fees for secondary school, are the responsibility of the family. Sometimes some families on low incomes who are eligible for means tested benefits can apply for a voucher to contribute to payment for the stipulated textbooks which are very numerous and expensive in Italy. Universities are both public and private; public universities are mainly financed by the state and have low, income-related fees and means-tested support for low-income students, while private universities have much higher fees. Students in primary and secondary education still have to pay minimal enrolment fees, usually around €20 per year, and the cost of books is not always covered by state vouchers. Housing The problem of cheap and healthy housing for low-income people led to the passing of the 1903 Luzzati Act, which stipulated the setting up of public, non-profit, local housing authorities to build and rent apartments to meet the needs of an increasing urban population. Those agencies were reformed in 1938 but still deal with public housing: the waiting list for public flats, and the fee, is means-tested and open to immigrants. In 1962, Act n.167 encouraged the purchase, by local authorities, of land to be used for public housing: although this intervention helped to satisfy the need for public flats, it also led to the construction of dorm quarters without residential services that were cut off from the rest of the towns that since 1978 had to be the object of requalification policies. In 1978 the Fair Rent Act (Equo Canone) introduced a maximum fee for residential properties and four-year leases. Maximum rents were increased much more slowly than the rate of inflation and did not take account of changes in the urban population. This led landlords to prefer selling to renting, or to opt for black-market negotiations of fees, which in turn led to a restriction in the rental market. In 1998, only 20% of the Italian housing market was rental; middle- and high-income families preferred to buy their home, while low-income families that could not afford to buy suffered from high rents. The 1998 Rent Act tried to revitalise the rental sector by liberalising maximum rents and allowing rental conditions to be set by landlords’ and tenants’ organisations. Unemployment The problem of unemployment has been moderated in Italy by governmental benefits, in the form of cash transfers based on contributions (indennità di disoccupazione). The requirement for claimants to obtain up to