INPS

The allowance is due to blind people who claim it regardless of age and income conditions.

Start date and duration

To be entitled to the financial allowance, the citizen must make a request for recognition of their acknowledgement of meeting sanitary requirements, by submitting a claim via the “Civilian invalidity - Send claim for the recognition of health requirements” service.

Once the health and administrative requirements envisaged have been confirmed, the financial allowance is paid for 12 months starting from the first day of the month following the one in which the request was made or, in exceptional cases, from the date indicated by the relevant health authorities in the report of acknowledgement of the civilian invalidity sent by INPS.

What am I entitled to?

For 2019 the sum of the compensation is €921.13 and is paid in 12 monthly instalments.

Requirements

Blind people who meet the following health and administrative requirements are entitled to the constant attendance allowance for blind people:

• recognition of being a completely blind civilian;
• Italian citizenship;
• foreign citizenship; community registration in the registry office of the municipality of residence;
• non-EU citizenship and residence permit of at least one year referred to in Art. 41 of the Consolidated Immigration Act (TU), even when not having a long-stay permit;
• A permanent and regular residence within the national territory.

The allowance is also due for those who are hospitalised in a public institution.

It is incompatible with the child attendance allowance.

It is incompatible with war, work or service disability, but whoever requests it can choose the most favourable benefit.

It can be combined with the non-payable pension to those who are completely blind and benefits granted for total civilian invalidity or deafness (multi-disabled persons).

When can I claim?

To receive the benefit, the civilian invalidity must be confirmed in advance by means of a medical and legal assessment and the issuance of a health report.

It is therefore necessary to obtain an introductory medical certificate from a GP including the read code which should be entered in the health verification claim and submitted to INPS using the “Legal disability - Procedures for confirming health requirements (InvCiv2010)” service.

The confirmation process is complete after INPS has sent out the civilian invalidity report. This is sent either by registered mail with a return receipt or to a certified email (PEC) address if provided by the applicant and can be accessed through the On-line mailbox service.

Once the report has been received with acknowledgement of the disability, the citizen must submit the AP70 form through the service for “Civilian invalidity - Send socio-economic and income data for the granting of financial allowances”.

For sending either the health verification claim or the confirmation of socio-economic requirements (AP70 form), the citizen can independently use the on-line services available on INPS portal, accessing them using their fiscal code and PIN or SPID (Public system for digital identification). Alternatively, applications can be made using electronic services offered by institutions for advice and social assistance.

For minors holding a child attendance allowance upon reaching legal age, the benefit reserved for adults is due without needing to submit an administrative application and without the need for further health verifications.

How can I claim?

Once the introductory medical certificate and the read code have been obtained, the claim should be made to INPS on-line using the dedicated service.

Alternatively, claims can be made via institutions for advice and social assistance or via Italian organisations for the disabled (ANMIC, ENS, UIC, ANFASS) using their telematic services.

With the exception of claims made by cancer patients, it is not possible to submit a new claim for the same allowance until the current one has been completed, or, in the event of a judicial appeal, until the final ruling has been reached.