Italian govt to give teens €500 on 18th birthday to spend on books and culture

Italian citizens will receive a €500 (A$740) ‘culture bonus’ on their 18th birthday as part of a new government initiative designed to promote the importance of cultural enrichment for young people, reports the Independent. Launching on 15 September, the scheme will fund an estimated 575,000 Italian teenagers to purchase books, concert tickets, theatre tickets, cinema tickets, museum visits and national park visits. The bonus can be claimed in the form of vouchers, which can be downloaded to mobile phones through an app. The vouchers can be used online and in physical stores. Italian parliamentary undersecretary Tommasi Nannicini said the €290m (A$429m) initiative ‘reminds [young people] how important cultural consumption is, both for enriching yourself as a person and strengthening the fabric of our society’. A similar bonus is planned for teachers in 2017.

Category: International news Junior