Unemployment Insurance in EU->Italy

Unemployment insurance in Italy

Type of scheme

How to join? Compulsory Unemployment Insurance. You will automatically be enrolled in unemployment insurance when you start working in Italy, and the compulsory insurance ends with the end of the employment relationship.

Contribution: Contributions are paid by the employer alone.

Who is covered? All employees, exempt permanent employees of public administrations.

Since 1 January 2024 self-employed are insured under the separate unemployment insurance Scheme ISCRO (see below).

Benefit amount: Earnings-related.

Different schemes for different groups

In Italy there are several Unemployment insurance Schemes covering different groups of workers and self-employed. The main Schemes are NASpI and DIS-COLL.

NASpI (La Nuova Assicurazione Sociale per l'Impiego) is for private sector employees, which includes apprentices, cooperative members, entertainment sector employees and permanent agricultural workers.
It is also for fixed-term workers of public administrative bodies.

DIS-COLL (Indennità mensile di disoccupazione) is for co.co.co. workers (employees with “coordinated and continuous contracts”), including project collaborators, research fellows and PhD students with scholarships.
You must be registered with the separate pension scheme (Gestione separata) for being eligible for DIS-COLL.

NASpI and DIS-COLL are described in more details below.

Besides NASpI and DIS-COLL there are specific schemes for:

• self-employed workers with VAT registration number and who are registered under the Separate pension scheme (Gestione Separata). Read more about ISCRO (Indennità straordinaria di continuità reddituale e operativa).
• self-employed workers in the entertainment industry (ALAS - Indennità di disoccupazione per i lavoratori autonomi dello spettacolo).
  It is for those self-employed who carry out artistic or technical activities on a fixed-term basis, directly connected to the production and realisation of shows.
• workers in the entertainment sector registered with the Entertainment Workers Pension Fund (Fondo Pensione Lavoratori nello Spettacolo) - discontinuity allowance (IDIS - Indennità di discontinuità)
• agricultural workers with a fixed-term contract, small farmers, family members and small direct farmers (disoccupazione agricola).
  Since 1 January 2022 permanent agricultural workers has been covered by NASpI.

Requirements for entitlement to NASpI

• You have involuntarily lost your job or your fixed-term contract has finished.
• At least 13 weeks of unemployment contributions are required in the four years preceding the start of the unemployment period.
• you have accrued 30 days of actual work in the 12 months prior to the employment termination date.
• You must register with an employment centre (“Centro per l’Impiego” or CPI), and this constitutes of two things:
  1. you have to sign a "Declaration of Immediate Availability" (DID, "Dichiarazione di immediata disponibilità al lavoro") which can be done online through the national portal ANPAL, and
  2. within 15 days from the NASPI request you must make an appointment with CPI to sign the Personalized Service Agreement ("Patto di servizio personalizzato/Patto per il lavoro") which defines the mutual obligations between you and the CPI.

The state of unemployment must be involuntary; therefore, workers whose employment relationship has ended following resignation or consensual termination are excluded. However, access to NASpI, if the other requirements are met, is also permitted for example in the following cases:

• resignation for just cause
• resignation during the protected period of maternity
• consensual termination following the employee's refusal to transfer to another office of the same company which is more than 50 kilometres from the employee's residence and/or which can be reached on average by public transport in 80 minutes or more.

Read more at the INPS Website.

Voluntary resignations in the 12 months preceding involuntary unemployment

From 10 January 2025, a new rule has come into force for those who resign voluntarily and in the 12 months following, loose a new job involuntarily due to dismissal or the natural expiration of a fixed-term contract.

In such a case, NASpI will be granted only if the worker has accrued at least 13 weeks of contributions between the voluntary termination of an employment relationship and the new involuntarily termination event (not in the previous four years).

Requirements for entitlement to DIS-COLL

• You have involuntarily lost your job or your fixed-term contract has finished.
• You have accrued at least one month of contributions in the period between 1st January of the year prior to dismissal till the date of dismissal.
• You must register with an employment centre (“Centro per l’Impiego” or CPI), and this constitutes of two things:
  1. you have to sign a "Declaration of Immediate Availability" (DID, "Dichiarazione di immediata disponibilità al lavoro") which can be done online through the national portal ANPAL, and
  2. within 15 days from the DIS-COLL request you must make an appointment with CPI to sign the Personalized Service Agreement ("Patto di servizio personalizzato/Patto per il lavoro") which defines the mutual obligations between you and the CPI.

The amount of unemployment benefit

The NASpI and DIS-COLL amounts to 75% of the monthly salary subject to social security contributions if the salary is lower than €1,436.61 (2025).
If the average salary is higher than €1,436.61, the benefit is 75% of €1,436.61, increased by 25% of the difference between the worker’s actual monthly salary and €1,436.61.
The maximum payable amount is equal to €1,562.82 (gross) per month for 2025.

As of the first day of the 6th month (151st day) of receipt of the benefit, the amount is reduced by 3% every following month (and the first day of the 8th month (211th day) for persons 55 and over).

Tax treatment

Unemployment benefits in Italy is subject to the income tax.

The duration of unemployment benefit

NASpI is paid monthly for a number of weeks equal to half of the contribution weeks in the last four years. For the purposes of calculating the duration, periods of contributions that have already given rise to the payment of unemployment benefits are not counted. Similarly, contributions that have produced benefits received in a single solution in advance are not counted.

The maximum duration of NASpI is 24 months.

Anyone who intends to start a self-employed or individual business activity or wants to subscribe to a share of the share capital of a cooperative, in which the mutualistic relationship has as its object the provision of work activities by the member, after the NASpI application has been accepted, can request the early and one-off liquidation of the NASpI.

DIS-COLL is paid monthly, for a number of months equal to the number of months of contributions credited in the period between 1 January of the year prior to dismissal till the date of dismissal, but not exceeding 12 months.

Insurance periods from other EEA countries

Whenever you have to claim NASpI, the authorities will also take into account any insurance periods you have completed in other countries. This applies to EU Member States and to Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Iceland.
See key points of EU Unemployment Insurance coordination below or read our article "EU social security coordination".

How to apply for unemployment benefit

You must use an online service. The service allows the submission of applications for NASpI and DIS-COLL benefits.

The NASpI and Dis-Coll application submitted to INPS is equivalent to a declaration of immediate availability to work (DID).

If you do not meet the requirements

You may claim Citizenship Income (Reddito di Cittadinanza). Only for Italian citizen or a citizen of a European Union country, a foreign citizen in possession of an EU long-term residence permit or have been resident in Italy for at least ten years, of which the last two continuously. Economic requirements applies.

Jargon busters

• INPS: National Social Security Institute
• Employee organisations and tax assistance centres (Patronato, CAF):
  authorised centres that assist the user with compiling and electronically submitting a benefit claim (this assistance is totally free of charge)
• NASpI: New Employment Social Insurance Benefit
• DIS-COLL: Unemployment benefit for workers with an atypical employment contract and to new self-employed

Forms you may need to fill in

Claims for unemployment benefit are to be submitted through the relevant online procedure available on the INPS web site

A list of harmonised EU forms for the transfer of social security entitlements between the Member States. The form for Italy is available from INPS.

Know your rights

The following national link provide information about the social security rights provided for by Italian law:

• https://www.inps.it

Look for job in EU with unemployment benefits

Transferring benefits from other EU Member States in the event of unemployment

Whom do you need to contact?

National Social Security Institute (INPS)
Via Ciro il Grande 21
00144 Rome RM ITALY
Tel. +39 06803164 (normal operator rates apply)
Multi-channel Contact Centre - Toll-free number: 803164 (free)

Website: https://www.inps.it

Employee organisations and tax assistance centres (Patronato, CAF).

Italian words

Unemployment Insurance = Assicurazione contro la disoccupazione

Unemployment benefit = L'indennità di disoccupazione

This page was last updated in March 2025.