(Finance) – “Thanks to the strengthening of controls, in the month of January 2023 alone 46,250 applications for basic income were rejected, 7,986 benefits were revoked and 14,769 applications were forfeited”. That’s what she said Minister of Labor and Social Policies, Marina Elvira Calderone, answering question time in the Senate. “In this sense,” he added Cauldron – the planning document of the supervisory activity of the National Labor Inspectorate for the year 2023 also provides for a plan for checking and combating irregularities and fraud relating to wage integration and income support measures, including of citizenship. To support this programming, the Ministry of Labor and Social Policies is strengthening the effectiveness of the operational capacity of the National Labor Inspectorate through the commissioning of around 1000 new inspectors by 2023, the consolidation of collaboration with INPS and the Command of the Carabinieri for the protection of work, as well as making use of the specialist contribution of the Guardia di Finanza for matters within its competence”.
“In the context of the work relating to an organic reform of the measures to support poverty and active inclusion, particular attention is paid – reiterated Cauldron – is reserved for the management and implementation of even more effective control mechanisms”.
On the pension front, during the question time in the Senate, the Minister of Labor reported on one possibility of extension of “Women’s option”. “With the instrument of the budget law, it was not possible to intervene in an exhaustive manner due to the limited financial coverage available but – he said Cauldron – I have made a specific commitment, which is to intervene on the institute in a more organic context, as part of a pension reform project”. Calderone assured “full sharing and awareness of the need to expand the audience of recipients of the current pension advance, which must find adequate financial coverage. In this regard – he explained – the appropriate checks are underway by the offices of the Ministry of Economy and Finance. With reference to the intervention implemented with the 2023 budget law, – continued Calderone – I assure you that we are taking into account the reports relating to the difficulties in applying the measure and that specific regulatory proposals are being prepared, submitted to the MEF for verification of coverage budget, for which I confirm the willingness of the Ministry of Labor and Social Policies to contribute using resources from its own budget”.
“We give availability – announced the Minister of Labor – to partially support, with resources present in the budget of the Ministry of Labour, the structural measures for women’s retirement”. The minister reiterated her commitment to “introduce new forms of flexibility in leaving for female workers as part of the of the pension system” that also takes into account women’s careers, often discontinuous due to the need to care for family members, and recalled that the table with the social partners met on 19 January last for the reform of the pension system. “It’s ours. intention – he concluded Cauldron – introduce structural corrections, without having to intervene annually with the budget law”.