Income support measures for the poor in European cities

Assessing income support where no national minimum income scheme exists. Is it possible to apply the model family method to the Italian case?

“…The amount of MV or MA, multiplied by the appropriate coefficient of the equivalence scale, is usedin principleto define: a) whether applicants can be entitled to the measures (if their income is below the threshold); and b) the level of payment to which they are entitled (corresponding to the difference between their declared income and the threshold). However, previous research results based on the in-depth analysis of the Milanese local welfare system showed how, in practice, it was mainly used to define who is entitled, while the amount paid was generally fixed discretionarily at a much lower level than the official one Sabatinelli 2001, Bonny andBosco 2002). Therefore, filling out the matrices by calculating the social-assistance income merely on the basis of the official levels provided for by the municipal regulation in 2009 would have led to unrealistic results.…”

“…Therefore, if the assumption is that the family has zero income for 12 months, it is possible to attribute the payment of social assistance income support for 12 months. However, this is not the case of Milan, wheresimilarly to most Italian local contexts (Bonny andBosco 2002, Lumino andPirone 2013) the duration of payments is not standard, but is heavily conditioned by budgetary constraints.…”

Soziale Grundsicherung in der Weltgesellschaft

“…auch die des konservativen Typs (Deutschland, Österreich) vergleichsweise generöse Systeme haben, während die südeuropäischen Länder weniger großzügig sind (ähnlich auch Bonny/Bosco 2002). Auch die Organisationsstruktur unterscheidet sich, wobei die Haupttrennlinie verläuft zwischen Ländern, "which are organised on a centralised, integrated and national basis (Australia and the United Kingdom) and where there are common conditions of eligibility and payment and those countries (such as Italy, Norway and Switzerland) which have structures that allow for the devolution of responsibility for combinations of policy and administration to local governments" (Ditch 1996: 33) Seit Mitte der 1990er Jahre hat die Zielsetzung, Hilfebeziehende so schnell wie möglich wieder in das Erwerbsleben zu integrieren, in fast allen Ländern an Bedeutung zugenommen, wobei hier ein je spezifisches Mischungsverhältnis von "Fördern" und "Fordern", Zwang und Freiwilligkeit auszumachen ist ("aktivierende Sozialpolitik", siehe unten).…”