Poverty in Italy and Generative Welfare Approach

Poverty rates are not evenly distributed across social groups. Istat data show that the increase in poverty in 2012 was bigger among households with more minor children. Larger families are more at a disadvantage: the relative poverty rate among households with 3 or more minor children in 2012 was 28.5 % at the national level, 40.2 % in southern Italy. Some social groups are more at risk of poverty. This concerns younger parents: the relative poverty rate among households whose reference person (r.p.) is aged less than 35 equalled 14.7 % in 2012, higher than the rate among households having an older r.p. The chance of being poor is also related to the occupation and professional position of the r.p.: the incidence of relative poverty among households having as r.p. a manual worker (16.9 % in 2012) is significantly higher than the estimated incidence among households having as r.p. a self-employed worker (11.9 %), a manager or a salaried employee (6.5 %), an entrepreneur or a freelance (4.9 %). Among households whose r.p. is unemployed and seeking employment, the relative poverty rate was 35.6 % nationwide, 49.7 % in southern Italy.

Facing difficulties in the job market implies a greater risk of being poor: relative poverty affects nearly half of Italian households whose members are neither employed nor retired following employment. These families – as suggested by Istat – are typically composed of single members aged 65 and over without a work history and people out of the labour market, either couples with children or single parents.

Similarly, absolute poverty particularly affects younger households (8.1 % of households with r.p. aged less than 35 in 2012), larger households with minor children (17.1 % of households with 3 or more children) and households whose members are at a disadvantage in the labour market. Notably, almost one in four (23.6 %) households with r.p. seeking employment were classed as in absolute poverty in 2012, as were nearly one in three (30.8 %) households whose members were not employed nor retired. These values substantially increased in comparison to the previous year (15.5 % and 22.3 %, respectively).

Poverty in Italy particularly affects families with minors (Tables 12.2 and 12.3). One in eight families (12.7 %) were estimated to be relatively poor in 2012. Breaking these figures down by family size, the incidence of relative poverty among households with 5 or more members in Italy was 30.2 % (compared to 28.5 % in 2011), against much lower incidence among households with 4 members (18.1 %), 3 members (15.9 %), 2 members (10.8 %), 1 member (6.8 %). Poverty tends to increase with the presence of minor children: 18.3 % of households with at least 1 minor child were relatively poor in 2012 (in comparison with 12.7 % among all households), increasing from previous year’s value of 15.6 %. Moreover, the incidence of relative poverty tends to increase with the number of minor children living in the household, being equal to 15.7 % among households with 1 minor child, 20.1 % among households with 2 minor children, 28.5 % among households with 3 or more minor children. The situation is particularly negative in southern Italy, where relative poverty affected 33.9 % of households with at least one minor child and 40.2 % of households with 3 or more minor children in 2012.

Similar trends hold for absolute poverty. While the incidence of absolute poverty was 6.8 % among all households in 2012, it equalled 17.2 % among households with 5 or more members (against 8.3 % among households with 4 members, and lower percentage values as household size decreases), markedly rising in comparison with 12.3 % in the previous year. Absolute poverty affected 8.9 % of households with at least one minor child (in comparison with 6.1 % in 2011) and increased with the number of children: 7.1 % among households with 1 minor child, 10 % among households with 2 minor children, 17.1 % among households with 3 or more minor children.

Income poverty among children and families is related to social exclusion. The presence of dependants, especially minors, is generally associated with higher frequency of economic strain (Barbero Vignola et al. 2013). According to Istat EU-SILC data,³ households with 3 or more children are most likely to incur such difficulties in Italy: 17.9 % of them were severely deprived in 2011, reaching 20 % among households with 3 or more minors. Notably 18.3 % of couples with 3 or more minor children in 2011 reported they could not afford a meal with meat, chicken, fish or vegetarian equivalent every second day, 25.2 % (against 15.4 % in 2010) reported they could not keep the home adequately warm, more than half (53.3 %) reported they could not afford a 1 week annual holiday away from home.

The incidence of poverty and social exclusion is on the rise in all geographical areas in Italy. The situation is however particularly negative in southern Italy, where the percentage of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion⁴ increased from 42.7 % in 2004 to 46.2 % in 2011. Nationwide the risk of poverty or social exclusion considerably increased especially among couples with 3 or more children – by 5.4 percentage points from 2004 to 2011 – and among single-parent households – by 5.7 percentage points.

As highlighted on the basis of the above data, family composition appears to play an important role. In particular the presence of minors influences the probability of a household suffering from economic strain. By dividing the Italian population into age groups (Table 12.4) it can be noticed that individuals aged 0–18 exhibit on average lower income and consumption expenditure as well as higher poverty levels – particularly in terms of per capita income – than other age groups. Therefore individuals aged 0–18 face higher risk of being poor in economic terms. In 2010 the economic poverty index with respect to per capita income among minors (32.7) was e.g. nearly 9 times as much as that among the elderly over age 65 (3.8).