From disability pensions to post-citizen income, old tricks and new scams are back. Surveys, numbers and emblematic cases tell of a healthcare system under pressure, especially in the South.
Of course, it won’t be easy to touch on the roaring years remembered by Checco Zalone, who in a song about the First Republic maramaldised: «With an ingrown toenail, you were an invalid all your life…». Sometimes, that wasn’t even needed. Those were the times of the mythological family of Arzano, near Naples. Father, wife, children, cousins, daughters-in-law, sons-in-law, aunts, sisters-in-law and in-laws: everyone invalids. Not to mention Militello Rosemarya precious Sicilian village perched on the Nebrodi: there were one thousand and two hundred adults and five hundred disabled pensioners. Handicapped, consumptive, heart patients, one-eyed, lame. And two lame men who played on the local football team.
Citizenship income and new suspicions
What years, those years. Cheer up, though. The old ones are back in vogue mischief. There are no official numbers, but clues abound. And they would also be related to the recently most fashionable UFO check: that citizen’s income which, with similar unscrupulousness, also ended up with a seventy-year-old in a Ferrari or with the boss who collected him from house arrest. The plot, however, would go beyond criminal folklore, she argues Cgia of Mestre. The turbo subsidy wanted by the people Five Starsstarting from 2023, was first revised and then abolished by the government. Just as the disability pensions they grew up 6.2 percentreaching unparalleled heights in Calabria And Pugliawith 13.2 And 11.6 percent. After all, almost half of the checks ended up at South. “The increase may have represented the only concrete form of economic support available for many families,” writes the CGIA. Therefore: «The doubt that there was some connection between the two phenomena remains, particularly in some areas of the country».
The cost of assistance and the alarm of experts
For sure, as he also reports Social security itinerariesthe expense «welfare is growing rapidly and is likely to be unsustainable». In a nutshell: the State pays more 4.3 million of disability pensions. And the vast majority, 3.4 millionI am civilians: those who receive them have often never worked or paid contributions. In total, they do 34 billion euros per year. «And the paraplegic ushers jumped. And the deaf-mute janitors sang…”, Checco rages. Here, the last volley of investigations shows that many compatriots have not lost their hand.
Organized scams and “complete packages”
A month ago at Caltagironein the Sicilian hinterland, they discover the latest managerial evolution of the fake illness: the fraudulent «complete package». An elaborate turnkey system: fake medical certificationspreparation for the exam to deceive the INPS commissionsmoral and physical support during visits. And even, in the unfortunate case of rejection, legal assistance to assert denied rights before the civil court. The service «all inclusive»as in hotels where the rush starts early in the morning, it cost up to four thousand euros for practice. An investment repaid by decades of checks from a dead father.
Crime, patronage and “providential” forgetfulness
The fake invalids they always shoot. Even the organized crime he smells the deal. TO Giuglianoin Campania, last November they reported a mega scam to the social security institution organized by Camorra members. Almost two million eurospaid punctually by the INPS to the very healthy recipients, would then have replenished the coffers of the Mallardo clan. A family business passed down over the years. Already in 2016after an investigation by financial policehad been investigated eighty-six people with the same accusation: hundreds of pensions had ended up with the clan’s affiliates, for a considerable total of nine million euros.
TO Cosenzainstead, he would have organized everything unsuspected fifty-two year old lawyer of a patronage. Three months ago he ends up under house arrest, while around a hundred people are under investigation. Sometimes, however, it is not even necessary to plot unscrupulous criminal mechanisms. TO Messinafor example, just forget to communicate the death of the relative. Oops, how careless. Amoral of the tale: allowances paid to seriously disabled deceased, but collected by needy and generous relatives. In five years, the hole for thePeloritana health company it was almost two million euros.
Emblematic cases and video evidence
And then, obviously, there is the inexhaustible creativity of the usual unknowns. Like the blind man from Castellammare di Stabia. For twenty years, he had been receiving the carer’s allowance. Until the financiers’ cameras record him engaging in activities that require lynx-like vision. Withdraw money from a ATM and counts them thoroughly before putting them in his wallet. Or it does photocopies in a shopping centre, and then checking that they really turned out well.
Instead, she is betrayed by one photo on Facebook there sixty-five year old from Trabiain the Palermo area, who had received the carer’s allowance for over forty years. “Unresponsive to visual and auditory stimuli” with “tremors in the upper limbs and severe intellectual delay”, wrote the provincial medical commission way back 1983. Very damning, however, would have been that photo posted on social media: the woman was dancing there belly dance. And not only that, luckily for her: she is also filmed on the beach and at the market. While the sixty year old from Martinsicuroin Abruzzo, preferred long walks in bicycle on the seafront. He too, “absolutely blind”.
Politics and new subsidy proposals
Let’s not generalize, for goodness sake. Yet, the pension experts remain on alert: in 2024 have been provided 4.3 million of disability pensions and continued growth. Meanwhile, the Mestre study center puts its finger on the wound: it will also be the fault of the end of citizenship income?
Not all is lost, however. It’s true: the Meloni government he abolished the support wanted by the grillini. Cost over the years thirty billionhad a primary purpose: to help the unemployed find work. Instead, accuses the center-right, it would often have served to do customersensuring millions of votes in the poorest and most welfare areas. But the Movement don’t lose hope. At the last elections, the aspiring five-star governors have already proposed to restore the income of dignityregional variant of the unforgettable check. He spoke about it with enthusiasm Pasquale Tridicothen badly defeated in Calabriaalready renamed The Whatevernot only for the physical resemblance to the unforgettable fellow countryman Cetto. And the triumphant does not abandon the idea Roberto Ficowhich is thinking about restoring the subsidy in Campania. In the meantime, the piddino Eugenio Giani in his grand duchy Tuscanallocating further 23 million in the latest regional budget. While in Sicilylast week i Five Stars present a stentorian bill: they want the island’s citizenship income.
North and South, a national question
In the meantime, we continue to apply the Cgia theorem: disability pensions are growing dramatically, especially at South. Although some of the latest most daring feats have also been accomplished in the industrious north. A bold one seventy-year-old from Arzignanoa city in the Vicenza area famous for its tanneriesFor fifty-three years old he would have cashed checks and allowances. He must have been blind as a bat. They filmed him while he passionately dedicated himself to gardeningexpertly using pruning shears and the hedge trimmers. A perfect man of the house. He went alone to the municipal market to buy fruit and vegetables. He felt and selected carefully, before taking the money out of the purse. Yet, every month he received his pension. Starting from 1972for over half a century: a million euros would have been taken away from INPS and INAIL with rare skill.
Or i two Pakistanis transplanted to Brianza. They immortalized them in a legendary scene. The magnanimous blind man pushes the wheelchair of the paraplegic sufferer. But then the unexpected happens. The friend gets up, proceeds quickly and easily gets into his compatriot’s car, who starts his suv and disappears in traffic. Double miracle. The fake one-eyed man and the fake lame man. What a couple. A mastery worthy of the old days, when in Militello Rosmarino even the lame people ran happily after a ball.
