Employment is the crux

In Italy, measures against poverty generally appear as policies addressing work pathologies such as unemployment, accidents, and diseases, work being the crux of citizen rights.

Social citizenship and the battle against social exclusion and marginalisation take different shapes in the different European countries, depending on their social, political and cultural history. In Italy, for instance, a ‘minimum allowance’, which would be similar to the English ‘supplementary benefit’, the French ‘revenue minimum d’inclusion’ or the German ‘bundessozialhilfe’, is still lacking.

Social welfare and security

It is not by chance that one of the most prominent forms of the battle against poverty is that of income support (civil invalidity pension, disability benefit, home assistance benefit, social pension).

In 1995, global social protection expenses totalled 403 thousand billion Lire, that is 28.8% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Security and welfare expenses were 309 thousand billion Lire, 17.5% of GDP. Pension expenses were the dominant component (208 thousand billion Lire or 11.8% of GDP in 1995). These showed an upward trend, notwithstanding the reforms that took place in 1992. 90% of pension expenses are constituted by old age pensions. Social welfare expenses amount to 62.9 thousand billion Lire, 3,5% of GDP. From 1989, these expenditures shrank. Social welfare expenses include supplements to minimum pensions as well as family allowances.

To better understand the character of policy against poverty, an analysis of the composition of welfare expenses is useful. (See Table 1)

The following points become evident:

1. Monetary distribution plays a far greater role than services supply.
2. Funds go to bodies and institutions whose aims and functions overlap and are therefore not clear.
3. Institutions have a strict sectorial character that fragments citizens into a myriad of categories, but ignores factors such as age, sex and actual living conditions.
4. Welfare programmes are usually made on the basis of a confused notion of invalidity: a generic concept of "inability to work" prevails, while new forms of exclusion such as AIDS, alcoholism, and homelessness are underrated, as are the new demands and risks that arise from current social transformations (increases in female employment and in the number of one-parent families).
5. Welfare interventions are fragmented among different institutional bodies, both at central and decentralised levels such as state, government departments, regions, provinces and municipalities.
6. Financing instruments are unclear: contributions are still predominant, while fiscal instruments are residual.

Table 1

Worker’s policy

The battle against poverty also takes the form of employment-oriented policy, which acts in two directions, to ensure full-time employment, and to ensure allowances to the unemployed. The standard (which is still predominant) for work policy is a full-time permanent job "Cassa Integrazione" provides ordinary and special provisions for laid-off workers - Ordinary "Cassa Integrazione" benefits may be applied in a temporary crisis for a maximum of one year, and are equivalent to 80% of the latest salary, paid by INPS. Extraordinary CI benefits concern enterprises employing more than 15 people. They amount to 80% of the latest salary and durations range from 24 to 36 and also 48 months.

Industrial management

In Italy there are two different ways to deal with unemployment: payment of ordinary benefits and special benefits. (See Table 2)

The strategy for the fight against poverty is obvious from the current work policies. The most conspicuous roles are played by contracts for training and employment, socially valuable jobs, part-time jobs, incentives for entrepreneurship, and interventions in support of groups at risk also through European programmes such as Now, Horizon, and Youthstart.

However, the most relevant actions still derive from a logic of passive defense. They prioritise the defense of permanent jobs and of non-traumatic dismissal of excess workers (through early retirement, etc). Given the present instability and uncertainty in our economy, too much of welfare security is still depends on work. This distortion is evident in the confusion between "welfare security" and "social welfare" that characterises income protection in Italy.

Especially during the last years, the number of families living in poverty has increased. (See Table 3)

Housing

The problems that concur to create poverty are many: apart from employment instability and uncertainty, there is also the issue of accommodation. In Italy, over 70% of families own their own houses. At the same time, housing prices have increased faster than inflation and wages. From 1985 to 1991, the price of a residence increased by 80%, while medium contract wages increased by 38%. In the sixties, two or three years of the median household income was enough to buy a house; in 1994, five or six years was necessary. Nowadays, it is far more difficult for young people to become homeowners; it is also more difficult to change lodgings. Housing takes 18% of the income of poorer families (with monthly incomes below one million) and 7.3% of richer family incomes (monthly incomes above three million). Economic poverty is thus more common among those who pay rent than those who own their homes.

Table 2

WORKFORCE

Population (divided by condition), sectors of business of employed

people and their sex (a)

Average for the four surveys (data expressed in thousands)

(b)Employed In search of employment

Males

Females

Males and Females

(a) As for definitions of aggregations and changes made to the survey see introductory note– (b) In using the workforce series, please take into account the fact that the data relative to the 1990 average exist in two versions, owing to the use of two different systems for universe (c) 1990 average coefficients of expansion to universe. Such coefficients were adopted as from 1991. – (d) data from 1993 on have been revised adjousting the weighting procedures – set for calculating the esteems that derive ffrom the survey – to age and sex structure of Italian population as resulted from October 1991 census.

Source: ISTAT 1997

Public Health

In this field also, measures taken by recent governments (from 1992 on) that were intended to reduce costs and separate social welfare and public health, may favour new a form of exclusion. This new form of marginalisation acts through two mechanisms: off-loading of complex cases, and difficulty of access for certain groups. Because of the separation of duties, various institutions in the sector reciprocally off-load the responsibility for problems and people whose needs are complex and not separable (long-term, chronic and mental patients). This separation of duties and the lack of "guide-posts" also make access difficult for people who do not possess the necessary information and skills (eg, resident immigrants). The relationship between poverty and public health becomes very serious if we also take into account factors such as mortality and morbidity. (See Tables 5 and 6)

Table 3

Incidence of poverty in Italy, 1993 and 1994 (absolute values in thousands and percentage values)

Source: data processing by ISTAT Family expenditure survey 1993 and Family expenditure survey 1994.

Education and professional training

Lack of education and social exclusion are strongly connected. The right to education is a fundamental citizens’ right, but in Italy it is only partially universal. The school system’s productivity is still very low. Out of 1000 teenagers that begin middle school, only 177 go to university. In the transition from middle to high school the rates of failures and drop-outs are extremely high. (See Tables 4 and 7)

10% of professional training activities are carried out by regional governments; together with the percentage carried out by provincial bodies these reach 25% of the whole public intervention. About 70% of such activities depend on training bodies and institutions that operate on the basis of agreements with single regions. Private enterprises carry out 73% of basic education and 68% of second-level training. The professional training sector has proven unable to make the necessary transformations to improve its effectiveness and its connection with the labour market.

Table 4

Percentage of wastage during the first 2 years of course divided by kinds of school (s.y. 1992-1993).

Source: Isfol [1994]

Table 5

Mortality due to every cause in Italy in 1981/1982: some data (mortality in all the population = 100)

Source: Costa e Faggiano [1994]

Table 6

Years of life lost for each 10,000 potential years of life concerning people aged between 18 and 64 years(standard), resident in Turin in the years 1981-1989, according to social indicators and some selected causes of death.

Source: Costa e Faggiano [1994]

Table 7

"Census" Regional list on education (concise index)

Source: Processing of data by ISTAT [Census 1993]