Pensions, from severance pay to supplementary pensions to early paychecks: what changes with the 2026 manoeuvre
The number of companies obliged to pay severance pay to Inps is extended: employers who reach the 50-employee threshold, currently excluded from the obligation, will also be obliged to do so in the years following the year of start-up
Key points
Double squeeze coming on early pensions, with a lengthening of the time to receive the cheque and a penalisation of the redemption of the graduate degree. The government enters the pension chapter with a strong hand, also introducing the silenzio-assenso on the severance pay for newly hired employees. The novelties appear in the meaty amendment of 3.5 billion to the manoeuvre with which the executive adjusts on the run some of the critical issues that have cropped up in recent months, from the Zes and Transition facilitations for companies after the exhaustion of resources, to the funds for the bridge after the extension of the timeframe following the rejection by the Court of Auditors.
From January, companies obliged to pay severance pay to Inps
To include among the subjects required to pay the severance pay to the Inps Fund for the disbursement of the contribution 'employers who, in the years following the year of start-up, reach the size threshold of 50 employees, who are currently excluded from the obligation'. This is what is envisaged - as the technical report explains - by a paragraph of the new amendment presented by the government to the manoeuvre, and which will go to the Senate Budget Committee for a vote. The measure, which will be triggered on 1 January, operates, the report goes on to say, 'de facto widening the range of potential workers who can adhere to it'.
Double squeeze on pensions from 2032, for windows and degree redemption
There comes a new double squeeze on early pensions, those that allow to retire at the moment with 42 years and 10 months of contributions for men and 41 years and 10 months of contributions for women. With the amendment presented by the government, the 'moving window' that one must wait before receiving a pension increases from 3 months now to 4 months in 2032 and then progressively to 5 months in the following year and 6 months from 2034. A second rule, however, restricts the effects for those who have redeemed their degree. In fact, the redeemed months will be worth less: a cut of six months in the first year and then, 12 months in 2032, 18 months in 2033, 24 months for those who qualify in 2034 and 30 months for those who qualify in 2035.
For new hires from July silence-absence on complementary pension provision
From 1 July 2026, new employees in the private sector are expected to have a mechanism of automatic membership of the supplementary pension scheme, 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 is to 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 (gross annual salary) is less than the social allowance (EUR 538).
