TRENT. Those are worrying numbers that emerge fromsurvey carried out by Caf Acli Trentino in collaboration with Iref (educational and training research institute) thanks to data from the national observatory on family incomes promoted by the ACLI. The statistical panel was created on the basis of the anonymous analysis of the 730 forms presented at the Caf Acli counters: they were 38,000 those of as many taxpayers resident in Trentinoand on the basis of those data it was possible to deduce useful information relating to the trend of inflation, the increase in the cost of living, mortgage and healthcare costs (in the photo above, from left Michele Mariotto, Nicola Simoncelli, Luca Oliver).
Nothing is missing from the appeal: incomes are falling, inflation, healthcare costs and mortgages are rising; the differences between cities and valleys are increasingly marked, and for women there is a three times higher risk of poverty.
But let’s go in order. In recent years, inflation has increased in the province of Trento by 15.6%, causing a decrease in the overall purchasing power of families, excluding the richest groups, by 124 million euros.
Comparing incomes of 2020 and 2023 it seems that an average family has suffered a drop in income of around 2000 euros with peaks of 3000 euros for the wealthier families (two-income without heavy expenses), who evidently are not affected much by the increases, while the situation becomes objectively more difficult for single-income families with heavy expenses who in the same period have seen their income decrease by around 1000 euros.
By concretely transforming inflation into the purchasing capacity at the supermarket, it turns out that an average family has lost a total of six shopping trolleys every year with peaks of up to seven trolleys for divorced or separated people and singles or unmarried couples with family responsibilities. According to general director of Caf Acli Trentino Michele Mariotto it is a massive analysis based on consolidated data and therefore particularly indicative of the actual cost of living and the difficulties inherent in the current economic situation.
From the survey, presented by the work manager of the Trentino ACLI Nicola Simoncellisome further worrying data emerge.
Starting from the heavy consequences of the increase in inflation, also encouraged by the particular energy situation relating to the war in Ukraine, which caused a further increase in inflation from 2020 to 2023 worsening of inequalities and living conditions of single-income families with heavy spending (spouse and dependent children plus other expenses). This situation is linked to other difficulties starting from the home which require urgent interventions in the field of social policies.
From the general analysis of the trend of income in the tax period 2019-2022 Furthermore, the heavy gap between the cities and the valleys stands out. According to the Acli survey, in the province of Trento the median incomes (which represent the level of well-being of the average individual or the average family) of the urban areas are around 26,000 euros while those of the internal areas are around 24,100 with a marked difference of Approximately 2800 euros. Data that calls for careful reflection on the need to relaunch mountain policies. These differences, according to the director of Iref Gianfranco Zucca (connected from Rome) are mainly due to the details
situations of precariousness and employment discontinuity linked to the seasonality that characterizes both tourism and agriculture in Trentino.
Another phenomenon concerns the increase in inequality in Trentino if we consider that the income decline affected 77.8% of families highlighting one increasingly wide gap between a small percentage of rich people and a multitude of families increasingly exposed to the high cost of living. Invisible tax, inflation is also felt on the increase in mortgage interest rates due toinflationary surge that hit those with variable rates with an average annual increase of 1330 euros in interest for 94.8% of the registered families who turned to the Acli services.
While the data on relative poverty (percentage of individuals living in families with an equivalent disposable income below a conventional poverty threshold) indicate a substantial stability of the Trentino contextthe heavy gender disparity that distinguishes the panel of families in difficulty should be noted. In the case of households below the relative poverty threshold where the declarant is female we are faced with numbers three times greater than in cases where the declarant is male. Given that it highlights the persistence of situations of inequality and discrimination that need to be immediately overcome.
A further item present in the tax return is expenses healthcare of Trentino families which increased for the less well-off by 18%, going from 399 to 473 euros and for the more well-off by 13%, going from 764 to 868 euros.
A final fact recalled by Simoncelli concerns the progressive alignment of Trentino, notoriously considered a province with a high standard of living, to the other Italian regions if we consider that the difference in the median income of families is just 600 euros more in favor of the autonomous province of Trento.
Drawing the logical conclusions and the most appropriate political syntheses, the President of the Acli Trentino Luca Oliver highlighted some elements of discontinuity compared to the past. Firstly the progressive homologation of Trentino compared to the rest of Italy as regards wages and wealth which is accompanied by the worrying drift of the Trentino valleys which see the levels of well-being achieved to date thanks to autonomist power progressively erode.
One is therefore necessary response of awareness on the part of the political class that knows how to deal with the real problems of our territories and of the families most penalized by the crisis.
