An SMS is not enough

Starting last July, the first messages from INPS arrived in Mirafiori for the suspension of citizenship income (RDC): application suspended as required by article 13 of Legislative Decree 48/2023 . Luigi shows the cupboard: «there's only soup, that's what we've been eating for three days and we're starting to have a stomach ache». There is only him and the institution that speaks to you via SMS.

One of the practical effects is that in families the suspension of citizenship income also blocked the single allowance because for simplification reasons they were paid together. People had to ask another question, but to date there are those who have still not received anything. Then after the summer clamor silence fell.

Now explains Paolo, an educator, the Job training support has started: if people attend a training course they can receive 350 euros, but the problem "is getting into situations, seeing people, not just a few minutes to fill out a form, being with them, in the places they frequent, in relationships and only over time evaluating a proposal". For example, explains another educator, Mrs. Adele lives in a council house in the Mirafiori district of Turin, has copper-colored hair and an absent look: «an absence forced by the drugs without which she can no longer stand . She is 60% disabled, she spent a decade in prison for various thefts and crimes: she was a blockhead for bad people in exchange for some money. Even today she is the owner of an apartment in which she has never set foot, but this prevents her from accessing public subsidies. She lives with Luigi who started living on the streets at 16, running away from his father's beatings. He got into heroin, but after 30 years he stopped. Now she calms her anxiety with alcohol: 3 to 10 liters a day. He spends his days in the garden and only goes home to prepare meals for Adele and to sleep (when she can). He too is 60% disabled. According to the algorithm, both can work."

And perhaps so, in fact it would be nice if someone took care of them on a daily basis and accompanied them towards employment. But, Paolo concludes, "one of the main problems is that many beneficiaries are unemployable due to training, objective limitations, lifestyle, uncertified disabilities, cognitive limitations". Each measure has an adaptability, it conforms and deforms with people's lives. For this reason, before activating actions at a national level, local experiments should be carried out, the outcomes, limits and possible corrective measures assessed. Before the SMS arrives.


Fabrizio Floris
NP November 2023