Current ISEE if financial circumstances deteriorate
However, the option that allows you to update your status in order to access subsidised benefits is rarely used
In 2025, according to the INPS Observatory, 10.3 million households submitted 11 million Single Substitute Declarations (DSU) to obtain their ISEE – the Equivalent Economic Situation Indicator – which is required to access benefits such as school meal subsidies, for example, but also various social benefits, the payment of which takes into account the household’s financial circumstances. The number of households amounts to around 30 million people. The use of the ISEE has grown considerably over the years, given that in 2002 it covered fewer than 2 million households and 7 million people, equal to 12.4 per cent of the total.
The indicator is calculated by taking into account the household’s movable and immovable assets (as at the second calendar year preceding the submission of the DSU), as well as the number and characteristics of the household members. The resulting figure is not equal to the sum of the amounts indicated and, for example, for the same level of wealth, it differs depending on the characteristics of the households.
Various types
There is more than one type of indicator, resulting from different calculation methods that take specific situations into account. The main one is the standard indicator, alongside which there are others used to determine eligibility for certain benefits. These include the ISEE for minors (in cases where parents are unmarried and do not live together), the university ISEE, the social and healthcare ISEE, the residential social and healthcare ISEE and, from 2026, the ISEE for specific family benefits and for inclusion (to be used, specifically, to apply for the Inclusion Allowance, support for training and employment, the single universal allowance for dependent children, the nursery bonus and forms of support at home, and the newborn bonus).
If things take a turn for the worse
Furthermore, you may request a calculation of your current ISEE if you already hold another type of ISEE and certain adverse circumstances arise:
- suspension or reduction in employment or in the receipt of social security, welfare and compensation benefits not included in total income for IRPEF purposes;
- if the household’s total income changes by more than 25 per cent compared with the ISEE calculated under the standard procedure, or if the household’s assets change by more than 20 per cent.
Under the current ISEE system, figures from the previous year are taken into account rather than those from two years earlier, thus providing an up-to-date and more realistic snapshot of the household’s actual situation. This option has been little used over the years, peaking at 3.3 per cent of applications for the standard DSU in 2021 before falling to 1.7 per cent last year.
