Citizenship Income: A failed reform?

The introduction of a universalistic minimum income measure in our legal system represents one of the main innovations seen by the Italian welfare system in the last decades. After reconstructing the poverty trends of recent years, this chapter reviews the historical process that led to the implementation of the Reddito di cittadinanza or Citizenship Income measure. It will then focus on analysing said instrument to demonstrate its many weaknesses, primarily the risk of distortion in a welfarist sense that is not compatible with the logic of social investment pursued by similar instruments in other European countries. Suggestions for improvement will then be proposed, starting with the need for a drastic reinforcement of the socio-labour activation components.