Abstract

Population ageing has made Italy the Western European country that makes the most use of domestic workers, who have become the main support for the family and home care management system. The increase in the elderly population is a huge and increasingly complex problem, with impacts in social and welfare terms; not only do families have to shoulder the financial burden linked thereto, but above all, they have to care for vulnerable people, especially the elderly. Nevertheless, the Italian National Institute for Social Security (INPS) reports an overall decrease in the sector of more than 76,000 units (from 970,847 in 2021 to 894,299 in 2022), which, considering the growing number of elderly people and applications, raises concerns about a revival of undeclared work. Through the analysis of the data emerging from a focus group “dedicatedµ to the Veneto region, where a particularly high old-age index is recorded, we intend to examine the legislative and policy actions useful to tackle the problem of undeclared work.