Income recorded in the social security account: legitimate reliance on payments is protected

INPS’s actual knowledge of income can be decisive even where the beneficiary has not proved sending a particular notification. In judgment No. 1146 of 4 April 2023, the Tribunal of Foggia relied on information in the online social security account to exclude recovery of civil disability payments.

The case concerned €6,890.16 paid between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2021. INPS had recalculated the benefit by reference to income and offered repayment by monthly instalments. The claimant challenged the demand on the basis that INPS already knew the relevant income.

The judge considered the protection of legitimate expectations in social assistance overpayment cases and the relevance of any fraud by the recipient. On the reasoning adopted, undue payment could not be attributed to the claimant where the institution already held the information necessary to verify the income condition.

The claimant had not proved transmission of the annual income certificates in the manner alleged. The Tribunal nevertheless found that the income shown in those certificates matched the entries in the social security account. That correspondence established INPS’s full knowledge of the information.

The claim succeeded, the €6,890.16 was declared irrecoverable and INPS was ordered to pay costs. The significant distinction is between proving compliance with a particular reporting step and proving that the institution already possessed the data. In the circumstances examined, the latter was sufficient to support protection of legitimate expectations.

View the court decision (PDF) ↗

https://studiolegalecelentano.com/en/news/income-already-known-to-inps-and-amounts-not-recoverable