Personal assistance allowance: later notification does not make an earlier payment recoverable

Where a repayment demand follows a medical reassessment, it is necessary to establish whether the disputed instalment was paid before the recipient learned of the outcome. The Tribunal of Bari applied that test in judgment No. 297 of 25 January 2024 concerning the Italian personal assistance allowance.

INPS sought repayment for July to September 2023. The court claim was limited, however, to the July instalment of €527.16, already received when the reassessment report was communicated. The judgment associated notification with the postal holding of the letter on 11 July 2023.

The Tribunal referred to the specific rules on social assistance overpayments and Court of Cassation order No. 24180/2022. Protection of legitimate expectations requires attention to when the recipient learned of the loss of medical eligibility, subject to responsibility for the undue payment and the absence of good faith.

In this case there was no evidence that the claimant knew the reasons for recovery before notification of the report. The July instalment had been paid earlier and could not, in the Tribunal’s view, be treated as fraudulently received. Subsequent notification was insufficient to make it recoverable retrospectively.

The judge declared €527.16 irrecoverable and ordered INPS to pay costs. The ruling concerns only the instalment litigated, not every amount demanded for the quarter. Comparing payment with notification precisely delimited the protection granted.

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https://studiolegalecelentano.com/en/news/deemed-service-after-storage-and-an-instalment-already-paid