ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on one particular tool of the Italian system, the pensione sociale. It analyzes the social pension performance as a money transfer and describes the institutional characteristics and the evolution of the social pension over time. The chapter evaluates the position of elderly individuals by considering a more comprehensive dimension than mere personal income. It shows that a money subsidy, particularly social pension, is an adequate form of assistance to elderly people. The Italian system, indeed, has increasingly exploited insurance pensions for assistance purposes, by attributing insurance pensions also without clear insurance motivations or without full links between contributions and benefits. As an assistance instrument, social pension does not give rise to a right for beneficiaries' survivors. New categories of 'socially excluded' citizens emerged, among which are elderly persons who live alone and lack some basic level of assistance. The social pension represents a minimum income guarantee to elderly individuals outside the public insurance pension schemes for workers.
