A protest by people who are set to lose their citizenship wage (RdC) anti-poverty basic income benefit after the government decided to phase it out degenerated in Naples on Monday, with police baton-charging demonstrators who nonetheless pushed past them and onto a motorway access ramp, blocking traffic in the southern Italian city.
Some 159,000 families in Italy were told by text message that their RdC was being cut last week, sparking concern about what will happen to the people losing their welfare cheques amid confusion about the benefits that will replace the citizenship wage.
Two new benefits are coming in, the inclusion cheque (ADI), worth a maximum of 500 euros a month per individual, for households in which there are minors, disabled people or people over 60; and the SFL benefit of up to 350 euros a month for people who are fit for work, payable for a maximum of 12 months.
The cheques are considerably smaller than those for the RdC.
The government says the RdC failed because it took away jobless people’s incentive to seek work and was too susceptible to fraud.
Police managed to free up the ramp in Naples after about an hour and traffic returned to normal.
Source: Ansa News Agency (ANA)