaken way that its end was communicated to beneficiaries,” said Boccia.
He added that the PD would raise the issue of the ‘assegno unico’ allowance for parents of children who are minors or young students, as RdC beneficiaries had not been eligible for it.
The left-wing CGIL trade union has said that hundreds of thousands of Italians are set to lose all forms of income support.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni says the RdC failed because it took away jobless people’s incentive to seek work and was too susceptible to fraud.
Two new benefits are coming in, but there is confusion about the application procedures and when payments will arrive.
The new benefits are the inclusion cheque (ADI), worth a maximum of 500 euros a month per individual, for households in which there are minors, disabled people or people over 60; and the SFL benefit of up to 350 euros a month for people who are fit for work, for a maximum of 12 months.
Payment of the SFL is conditional on recipients doing training.
PD leader Elly Schlein on Monday accused the government of waging “war on the poor”.
ANSA
