Le politiche per l’assistenza: il Reddito di cittadinanza

During 2018 and the first part of 2019 the Italian debate on public expenditure for cash transfers has been dominated by two arguments: “Quota 100” for pensions and the Citizen’s Income (CI) for social assistance. This chapter is entirely devoted to the CI, which represents a turning point in policies against poverty in Italy, with positive aspects and some problems. After section 2, which updates the indexes on poverty and inequality in Italy, section 3 traces the history and the main contents of CI, formulating also some proposals to improve its design. Then a discussion of the quantitative effects of CI on poverty follows. Finally, section 5 deepens the relationship between poverty and the labour market, and the role that the CI could play in this context.