ISEE in Turin
How the ordinary certificate works.
OpenCAF services · ISEE
ISEE for children's benefits
This is the ISEE (the Italian household means-test indicator) you need for nurseries, school meals, textbook grants and many municipal concessions. It has one rule more than the ordinary ISEE, and it concerns the parent who does not live with the child.
01 · The benefits
Which benefits need the ISEE for children
The ISEE for means-tested benefits for minors applies when the person receiving the benefit is a child under 18. It is a specific certificate that sits alongside the ordinary ISEE and does not replace it.
- Nurseries and early-years services, municipal or private with an agreement.
- School meals and before- and after-school services.
- School transport and grants for textbooks.
- Summer camps and municipal educational services.
- Bonuses and grants that the provider makes conditional on this specific certificate.
Not all benefits for children need this ISEE: the Assegno Unico (child benefit), for example, is based on the ordinary ISEE of the household. It is the provider that states which certificate is needed.
02 · The specific rule
The parent who lives elsewhere
What sets this ISEE apart is a single rule: when the parents are not married to each other and do not live together, the parent who lives elsewhere is normally drawn into the child's household, unless one of the listed grounds for exclusion applies.
In practice, this means that parent's income and assets affect the calculation, even though they do not live with the child and even if they contribute nothing beyond the set maintenance payment.
Parents married and living together
A single household, nothing unusual: the ordinary rule applies.
Parents separated or divorced
The parent living elsewhere is counted as an additional component, unless a ground for exclusion applies.
Parents never married and not living together
The same rule: the parent living elsewhere counts unless excluded.
Parent with another household
They do not physically join the child's household, but their financial situation is taken into account through an additional component calculated on specific criteria.
03 · When they do not count
When the parent living elsewhere is not counted
The grounds for exclusion are exhaustive. Outside them, the parent counts even if their relationship with the child has in fact broken down.
- Marriage to someone other than the other parent.
- Children with someone other than the other parent.
- A court order establishing that there are no emotional or financial ties.
- Loss of parental responsibility ordered by a court.
- Established estrangement, by order of the competent authority.
- Maintenance obligation paid in the required way, when the further conditions set by the law are met.
Exclusion is never automatic: it has to be documented. A private agreement between the parents, however well it is respected, does not by itself exclude anyone. Formal documents are needed: certificates, court orders, records of payments.
The most frequent case
A separated parent who pays maintenance regularly and has a new child.
- Having children with another person is a ground for exclusion in its own right
- It must be documented with the family status certificate or the birth certificate
- If, on the other hand, they have no other children and have not remarried, they normally count
- The check must be done before filing, not after receiving the certificate
04 · What you need
The documents needed on top of the ordinary ISEE
On top of the ordinary checklist, you add the documents on the relationship between the parents and, if they count, on the position of the parent living elsewhere.
- Separation or divorce order, or court-approved agreement, with the provisions on maintenance.
- Records of maintenance payments, if relevant to the exclusion.
- Family status certificate or other certificate showing the new marriage or other children of the parent living elsewhere.
- Income and asset details of the parent living elsewhere, when they count.
- Court orders on parental responsibility or estrangement, if there are any.
When the parent living elsewhere counts and does not cooperate in providing the details, the application becomes considerably more complicated. It is a real difficulty, and one to deal with in good time, not the day before the application deadline.
05 · On the final value
How it affects the ISEE value
Bringing in the parent living elsewhere does not just add income: it also changes the equivalence scale, the divisor that reflects the size of the household. So the net effect cannot be taken for granted.
- The income and assets taken into account increase, pushing the indicator up.
- The size of the household increases, which works the other way.
- Where the parent has a separate household of their own, the calculation goes through an additional component with specific criteria.
- The increases provided for large families, for households with disabled members and for single parents with minor children continue to apply under the ordinary rules.
06 · What to avoid
The mistakes that get an application rejected
In day-to-day practice the same ones come up again and again, and almost all have the same result: a certificate with discrepancies or exclusion from the ranking.
- Filing an ordinary ISEE when the call asks for the one for benefits for minors.
- Leaving out the parent living elsewhere without a documented ground for exclusion.
- Assuming they are excluded because "we have not heard from them in years": the lack of contact must be established by a court order.
- Filing too late: a few working days pass between filing the DSU (the self-declaration the ISEE is based on) and receiving the certificate, and municipal calls have strict deadlines.
- Not updating the ISEE after a change in the household during the year.
Frequently asked
The questions that keep coming up
My child's father has not seen him for years. Do I have to include him?
Unless one of the listed grounds for exclusion applies (a new marriage, other children, court orders), yes, he counts for the calculation.
The absence of emotional and financial ties can exclude him, but it must be established by a court order: the actual situation on its own is not enough.
Do I need a different ISEE from the one I already have?
When you file the Dichiarazione Sostitutiva Unica you state the benefits you need it for, and the corresponding certificates are issued, even more than one.
If you already have a DSU for the year that does not cover this purpose, it can be supplemented without starting again from scratch.
Do grandparents count in the household?
Only if they are on the same registered family status. Living together at the registry office is the starting criterion for who makes up the household.
If the child lives with the mother and grandparents in the same home with a single family status, the grandparents are part of the household and their income counts.
How long is it valid and when does it expire?
The certificate is valid until 31 December of the year it is issued, and must be renewed every year.
If your financial situation gets significantly worse during the year, you can consider the current ISEE, which looks at income from recent months.
Let's talk
Where parents are separated, the check needs to be done first
Knowing in advance whether the parent living elsewhere joins the household changes the value of the certificate and the documents you need to obtain.