birth alarm, minister Lorenzin proposes doubling the baby bonus – LaPresse

The decline in the birth rate in Italy is dramatic, and the government thinks about how to run for cover. Among the measures to be taken, there is also the double the baby bonus , the study hypothesis of the Ministry of Health and that the holder Beatrice Lorenzin would like to include in the next stability law . But Palazzo Chigi brakes . Sources within the majority emphasize that the hypothesis of doubling is, at present, only one of the proposals in the field. Priority, say the same sources, is an overall look on welfare instruments and not one or another hypothesis that, at the moment, they remain so.

The project, however, is still being studied Ministry . “160 euro first child, 240 the second, and if the ISEE is lower we get up to 320 €” because, confirms the same Lorenzin “the data we have had this year are daunting, we are at 480 thousand unborn children” and if we go on like “the country dies. We have to make a shock treatment.” The numbers speak for themselves: over 2010 births were lowered by 40%, equivalent to 66 thousand births, says the minister, “that is intended for a larger city of Siena. If we tie all this to the increase of the elderly and of chronic diseases, we have the picture of a dying town “. A project that would cost the state about 2.2 billion more offset by a billion euro savings than forecast because of lower birth rates.

In parallel, the Ministry are also working on a proposal defined more strong and that would give a more substantial response to the emergency: raise the maximum threshold Isee to 30 thousand euro per year, enlarging the audience with more than 60 thousand copies per hour and give a higher support, 320 EUR per month, who presents an indicator of wealth under 7 thousand euro. However, the measures under consideration, says the same Lorenzin in an interview with Republic, also cover services, kindergartens, “but also income support to buy diapers, milk, necessary things.”

support for the proposal also comes from the Minister for regional Affairs with responsibility for the Family, Enrico Costa : “Expand and strengthen the baby bonus is the right direction and a measurement key to restart the engine of births in Italy “. According to the minister in fact, “the deck is short, but the family is the priority and resources are to be found.” Valentina Castaldini, national spokesperson for the New Centre-Right, calling on Parliament to support “this important proposal” and Paola Binetti stressed that this was a “positive signs that can not be ignored. The idea of ​​a baby bonus to 160 Euros, beyond the fact of knowing whether they are many or few, reveals the will of doubling a measure already ‘launched, which embraces not only the most vulnerable social groups, but also those with low and middle income. ” Democratic Congressman Edward Patriarch judges positively the hypothesis, but invites us to study each route to introduce in Italy a form of family factor. “

Tough instead commented Maurizio Gasparri Forza Italy believed that doubling the baby bonus “yet another shot of a desperate government. Renzi fears administrative, knows that the constitutional referendum risks big, and then it says or does mean crap burst. “Even Codacons, while sharing any initiative to support families, speaks of” still weak appropriations “even if the baby bonus was actually doubled.