Inps Fund, broadening the range of companies. From July 2026 newly hired employees will join the supplementary pension fund

The range of companies that are obliged to pay into the Inps Treasury Fund is extended to employers who have reached the 50-employee threshold after starting business. And as of 1 July 2026, a mechanism for automatic membership of supplementary pension funds is introduced for newly hired workers.

These are the two innovations introduced by the government amendment to the 2026 manoeuvre that affect employees in the private sector, excluding domestic employers. The two measures are linked.

Let us begin with the first measure, which includes among those required to pay the contribution to the Inps Fund for the disbursement of severance pay also employers who, in the years following the year in which they start their business, reach the size threshold of 50 employees, who are currently excluded from the obligation, thus widening the range of potential workers who can join it (estimated by the technical report at 2.5 million). As of 1 January 2007, employers with at least 50 employees are obliged to pay this contribution to the Fund. The size limit is calculated, for companies in operation on 31 December 2006, by taking as a reference the annual average number of workers in force in 2006. Therefore, any changes in the number of employees that have occurred since then are irrelevant for the purpose of determining the existence of the obligation to pay the contribution. For companies that commenced operations after 31 December 2006, the annual average number of workers in force in the calendar year of commencement of operations is taken as the reference. The higher contribution revenues to the Inps severance pay fund are estimated by the technical report at EUR 2.1 billion in 2026.

The other measure envisages from 1 July 2026 for new hires in the private sector, the introduction of a mechanism for automatic membership of supplementary pension schemes, a sort of 'silence of consent' in reverse, with the possibility of opting out within sixty days. A gradual increase in membership of supplementary pensions for first-time employees can be expected. The technical report estimates an annual average of 100,000 memberships per year over the period (of which about 25,000 per year relate to workers in companies required to pay contributions into the pay-as-you-go management of the severance pay fund within the Inps). There is provision for automatic affiliation to the form of supplementary social security provided for by collective agreements or contracts (including company or territorial ones), giving preference to the one with the highest number of affiliations in the company, but in the absence of agreements there is provision for the transfer of the entire severance pay and contribution to the residual fund. However, the employee's contribution is not compulsory if the RAL is less than the social allowance (EUR 538).

To understand the close link between the two measures, it is necessary to take a step back and go back to the last manoeuvre, when a majority amendment reopening a six-month period of silent consent along the lines of that of 2007 was rejected by the State General Accounting Office for lack of financial coverage. Last year, it was objected that considering that the severance pay of workers employed in companies with more than 50 employees, if not devolved to pension funds, goes to the INPS, the mere adhesion of 10% of workers would have required coverage of 610 million euro for the reduced revenue to the Social Security Institute. By extending the range of companies obliged to pay into the Inps Fund, the government has circumvented the obstacle and opened up automatic membership for newly employed workers.