Assegno di inclusione
The support measure for vulnerable households.
OpenCAF services · INPS benefits
NASpI, the unemployment benefit
NASpI (the Italian unemployment benefit paid by INPS, the National Social Security Institute) is for people who lose their job through no choice of their own, and it is lost more often through a missed deadline than a missing requirement. Sixty-eight days from the end of the job: after that, the claim can no longer be filed.
01 · The requirements
Who can claim the NASpI unemployment benefit
NASpI is paid to employees who have lost their job involuntarily. There are three requirements, and all of them must be met together.
Unemployed status
It must be declared and maintained: this means having no job and being immediately available for work, with a declaration made to the employment services.
Contribution requirement
At least thirteen weeks of contributions in the four years before the start of unemployment.
Involuntary job loss
Dismissal, the end of a fixed-term contract, resignation for just cause, or termination by mutual agreement reached in a protected setting.
Claim within the time limit
Sixty-eight days from the end of the employment. This is the requirement most often lost.
Ordinary voluntary resignation does not give the right to NASpI. The exceptions are resignation for just cause (unpaid wages, workplace bullying, harassment, a change of duties for the worse) and resignation during the protected period for maternity and paternity.
02 · Amount and duration
How much you get and for how long
The amount is calculated on your average pay over the last four years. The duration, on the other hand, depends on the contributions you have built up.
- The duration is half the weeks of contributions in the last four years, up to a maximum set by law.
- The amount is a percentage of average pay, with a maximum cap revalued every year.
- After a few months the décalage starts: the payment is reduced progressively by a percentage each month.
- Periods already used for a previous NASpI are not counted again.
- NASpI is taxable income: it goes into your tax return and into the calculation of the ISEE (the Italian family means-test indicator).
The fact that it is taxable income surprises many people in June of the following year. Anyone who received NASpI and then went back to work often ends up with an amount to pay at the year-end settlement, because the two withholding agents taxed the income separately.
03 · How to file
How to file the claim
The claim is filed online with INPS, directly with SPID or CIE (the Italian digital identity and electronic ID card) or through an authorised intermediary.
- A time limit of sixty-eight days from the end of the job. The count starts from the day after your last working day.
- Start date: from the eighth day after the job ends if the claim is filed by then, otherwise from the day after the claim. Filing late costs you days of benefit.
- Documents: dismissal letter or notice of termination, your latest payslips, an IBAN in your name alone or jointly.
- A declaration of immediate availability for work to the employment services, made at the same time.
- The form for dependent family members, if you have any: it affects the related benefits.
Counting the days
This is where most entitlements are lost, and for trivial reasons.
- The time limit is sixty-eight days, not two months
- Some periods suspend it: maternity, illness, injury
- Filing on the eighth day means you are paid straight away
- Filing on the sixtieth day means losing almost two months of benefit
04 · Compatibility
If you find work while receiving it
You do not lose NASpI automatically: it depends on the type of work and on the income. What you cannot do is fail to report it.
| Situation | Effect on NASpI |
|---|---|
| New employment for more than six months | Entitlement ends |
| Employment for up to six months | Suspension, resuming at the end |
| Employment with income below the limit | Proportional reduction, once reported |
| Self-employment or partita IVA | Reduction, once the expected income is reported |
| Occasional work below the threshold | Compatible, once reported |
| Own retirement pension | Entitlement ends |
If you open a partita IVA (Italian VAT number) while receiving NASpI, you must tell INPS the income you expect to earn from it, within a short time after the activity starts. Failing to do so means losing the benefit and repaying what you received.
05 · For those starting out
The advance to start a business
If you want to become self-employed, you can ask for the remaining NASpI to be paid in advance as a single lump sum, as an incentive to start your own business.
- It must be requested within thirty days of the date the self-employed activity starts.
- The amount corresponds to the remaining monthly payments not yet received.
- It is used to start a self-employed activity or a sole proprietorship, or to buy shares in a cooperative.
- If you go back to employment within the period covered, the advance must be repaid.
- The advance is income and counts towards your taxable income for the year.
It is a substantial sum arriving all at once, and it needs to be looked at together with the tax and contributions due in the first year of activity. It is not net capital: part of it will go back out as taxes and contributions.
06 · The risks
What makes you lose NASpI
Some causes are objective, others depend on your conduct, and those are the ones you can avoid.
- Failing to take part in activation measures or interviews at the job centre, without a valid reason.
- Turning down a suitable job offer, according to the criteria set by law.
- New employment that is permanent or beyond the duration threshold.
- Failing to report a new job or income from self-employment.
- Receiving your own retirement pension.
- Losing unemployed status for any reason.
Amounts received after the cause for losing the benefit become an overpayment, and INPS recovers them, normally by deducting from later benefits. Reporting straight away costs nothing; not doing so costs double.
Frequently asked
The questions that keep coming up
I resigned. Can I claim it?
Ordinary voluntary resignation does not give the right to NASpI. There are, however, important exceptions: resignation for just cause and resignation during the protected period for maternity or paternity.
Termination by mutual agreement reached in a protected setting, as part of the compulsory conciliation procedure, also gives the right to it. It is worth having the classification checked before assuming the entitlement is lost.
I have gone past the sixty-eight days. Is there any way to put it right?
The time limit is final and does not reopen. The only route is to check whether there were grounds for suspension (maternity, illness, injury) that extend it.
That is why the first thing to do when a job ends is to file the claim, even if you hope to find another job straight away.
Does NASpI have to be declared in the 730?
Yes. It is treated like employment income, and INPS issues the Certificazione Unica (the annual income statement). The 730 is the Italian tax return for employees and pensioners.
Anyone who received NASpI and then went back to work in the same year often ends up with an amount to pay at the settlement, because the two withholding agents taxed separately without seeing each other. This is normal and should be allowed for.
Can I do some small jobs while receiving it?
Yes, within the set income limits and as long as you report it to INPS. Below the threshold NASpI is reduced proportionally instead of ending.
What you cannot do is fail to report it: INPS cross-checks the data, and the omission produces an overpayment to repay, as well as the loss of the benefit.
Let's talk
The time limit is sixty-eight days, and it does not reopen
Bring us your dismissal letter or resignation as soon as you have it: from there we can tell in a few minutes whether you are entitled.