INPS: 2026 school staff retirements to be finalised on schedule

The retirement scheme for school staff is once again drawing to a positive close for 2026, with, amongst other things, almost 95 per cent of new pensions having been paid out as early as September – the month following the end of service. This has been announced by INPS, which emphasised the Institute’s “ongoing commitment” throughout the year, both at central level and across the country.

As part of the 2026 campaign, INPS has processed around 37,000 applications for termination of service (the majority of which were approved), representing 97 per cent of the total, enabling the Ministry of Education and Merit to complete, within the scheduled timeframe, the staff mobility and permanent appointment procedures necessary for the start of the new school year. The Institute also emphasises that the results achieved in the pension payment phase are particularly significant. In fact, 31,870 school staff members – including teaching and non-teaching staff – were guaranteed payment of their pensions as early as September (staff terminations are concentrated on 31 August each year), with payments credited on the 1st, 7 and 21 September, following on from the last salary received in August. This figure represents almost 95 per cent of those entitled. The results achieved “confirm the positive trend recorded in recent years and mark the best result achieved to date by the Institute in managing retirements in the education sector, with almost 95 per cent of pensions paid out as early as the month following the end of service”, highlights INPS.

According to Domenico De Fazio, Director of the INPS Central Pensions Directorate, “this result demonstrates the effectiveness of the organisational model developed in collaboration with the Ministry and the strong commitment shown by our departments, in particular, the Institute’s provincial offices, which have once again proved crucial to carrying out such an important task in the service of the country and a key sector of the welfare state ecosystem. Thanks are also due to the educational institutions and the Ministry’s regional offices, with whom collaboration remains an essential element in achieving these results”.

The INPS points out that this matter is of particular importance. The education sector accounts for around a third of civil servants and, for obvious organisational reasons linked to the start of the school year, the termination of service for teaching and non-teaching staff is concentrated on 31 August each year.