Social bonuses for the few: 21% fewer families with Isee below thresholds
Less than four million households with a value of less than EUR 10,000. The (more difficult) access to benefits is affected by the amount of the single allowance
poverty increases, but the average Isee value of households rises. With the paradox that many of them no longer get social bonuses (gas, electricity, water) or find themselves having to pay higher school fees. In fact, the number of households that in 2025 obtained a certificate of less than EUR 10,000 (a threshold we have chosen because it is halfway between the Isee values required by the various benefits) has decreased by 21%, slipping below four million.
This is stated by an elaboration of the Sole 24 Ore on the data of the Inps Isee Observatory of the last four years. The gradual reduction of households with an ordinary indicator below this threshold translates into ashrinking of the perimeter of beneficiaries: one household out of five, in practice, no longer meets the requirements compared to four years ago. And the cut in the number of beneficiaries will only be partly mitigated by the latest Budget Law, which for 2026 sterilises the value of the first house and introduces an equivalence scale, more favourable for those who have children: the novelties only concern five benefits, including the single allowance and the inclusion allowance, but have no effect on the other bonuses. Novelties, among other things, transposed by the new models, available from last Friday, as announced by the Inps.
The bands
However, the under EUR 10,000 bracket remains the most populated, as this indicator is the most common means test for access to poverty alleviation measures: in 2025, 3% of the processed ordinary Isees have a zero Isee value; 37% have an Isee value below EUR 10,000; 11% have an Isee value above EUR 35,000.
The recent redistribution towardshigher Isee classes can only partly be attributed to the increase in the number of households applying for the attestation, although the exclusion of government bonds up to EUR 50,000 (effective from April 2025) may certainly have prompted a few more households to apply for the indicator. The households photographed by the instrument have remained fairly stable since the single child allowance was introduced in 2022: between 2022 and 2025 the number of households increased by only 3% to 10.3 million. On the other hand, the number of Isees between EUR 10,000 and EUR 15,000 increased by 13%; those between EUR 15,000 and EUR 25,000 by 27%; those between EUR 25,000 and EUR 40,000 by 41%; those over EUR 40,000 by 43%.
Inps data
It seems evident, therefore, that the various components that contribute to the calculation have grown, particularly in the last two years: it is the same Inps Observatory that points out that the average value of the Isee in 2025 recorded an increase on an annual basis of 8%, and of 15% in two years. The indicator is the result of the combination of an income component and an asset component (which weighs only 20 per cent), which together determine an indicator of the economic situation, which is then related to the equivalence scale: in the last two years the average value of the income component (Isr) has grown by 20.3 per cent and that of the asset component by 6.9 per cent.
