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Italy expands €200 payment scheme and introduces public transport bonus

Italy's government will extend its proposed one-time €200 benefit to more people and introduce a €60 public transport payment, Italian media reported on Thursday.

Published: 6 May 2022 11:16 CEST
Italy's government has introduced a €60 one-time public transport benefit for students and workers earning under €35,000 a year.
Italy's government has introduced a €60 one-time public transport benefit for students and workers earning under €35,000 a year. Photo by Tiziana FABI / AFP.

Seasonal workers, domestic and cleaning staff, the self-employed, the unemployed and those on Italy’s ‘citizens’ income’ will be added to the categories of people in Italy eligible for a one-off €200 payment, ministers reportedly announced on Thursday evening.

The one-time bonus, announced earlier this week as part of a package of financial measures designed to offset the rising cost of living, was initially set to be for pensioners and workers on an income of less than €35,000 only.

However the government has now agreed to extend the payment to the additional groups following pressure from Italy’s labour, families, and regional affairs ministers and representatives of the Five Star Movement, according to news agency Ansa.

Pensioners and employees will reportedly receive the €200 benefit between June and July via a direct payment into their pension slip or pay packet.

For other groups, a special fund will be created at the Labour Ministry and the procedures for claiming and distributing payments detailed in an incoming decree, according to the Corriere della Sera news daily.

One new measure introduced at the cabinet meeting on Thursday is the introduction of a one-time €60 public transport bonus for students and workers earning below €35,000. The bonus is reportedly designed to encourage greater use of public transport and will take the form of an e-voucher that can be used when purchasing a bus, train or metro season pass.

Other provisions reportedly proposed in the energy and investment decree (decreto energia e investimenti), which is still being adjusted and amended, include extending energy bill discounts, cutting petrol excise duty and rolling on the deadline to claim Italy’s popular ‘superbonus 110’.

The €14 billion aid package, intended to lessen the economic impact of the war in Ukraine, will “fight the higher cost of living” and is “a temporary situation”, Prime Minister Mario Draghi has said.

The Local will report further details of the payment scheme once they become available following final approval of the decree.

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MONEY

KEY POINTS: What is Italy’s government doing to help families?

As new statistics show the birth rate continues to fall in Italy, what additional support has been introduced for families in 2024 - and how much difference will it make?

Published: 4 April 2024 16:23 CEST
Updated: 7 April 2024 06:35 CEST
KEY POINTS: What is Italy’s government doing to help families?

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni presents herself as a “Christian mother” defending traditional family values. But after a year and a half in power, what concrete financial measures has her government taken to support families in Italy?

The 2024 budget approved at the end of December was the Meloni administration’s first real opportunity to follow through with its pledges of support for families.

Amid the cost of living crisis, more financial support for working parents in particular was something many voters were hoping to see.

While the government did allocate more funds to policies supporting families this year, the final draft of the budget turned out to be a mixed bag.

Main budget changes affecting families in 2024:

  • The 2024 budget slightly increased the minimum amounts payable under the universal allowance (assegno unico e universale, a single, monthly means-tested payment that increases with each child.) See more details here.
  • For 2024 only, it also extended a deduction of pension contributions for women who have at least three children to mothers of two children, up until the month that their youngest child turns ten.
  • The maximum amount claimable towards nursery fees under the bonus asilo nido, or ‘nursery school bonus’, was increased for families with two children, one of whom must be born after the start of 2024.
  • A second month of parental leave in 2024 can be taken at 80 percent of the parent’s usual income, instead of the former 30 percent; this will drop to 60 percent in 2025.
  • VAT increased from 5 percent to 10 percent on formula milk and baby food, and from 5 percent to 22 percent on nappies and child car seats.

See a full breakdown of the maternity benefits available in Italy in 2024 and how to apply for them here.

The steep hike in VAT applied to nappies and baby formula has unsurprisingly been controversial, while some of the other measures fell short of what was initially reported based on earlier drafts of the budget law.

With most of the funding allocated to measures aimed at supporting larger families, media reports noted that it was hard to see how the government intended to encourage more young Italians to consider starting a family in the first place.

READ ALSO: The real reasons young Italians aren’t having kids

This has been a hot-button topic in Italian politics for years as the birth rate continues its steady descent. The latest figures from national statistics bureau Istat showed last week that the birth rate was near the lowest on record in 2023, with the number of births per Italian woman dropping further to 1.20, down from 1.24 in 2022. 

Against this backdrop, successive governments over the years have promised to make starting a family more financially viable for young Italians. But while there have been improvements – Italy had no form of child benefit at all until 2020, for instance – the support available to new parents is often deemed inadequate.

While surveys show that a large proportion of young Italian adults would like to start a family, they don’t see it as realistic: the rising cost of living, low and stagnant wages, and widespread workplace discrimination during pregnancy have long been cited as just some of the reasons why people put off having children or have fewer than they would like.

Economists say Italy’s shrinking population – on course to fall by one fifth by 2050 – will soon mean the country must implement either huge tax increases or severe pension cuts.

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