Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

Rabaiotti: “After having financed all the admitted applications from the first ranking, we will shortly publish the new announcement. These were our objectives to reach as many people as possible among those who find themselves in difficulty" 

Milan, June 26 2020 - The call for the allocation of shopping vouchers to citizens in difficulty due to the Coronavirus emergency reopens next week. The notice will soon be online on the Municipality's website, in the same way as the first round in April, through which over 15.800 vouchers were assigned. 

The amount of resources useful for the operation, initially equal to 5,848 million from the State Fund for food aid, was subsequently implemented with municipal resources coming mostly from the Mutual Aid Fund, which brought the overall base of funds available at over 8,048 million euros. This has allowed on the one hand the scrolling of the ranking, and therefore the financing of all the applications deemed eligible during the verification phase of the requirements, and on the other the reopening of the terms of the call itself, for which 1,9 million are currently available about. 

“Financing all the eligible applications in the first ranking and being able, thanks to the support of the Mayor and the Council, to open a new edition of the tender was an important objective - intervenes the councilor for social and housing policies Gabriele Rabaiotti -. Of course, this second tranche arrives in a different phase, once the lockdown is over and with fewer resources available, and in fact we have tried to simplify the access criteria and, to still reach the greatest number of people in difficulty, we have partially reduced the amounts good ones. Food hubs and shopping vouchers are complementary operations: with the latter we want to bring out and intercept a new demand, families who, unlike the more traditional poverty targets, have to pay rent or mortgage, expenses which therefore cannot be postponed or compressible. We have done everything we can to reach all those who are in difficulty. I thank all the volunteer organizations and organizations that intervened in the most delicate situations in many neighborhoods of the city, giving a concrete sign of help and closeness. A contribution I will not forget." 

The requirements for accessing the application have been partially revised through a recently approved council resolution. The objective is to support families residing in Milan, single-income or without income, who live in rent or pay a mortgage for their first home, with availability in their current account not exceeding 5 thousand euros as of 31 March 2020, whose total income family (referring to 2018) is less than 20 thousand euros. Among the requests received, the presence of minor children or elderly people over 64 in the family unit will constitute priority reward criteria for the preparation of the ranking; the presence of people with disabilities; being self-employed or employees on redundancy pay; not being beneficiaries of citizenship income or other economic support from the Municipality; not being owners of other properties. 

Those who have already benefited from the shopping voucher with the first edition will no longer be able to apply for it. In order to help as many people as possible, the amount of the vouchers has been partially reduced, and will be equal to 250 euros for families of up to 3 members and 500 euros for larger ones. As a method of disbursing the contribution, this time too the beneficiaries will be able to choose between the Soldo prepaid card and the Satispay app to download onto their smartphone. 

Alongside the calls for shopping vouchers, as a complementary operation intended for all people in serious difficulty, without residence or other restrictions, the Administration also launched, from mid-March to the end of June, the Food Aid Scheme coordinated by the Food Policy office within Milan Help with which, through its ten temporary hubs, over 600 tons of food were distributed, i.e. the equivalent of 1 million and 600 thousand meals, which reached 6 thousand families. 

In addition to the Municipality of Milan and its subsidiaries, the Cariplo Foundation, the Qubi' Program - The recipe against child poverty, the Italian Red Cross, the Food Bank, Caritas Ambrosiana and Ibva collaborated on the Device project.