When Italy's centre-right government announced plans to give a pre-paid welfare card to the poor with a monthly credit of €40, many thought the sum was paltry, but still better than nothing.

But three months after the scheme came into force, nearly a third of those who received the card have found that no money was ever loaded onto it, leading to embarrassing scenes at shops and supermarkets where the credit was supposed to be spent.

"I wanted to buy some washing powder, a can of tuna fish and a box of barley but I just had a bad feeling about it - I told myself it would not work. So I asked the cashier to type in the PIN number for me because I can't see very well," 67-year old pensioner Maria Pia told La Repubblica daily yesterday.

"The card was empty... I paid with cash and never used it again," she said.

Consumer groups, unions and the opposition have slammed the scheme as a failure and a public relations fiasco for the government, which in turn has defended the scheme and vowed to extend the initial December 31, 2008 deadline to apply for the card.

The so-called social card is meant to help pensioners aged 65 or more and families with small children cope with the economic downturn - as long as their annual income does not exceed €6,000.

Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti said on Thursday 423,000 cards had been activated and loaded with cash out of the 580,000 distributed since the scheme was unveiled in September.