Italy: A Bill for “Maternity Income”

The decline in the birth rate in Italy has been continuous since the early 1960s: in 1964 the fertility rate was still 2.66 children per woman. From 1974 to 1984, it went from 2.28—above replacement rate—to 1.46, well below this rate, which is set between 2.05 and 2.15.

This rate was 1.24 in 2021 and it is estimated to be the lowest in Europe, although Spain has about the same, and Malta’s is slightly lower. The fertility rate is estimated at 1.5 for the European Union.

This birth rate crisis in Italy does not have a single cause: there are unstable jobs, lack of prospects or economic uncertainty but also—and this is specific to Italy—the absence of a family policy. It was not until March 2022 that family allowances appeared.

The Italian government has multiplied initiatives to try to correct a catastrophic drop in the birth rate. Thus, last November, it signed a pact with a hundred companies to promote motherhood, one of the terms on which the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has insisted most during her political career.

A “Maternity Income”

According to La Repubblica, which quotes LaPresse, the bill “in two articles introduces a ‘maternity income’ which constitutes ‘an economic benefit, on a monthly basis, granted on request to resident Italian citizens who go to a public consultation or a socio-health establishment authorized by the Region, or to a reliable doctor.’”

This economic incentive, which is reserved for Italian citizens, includes an income that “amounts to 1,000 euros per month for twelve months, provided that the ISEE [Equivalent Economic Situation Indicator] of the applicant’s family does not exceed 15,000 euros, until the child’s fifth birthday.”

The project adds that “for each child after the second year, there is an increase of 50 euros per month, until the child reaches the age of five. For each disabled child, there is a supplement of 100 euros per month, until the child’s 18th birthday.”

Finally, “to implement the economic benefit, the bill creates within the Ministry of Economy a fund called the ‘Maternity Income Fund’, provided with 600 million euros per year starting in 2024.”

According to InfoCatolica, “the money will come from savings that the State will make by eliminating the “citizen’s income” for those who have access to the job market, while maintaining it for those who, for various reasons, are excluded from the job market or have great difficulty accessing it.”

The opposition parties have of course cried “propaganda,” “provocation,” “hypocrisy,” and claim that this will not help anything.