The area of Scampia on the outskirts of Naples is best known from the TV series Gomorrah and for drug trafficking, high crime – and sky-high unemployment. Here, many earn a citizen’s salary and here 65 percent voted in the election for the Five Star Movement, which has the salary as one of its most important points in the party program.
– We will do everything to defend people’s right to a citizen’s wage, says Five Star’s top name in Scampia, Nicola Nardella.
Most common in the south
Throughout Italy, 1.5 million families have a citizen’s salary and a total of over 3.5 million people are affected by it and by the citizen’s pension. A whopping 64.7 percent are in southern Italy, which is economically disadvantaged and has higher unemployment than the northern parts of Italy.
– That poor families can get this money means that we can reduce the Camorra’s influence. They can say no to job offers from the mafia, says Nicola Nardella.
Widespread cheating
At the same time, widespread fraud with the citizen’s salary is a big problem with couples separating on the pretense, people signing at fake addresses and widespread undeclared work by people who are also receiving the salary. It is as low as 454 euros a month and as high as 736 euros, for families with more than five people.
During the first nine months of 2022, the citizen’s salary cost the Italian state the equivalent of SEK 66 billion. In addition to the costs, it has also led to many, including young people, turning down work. This, in turn, has led to a shortage of labor in, among other things, the hotel and restaurant industry.
– This summer there was a severe staff shortage in many places. Young people who would rather receive a citizen’s salary and not work also run the risk of never working in the labor market. Whoever can work must work, says Filomena D’Antini, politician for Forza Italia in Lecce.
Italy’s new Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said the same thing in her first speech in the Italian Parliament. She said that the citizen’s wage will remain, for the most vulnerable, but with stricter controls and requirements. Among other things, it will no longer be allowed to refuse work and still be allowed to keep the salary.