The money of Italian families continues to decrease, while debts increase. Real disposable income fell by 5% from 2007 to 2011, leading many to eat into savings to meet everyday needs. The share of people who received help in cash or in kind from relatives, friends, institutions or others rose from 15,3% in 2010 to 18,8% in 2011, while in the first nine months of 2012 the share of indebted households it went from 2,3% to 6,5%. This is what emerges from the first Report on fair and sustainable well-being Bes 2013 prepared by Istat in collaboration with Cnel.
Some segments of the population and certain areas of the country, according to Istat, have been particularly affected both by the reduction in jobs (the percentage of individuals in unemployed households went from 2007% between 2011 and 5,1 to 7,2%, with a more accentuated dynamic among the under 25s, for which it grew from 5,4% to 8%), both from decrease in purchasing power, which decreased by 5%.
All of this translated into an additional reduction of the already low social mobility. The economic crisis of the last five years shows the limits of a social model in which the family functions as a social shock absorber, "accentuating the inequalities between classes, the profound territorial differences and further reducing social mobility", reads the report.
One of the inequalities that the crisis is accentuating the most is that of income: "The ratio between the income owned by the richest 20% of the population and the poorest 20% rose from 5,2 in 2008 to 5,6 in 2011", notes the Istat.
As for young people, Italy is the European country which, after Spain, presents the strongest exclusion from work of the under 25s and the only one with very low regular employment opportunities. Just over three out of ten young people work and the employment rate is 33,8% among 20-24 year olds. Together with young people, women and the inhabitants of the South also suffer, with employment rates of 49,9% and 47,8% respectively.
