“the old age index is growing but not the services”, reports the UilP pensioners –

“In the last twenty years the aging rate in Ragusa and its province has literally skyrocketed. Services for the elderly, no” This was stated by the secretaries of UilPensionati Sicilia and UilP Ragusa, Claudio Barone and Giorgio Bandiera.

For Bandiera and Barone it is “It’s the fault of a welfare system incapable of adapting to the times. In 2005 it was 109.5 percent. Now, based on Istat estimates for 2024, it stands at 157 percent“They also highlight the role of associations”together with the Ada we are about to launch a significant computer literacy campaign for over 65s” and launch an appeal to the political institutions “so that the arrival of the beautiful season does not make us forget the problems and potential of an increasingly significant part of the population, in the province of Ragusa as elsewhere”.

The union representatives add: “We need projects and investments. First of all, much more attention is needed for non-self-sufficient people and their families. Under the guidance of our leader Carmelo Barbagallo, first as general secretary of Uil and now of UilPensionati, we have supported with determination a long battle to obtain a law on non-self-sufficiency. Today, however, we denounce that we are in the presence of a reform that has been betrayed, first and foremost due to a lack of resources. Problems aggravated by a hospital system which, as we recalled just last year in one of our conferences on the ills of Sicilian healthcare, is structured above all to manage emergencies”.

Barone e Bandiera claiming commitment and concreteness also in the field of active aging

“The UilP-they explain- we have been asking for a civil service for the elderly for some time, on which we are also ready to discuss with local authorities starting from the Iblea province to test our proposals. From school tutoring to professional training, from support to homeless people to assistance for the most vulnerable, to environmental protection. Because the elderly are a resource, not a burden”.