Based on the rumors that appeared in recent days, the subjects that will benefit from the so-called citizenship income could be little more than 4 million, equal to 1.375.000 family nucleuses involved.
A still unofficial data that, however, has triggered an alarm bell for the CGIA. In fact, it is possible to hypothesize that about half of the audience of theoretical recipients of this measure could be composed of people who work irregularly. And given that for the current year the Government will disburse 6 billion euros to beneficiaries of citizenship income (according to art. 1 paragraphs 255-258 of the 2019 Budget Law, the "Fund for citizenship income" will have a endowment for the current year equal to 7,1 billion euros. From this amount 1 billion for the employment centers and 10 million for the operation of ANPAL Servizi Spa must be subtracted. Therefore, the beneficiaries of this provision will just under 6,1 billion euros), probably half of the expenditure, equal to about 3 billion euros, could end up in the pockets of people who are not entitled to it. The coordinator of the Paolo Zabeo Studies Office states:
"Because of the absence of homogeneous data on the number of black workers in Italy who are also in a state of deprivation, we can not demonstrate this thesis with absolute statistical rigor. However, there are some elements that make us fear that a large part of the income earners of citizenship could obtain this subsidy in spite of the fact that they work illegally, illegally subtracting a huge amount of taxes, social security contributions and social security contributions from the state coffers. In other words, the public administration, net of the envisaged law enforcement measures, will sustain with the income of citizens an important piece of the unobserved economy ".
How did these conclusions come about? According to Istat, in Italy there are just under 3,3 million employees who carry out an irregular activity. If from this number we remove the employees and pensioners who do not qualify to access this measure - equal, in principle, to 1,3 million units - those who despite carrying out an irregular activity could, in theory, perceive this measure would be 2 million; that is half of the potential beneficiaries (just over 4 million).
The presence of undeclared work, of course, provokes very negative economic and social effects, not to mention the enormous damages caused to the commercial and productive activities that respect the rules.
"With the spread of the underground economy - declares the secretary of the CGIA Renato Mason - it is not only the Treasury that is losing out, but also the many productive activities and services, the artisan and trade companies that often suffer unfair competition of these subjects. In fact, undeclared workers, not being subjected to social security contributions, insurance and tax burdens, allow the companies where they work - or themselves, if they operate on the market as false self-employed workers - to benefit from a much lower labor cost and consequently, to charge a very low final price of the product / service. Obviously, these services cannot be offered by those who respect the provisions of the law ”.
The diffusion of the submerged economy in our country has very marked regional differences that could cause strong distortions at the territorial level in the provision of the subsidy.
Recall that the region most "risk" is Calabria, according to the latest data available (year 2016), 140.700 presents workers in black, but a percentage of the value added by irregular work on regional GDP equal to 9,4 per cent. A result that is almost double compared to the national average (5,1 per cent). It follows the Campania that, with 372.600 unit of irregular job, "produces" a Pil in "black" that weighs on the official one for the 8,6 percent. In third place in this particular ranking we find Sicily, specifically with irregular 303.700 and a weight of the economy submerged on the total equal to 8,1 per cent.
The realities least affected by the presence of the underground economy are those of the North: in Friuli Venezia Giulia the irregular workers are 56.400: the latter generate a hidden added value that is equal to the 4,1 of the regional GDP. In Lombardy, on the other hand, the irregular employees are 485.600 and "produce" a black added value of 3,9 per cent of that officially recognized. Finally, the most virtuous region is Veneto: the 197.600 workers in black present "cause" almost 5,4 billions of euros of undeclared value added, equal to 3,8 per cent of the regional GDP.
