PARENTAL LEAVE: INPS PUBLISHED THE INDICATIONS ON THE EXTENSION OF THE PERIOD OF BENEFITTING
With message no. 251 of 26 January 2026, the National Social Security Institute (INPS) aims at aims to provide initial practical guidance on the changes introduced by the 2026 Budget Law regarding parental leave, which has extended the period of leave to 14 years – and no longer 12 – of the child's life, starting from the end of the maternity leave period for the mother and from the date of birth for the father (amending Articles 32, 34 and 36 of Legislative Decree 151/2001, known as the “Consolidated Law on Maternity and Paternity”).
To this purpose, the Authority:
- specifies that such an extension applies exclusively to parents who are employees (given that adoptive or foster parents can take advantage of it within 14 years of the child joining the family, but not beyond the child reaching the age of majority), while for parents under the separate management scheme (“Gestione separata”), the time limit for taking parental leave remains set at the first 12 years from the birth or adoption of the child, and for self-employed parents, it remains set at 1 year from the birth or adoption;
- reminds that this scheme came into effect on 1 January 2026, therefore, for periods of parental leave taken up to 31 December 2025, the previous limit of twelve years will remain valid;
- announces that on 8 January 2026, the procedure “Domande di maternità e di paternità” was updated, is available on the INPS website and must be used by employed parents to submit their parental leave applications online;
- clarifies that, if between 1 January 2026 and the date of the update of the application procedure it has not been possible to submit a prior application for parental leave allowance to INPS, it will be possible to do so subsequently by submitting an application for previous periods of parental leave taken between the date of entry into force of the regulation and the date of the update of the procedure.
