Some 240,000 applications for Italy's
soon to be repealed 'citizenship wage' basic income anti-poverty
and job seeking benefit were rejected in the first 10 months of
this year, social security and pensions agency INPS said Friday.
Giorgia Meloni's right-wing government has said the benefit, a
flagship policy of the populist opposition 5-Star Movement
(M5S), is to be gradually abolished arguing that it is a harmful
handout that stops people from seeking jobs.
The M5S has said the abolition will spark a "social bomb" of
countless newly impoverished people who have nowhere else to
turn to support themselves.
INPS said the 240,000 applications were automatically rejected
for lack of the requirement of residence in Italy or for false
or omitted declarations in relation to the employment position
of the members of the household, before the benefit could be
unduly received.
It added that a further 50,000 recipients were suspended and
subjected to further checks.
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