Assegno di inclusione (inclusion allowance)

Assegno di inclusione (ADI, inclusion allowance) – a new type of benefit introduced by the Italian government to tackle poverty and social exclusion, with 2 different categories of recipients:

Support for households (in force since January 2024) which, in addition to a low income, include people who are hard to place in the labour market, such as people with disabilities, minors, people over 60, etc.;

Temporary support for households (in force since September 2023) made up solely of people of working age.

Let us now look at these two categories in more detail.

The first category of beneficiaries covers households that include at least one of the people listed below:

• a person with a disability;
• minors;
• a person aged 60 or over;
• a disadvantaged person enrolled in a care and assistance programme run by the local social and health services and certified by the public administration (for example, homeless people, people with drug, alcohol or gambling addictions, people with a physical and mental disability of at least 46%).

When the amount of the benefit is determined, in addition to the people listed above, account is also taken of people who care for children under 3, look after three or more minor children, or care for family members who have a disability or are not self-sufficient.

At the time of application and for the entire duration of the benefit, the applicant must meet all of the following requirements:

• be an Italian or EU citizen (or a family member of one) with the right of permanent residence, or a third-country national holding an EU long-term residence permit (permesso di soggiorno UE per soggiornanti di lungo periodo) or international protection status (political asylum or subsidiary protection);
• have lived in Italy for at least five years, the last two of them continuously;
• be resident in Italy. This requirement also applies to the members of the applicant’s household who are counted in the equivalence scale.

Financial requirements for the applicant’s household

• an ISEE (indicator of the household’s economic situation) not exceeding €9,360.
• Household income must not exceed €6,000 a year (for households made up of people aged 67 or over, people with disabilities, etc., the household income threshold is set at €7,560 a year), multiplied by the corresponding equivalence-scale parameter. Household income does not include amounts received as the assegno di inclusione, the reddito di cittadinanza (citizenship income) or other national or regional anti-poverty measures (NASPI, DISCOLL, Disoccupazione agricola, etc.). Social pensions, however, are counted, including survivors’ pensions and social disability pensions.

No member of the household may own

• cars with an engine capacity over 1,600 cc, or other motor vehicles with an engine capacity over 250 cc, first registered in the twenty-four/thirty-six months before the application;
• pleasure boats;
• property worth more than €30,000 (excluding the family home, whose value must not exceed €150,000);

Amount of the benefit

The amount of the ADI for 2024 depends on the composition of the household and consists of:

• a top-up of household income of up to €6,000 a year (€7,560 if the household is made up of people aged 67 or over or people with serious health limitations), multiplied by the corresponding equivalence-scale parameter;
• on top of this, a contribution towards rent of up to €3,360 a year may be added (€1,800 a year if the household is made up of people aged 67 or over or people with serious health limitations).

However, the payments cannot be less than €480 a year.

Calculating the equivalence scale

The equivalence-scale parameter is 1 for every household and is increased, up to an overall maximum of 2.2 (2.3 where there are members with a severe disability or who are not self-sufficient), by:

• 0.50 for each member with a disability or who is not self-sufficient;
• 0.40 for each member aged 60 or over;
• 0.40 for each adult member with caring responsibilities;
• 0.30 for each adult family member in a state of serious bio-psycho-social distress and enrolled in care and assistance programmes certified by the public administration;
• 0.15 for each minor child up to the age of two;
• 0.10 for each further minor child over the age of two.

Household members living in facilities paid for entirely by the state, and periods during which residence in Italy is interrupted, are not counted in the equivalence scale for a period of 2 months or more if continuous, or of 4 months or more within 18 months, even if not continuous.

In message no. 25 of 3 January 2024 INPS (National Social Security Institute) announced that, to organise the first payments, checks had begun on the first applications submitted in December 2023 – January 2024.

The payment schedule is set out below.

• for applications submitted from 18 December to 7 January 2024, with the digital activation agreement (patto di attivazione digitale) signed by the same date and a positive outcome of the assessment, payments will be made from 26 January 2024;
• for applications submitted after 7 January and in any case by 31 January, with the PAD signed by 31 January 2024 and a positive outcome of the assessment, payment of the January instalment will be arranged from 15 February; from 27 February the current month’s amount (February) is paid together with January’s;
• for applications submitted from February (and in the following months), the first payment will be made from the 15th of the month after the one in which the digital activation agreement was signed; subsequent payments will be made on the 27th of each month.

Under Article 4(8) of Decree-Law No. 48/2023, payments will be made through a rechargeable electronic payment instrument called the “Adi Card”.

The Adi Card is handed out at post offices once the first payment has been credited. Beneficiaries are told that the card is available through the SIISL portal or by SMS/e-mail.

The Adi card can be used to buy food and goods in pharmacies and parapharmacies (goods that are not luxury items), pay utility bills, pay rent or the mortgage on your home, or withdraw cash within the limits set out below. Where one card is issued per household, the monthly cash withdrawal limit is a maximum of €100 multiplied by the equivalence scale. Where the ADI is paid separately to individual adults in the household who exercise parental responsibility or are counted in the equivalence scale, the ADI Card allows cash withdrawals within a monthly limit of no more than €100 for each individual ADI card.

People of working age who receive the assegno di inclusione must take part in a job-placement pathway after registering with SIISL, the new information system for social and labour inclusion, which passes their data to the competent job centre (centro per l’impiego).

Recipients of the assegno di inclusione aged between eighteen and twenty-nine who have not completed compulsory education must attend first-level adult education courses. Note also that failure to enrol in first-level adult education courses means the benefit will not be paid.

The following are exempt from the obligation to take part in training, work and active labour market measures:

• beneficiaries who receive a direct pension, or people aged 60 or over;
• members with disabilities and people suffering from cancer;
• people caring for children under three, for three or more minor children, or for family members with disabilities;
• people enrolled in protection pathways relating to gender-based violence, and women who have suffered violence, with or without children, in the care of anti-violence centres recognised by the regions or of social services as part of protection pathways relating to gender-based violence.

These people may ask to join, on a voluntary basis, a personalised programme supporting job placement or social inclusion.

Under certain conditions, however, the household may lose the financial support granted, in particular if a person:

• fails to report to the job centre within the set deadline without good reason;
• does not sign the inclusion agreement (patto per l’inclusione) or the personalised service agreement (patto di servizio personalizzato), except where exempt;
• does not take part in training, retraining or other active measures aimed at finding and obtaining work, or does not keep to other commitments agreed with the social services as part of the individual pathway;
• turns down a job offer without good reason;
• makes false statements in order to obtain a larger financial benefit;
• does not submit an updated single declaration (dichiarazione sostitutiva unica, DSU) when the composition of the household changes;
• is found, during a check by the competent authorities, to be working without having made the required notifications.

If the household has lost the benefit because a member did not take part in active labour market measures, it can submit a new application only 6 months after the revocation or loss of entitlement.

Under this law, households made up solely of employable people – that is, people who can work and are aged between 18 and 59 – with an ISEE of up to €6,000 a year are also entitled to support. The other criteria are the same as for the first category.

These people are entitled to take part in training, qualification and professional retraining projects, job-placement support, etc.

The person concerned applies for the Supporto per la formazione e il lavoro (Support for Training and Work) through the “Sistema Informativo per l’Inclusione Sociale e Lavorativa” (SIISL) platform and is automatically redirected to the competent employment services. In the application, the person must confirm their enrolment in first-level adult education courses.

Once the digital activation agreement has been signed, the applicant is invited to the competent employment service to conclude an individual service agreement, in which they must confirm that they have contacted at least three employment agencies.

Through the platform, the person can receive various job offers as well as training and retraining services.

Taking part in these measures gives the person access to an allowance for participating in work activation measures, amounting to €350 a month. This sum is paid for the entire duration of the measure, but for no more than 12 monthly payments. The Support for Training and Work cannot be combined with the citizenship income and the citizenship pension, or with any other public integration or unemployment support scheme.

Prepared by: Iryna ABAKUMOVA

Tel.: +393802071437