Many retirees receive pensions that are probably insufficient to live well. Even if they are adjusted annually for inflation, they remain low in amount, and the increase in the cost of living makes them increasingly less sufficient. In practical terms, the purchasing power of these social security benefits is increasingly less. What could be bought 5 years ago with 1,000 euros in a month, can no longer be bought today.
Yet the pensions paid by INPS have some additional components that serve to make them higher for those who, in light of their contributions, are unable to obtain a high pension.
There are also surcharges and additional sums that pensioners often don’t know about and therefore don’t take advantage of.
Pensions too low? Here’s what you can ask INPS to increase the amount
The fourteenth month’s salary for pension benefits below double the minimum salary is one of the most common increases. Many pensioners will receive it with the pension installment for the month of July. The fourteenth falls within the category of social increases, additional sums paid to pensioners with insufficient allowances to live on.
The increases, such as the famous one million supplement, are based on certain income requirements of the pensioner and therefore not everyone can benefit from them. However, there are solutions to growing a pension that many don’t know they can use. One of these is the request for pension reconstitution. With this question you can report to INPS any elements that should be considered in the calculation of a taxpayer’s pension, even if the pension was paid years earlier.
In practice, INPS is asked to recalculate the pension in light of the new evidence highlighted in the reconstitution application.
When it is necessary to intervene on the pension even if it has been received for years
Generally, reconstitution is a tool used by a pensioner when he suffers a pension cut due to missing income communications and tries to fix the situation.
For example, anyone who does not produce the RED form by February of each year will have their pension benefits suspended. However, the reconstitution of the pension can also be used to increase the amount of the treatment, suggesting that INPS apply some regulations not applied at the time of the first payment of the benefit.
Special requests to be made to INPS with the application for reconstitution
An example is the increase in seniority contributions of two months for each year of actual service performed after the recognition of the state of disability greater than 74%, as provided for by law no. 388 of 2000, article 80, paragraph 3. This increase in contributions can be useful not only to retire earlier, by increasing the contributions held, but also to increase the amount of the benefit.
How the application to increase the pension amount works
The pension reconstitution procedure can also be used for the 2-month increase foreseen for each year of work carried out after becoming disabled due to service. Or you can request an increase in contributory seniority for workers exposed to asbestos for a period exceeding ten years, as provided for by law no. 271 of 1993.
Again through reconstitution, you can request an increase in contributions equal to 4 months for each year of work carried out after being recognized as blind and visually impaired. This according to the dictates of law no. 113 of 1985, article 9, paragraph 2, or article 2 of law no. 120 of 1991.
Other special requests to be presented in specific cases
Among the possible requests that can arise from the request for reconstitution, there is the increase in the contribution period of 10 years for victims of terrorism. Or the increase of 4 months per child, up to a maximum of 12 months, for workers who have had children and who have the first credit of contributions from 1996 onwards.
Finally, according to Law No. 247 of 2017, with the reconstitution it is possible to request the contribution increase for workers who have worked in the production departments of refractory ceramic fiber manufacturing plants. In any case, for any request, it is necessary to attach to the reconstitution application the documentation that supports the request produced.
