The circular clarifies who can leave work with the allowance paid by the company: requirements, minimum amounts and ceiling for “pure contributions”
Suspension and extraordinary allowance are also possible for “pure contributors”, i.e. for those who started working from 1996 onwards. The INPS clarified this with circular 104/2026, shared with the Ministry of Labour. With isopension the worker can leave the company up to seven years before retirementas long as they leave by 1 December 2026, with an allowance and contributions paid by the employer. But there is one condition: already on the day of leaving the accrued allowance must reach a minimum threshold.
Isopension and extraordinary allowance: what they are and how they work
Isopension and extraordinary allowance are two tools with which a company accompanies employees towards retirement. Those who agree to leave early receive a “bridge” check every month until actual retirement. Isopension is paid directly by the employer. The extraordinary allowance instead comes from the bilateral solidarity funds, the sector bodies for those who do not have redundancy payments. In both cases the cost, including contributions, is borne by the company. It is not an individual choice: we need company agreements with the unions, which indicate the workers involved. These must reach the old-age or early pension within a maximum time: five years with the Funds, four with the isopension (seven for those who leave by 1 December 2026).
Who are the pure contributors and what requirements must they have to leave work with the redundancy?
Pure contributors are workers who have paid contributions from 1 January 1996 onwards. Their pension is calculated only on the basis of contributions paid, not their salaries in recent years. They can leave with the exodus if, by the end of the accompaniment period, they reach one of these goals:
- Old age at 67: 20 years of contributions and an allowance at least equal to the social allowance, the minimum benefit for those with low incomes (546.24 euros gross per month in 2026).
- Old age at 71: at least 5 years of actual contributions, without an amount threshold.
- Ordinary advance payment: 42 years and 10 months of contributions for men, 41 years and 10 months for women, plus a three-month waiting period after meeting the requirements (the “moving window”).
- Early contribution at age 64: 20 years of actual contributions (the notional ones do not count), a check of at least three times the social security check and always the three months of waiting.
How much the check should be worth: the 2026 thresholds
Here lies the practical novelty. The INPS asks you to check the threshold at the start of the exodus and not at the end, because it is impossible to predict today how much the social security check will be worth in a few years. The calculation uses only the contributions paid up to that moment and the transformation coefficient linked to the retirement age, i.e. the parameter that transforms the contributions into a pension and grows with age. If the result reaches or exceeds the threshold, the requirement is considered met even upon retirement. The minimum monthly gross amounts for 2026 are:
- 546.24 euros for the old age pension at 67;
- 1,638.72 euros for early contributory pension at 64;
- 1,529.47 euros for women with one child (2.8 times the social allowance);
- 1,420.22 euros for women with two or more children (2.6 times the social allowance).
From 1 January 2030 the general threshold will rise to 3.2 times the social allowance, while the reductions will remain for mothers. Those aiming for an early contributory pension have an additional limit: the allowance cannot exceed five times the minimum salary, i.e. the minimum guaranteed pension (3,059.25 euros gross per month in 2026). The ceiling applies for the months before the old age pension age. If the calculation gives a higher figure, the check is reduced and remains at that amount for the entire duration of the exodus, with savings for the company.
