This paper proposes a reform of family allowance to combat poverty, coherent with the vision of human development welfare and the tradition of selective universalism of the Onofri Commission. The main contents of the reform are: a) Unification of the main tax deductions for minors and spending in the form of family allowances in a new and more effective spending measure to support families which resolves the problem of the incapacity of tax deductions. b) The full-scale introduction of the Minimum Income Mechanism whose experimentation had been initiated (but only to be interrupted). c) The reform of current selectivity criteria, especially the Ise tool. This reform aims to achieve better redistribution objectives than the current ones, concentrating available resources on families with minors and medium to low Ise. It should be maintained a certain level of selectivity in the interventions on the basis of family not individual criteria. The reform will also use any eventual additional resources to cover all urgent needs of our welfare systems rather than universalistic monetary redistribution.only subscribers can see the full article

Given shortcomings in present low income support measures, possible reforms are presented. The underlying consideration is to implement a joint reform of Irpef and family benefits by introducing tax cuts and benefits for minors regardless of income, and additional measures such as income transfer (negative taxation) in the case of fiscal incapacity; more progressivity of Irpef to obtain the necessary resources from high income earners to finance allowances and tax deductions. The redistributive effects of this reform are highlighted in favour of low and medium income families and the possibility to support young people by funding incentives to enable their entry to the labour market.only subscribers can see the full article