Abstract

Following the approval of the new Stability Law at the end of 2018, the current League- Five Stars government has introduced what has been called «a family package» composed of various measures in support of families with children. These include, for example, a more flexible use of maternity leave, one day more of paternity leave, a higher «bonus asilo nido»» (day nursery allowance), concession of land on loan for use by those couples having their third child. Despite the proliferation of measures with an increasing investment of resources, this new «family package» does not represent a true shift in Italian family policies. Rather, it confirms a «fragmented and occasional» approach, i.e. the provision of a set of measures that intersect, and partly overlap, to create a tangle of small benefits always limited in time, in generosity and in the degree of universality, which adds very little support for the process of forming a family.