100 quota, the Supreme Court curbs Inps. Those who work do not lose a year of pension.

ROME – A small job cannot cost an entire year of pension. The Court of Cassation changes its orientation on Quota 100 and bars the full recovery of the assigned amounts from INPS from those who return to work before having reached the requirements for old age. The prohibition remains, but only what was earned can be deducted from the pension. This is established by judgment no. 26864, published on October 14. The pensioner and the collaborations The matter concerns a pensioner who in 2020 carried out some collaborations, earning less than 5 thousand euros. For him, this was occasional self-employment, permitted within that threshold even for those who chose Quota 100. INPS, however, had requested back the entire pension for the year. The Court and then the Court of Appeal of Bari had ruled in favor of the Institute. For the judges, those jobs were not occasional: the contracts provided for continuous activity, paid based on hours, with minimum results to achieve and meetings with the company representatives. They were therefore coordinated and continuous collaborations, for which the prohibition of accumulating pension and work income applies even for amounts under 5 thousand euros. The Court of Cassation agrees with INPS on this point. But regarding the amount to be recovered, it agrees with the pensioner: he must return what he earned, rather than an entire year of allowances. The cases reported by Repubblica INPS's requests also affected those who had earned only a few tens of euros. Repubblica reported the case of the chef Rosario La Rosa: two days of work, 111 euros net and 28,295 euros to be returned. And that of Florio Imparata: five nights as a DJ, 144 euros net, request for 23,146 euros. To a former Tuscan manager who had helped a relative in collecting olives and received a few liters of oil, INPS had requested 66,349 euros. The 5 thousand euro rule Quota 100 allowed exiting with at least 62 years of age and 38 years of contributions, accrued between 2019 and 2021. In exchange for the advance, the law prohibits summing pensions and work incomes until the attainment of old age requirements. The exception is occasional self-employment under 5 thousand euros per year gross. The threshold is therefore not a blanket for any activity: it does not protect those who work as employees or with coordinated and continuous collaborations. For INPS, violating the prohibition meant losing the allowances for the entire solar year, regardless of the duration of the work and the earnings. The change of direction In 2024, the same Court of Cassation had upheld the annual recovery. Now it reviews that position, also in light of a subsequent intervention by the Constitutional Court which called for an interpretation respecting the principles of reasonableness and proportionality. The law prohibits accumulation but does not expressly provide for the loss of a year of pension. A consequence so "disruptive and markedly punitive," judges write, would have required "an explicit textual basis." How much is returned The deduction must correspond to the income from work received in the period subject to the prohibition. For example: with 25 thousand euros in annual pension and a thousand earned from non-accumulable activity, the recovery is one thousand euros, instead of 25 thousand. The case now returns to the Court of Appeal of Bari, which will have to redetermine the amount to be returned: only what was earned from the collaborations, rather than the entire pension for 2020. Other pensioners who have received similar requests from INPS can appeal this judgment to contest it. But the decision, by itself, does not trigger the return of money to everyone.