ROME – Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio announced on Friday that eight hours of unpaid labour would be required in order to qualify for the citizens’ income as he prepares to launch his ‘Dignity’ decree next week, political sources said.

 Speaking at the Italian Labour Union (UIL) Congress on Friday, Di Maio stressed that the purpose of the citizens’ income was “not to give money to someone to sit on the sofa but to say frankly: you have lost your job - your sector is finished or has changed - now you need a path to retrain and be reintegrated into new sectors.”

 The incoming measures do not constitute “a welfare proposal without controls,” the Minister for Labour and Industry was quick to highlight. Instead, “I’ll give you an income while you are training and the State is investing in you, and in exchange, every week give your mayor eight free working hours for public use,” he added.

 Next on the agenda for the leader of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement will be the abolition of parliamentary annuities, labelled “a question of social justice,” and gold pension cuts, which he hopes to tackle next week.

 The eradication of annuities for members of parliament was a key promise throughout Five Star’s election campaign and will join measures to cut red tape and reduce job instability across the country.

 Focussing on youth protection, Di Maio added that “we will ban advertising on gambling and we will intervene on relocations.”

 “There are a lot of people left on the street because foreign companies come here to Italy, take public money and then go abroad,” he concluded.

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