The commodification of care: the Italian way

Italy has one of the highest percentages of older people in Europe, a trend likely to increase faster than elsewhere alongside greater disability. Family support is also weaker through demographic developments and greater female participation in the labour market, and public policies for frail older people are underdeveloped with wide regional variations. The national scheme, the indemnita di accompagnamento (companion payment), is paid to approximately 7.3% of severely disabled people over 65 based on assessment of need. Private care is much greater than public provision of personal services, mainly supplied by individual workers rather than organisations. 'Routed wages' comprise the companion payment of which there are further details relating to funding, target, admittance, purpose and amount, and also local payments for care supplied by regional authorities and municipalities, with the same details listed. Local payments are increasingly widespread, mainly in the north and centre of Italy. There are several [...]