NASpI and self-employment: no repayment for months before activity

Social safety nets
NASpI and self-employment: no repayment required for months preceding the commencement of activity
Tribunal of Milan

A worker, following her dismissal, had received NASpI (Nuova Assicurazione Sociale per l’Impiego, the statutory unemployment benefit) until March 2021. In April of the following year she had commenced a self-employed activity, notifying INPS promptly, whereupon the Institute had discontinued the benefit. Years later, the Institute had demanded repayment of Euro 2,263.02 in respect of the first three months of 2021, arguing that the professional income generated during the year required the benefit to be regarded as having lapsed from 1 January.
The Tribunal upheld the claim. The mere holding of a VAT registration number, in the absence of any activity or income, does not extinguish the right to NASpI. Furthermore, the commencement of a self-employed activity may affect the benefit only from that point onwards: it does not permit recovery of amounts legitimately received when the state of unemployment was still genuine.
The ruling therefore excludes the possibility that annual income may cause the lapse of entitlement to be backdated to the beginning of the calendar year. In the case examined, the worker had promptly notified the commencement of her new activity and owed nothing in respect of the preceding period.
In practical terms, INPS may not demand repayment of monthly instalments received prior to the actual commencement of self-employment merely because the total income for the year exceeds the prescribed limits. Prompt notification and accurate indication of the estimated income nonetheless remain essential.