Care is everyone’s question
Sooner or later, almost every family faces the same question: who will look after the person who can no longer fully look after themselves? An ageing parent, a partner with a chronic illness, a child or sibling with a disability.
The question is getting bigger. By 2030, one in six people in the world will be aged 60 or over, according to the World Health Organization. Most care, meanwhile, is still given for free. Across the 64 countries studied by the International Labour Organization, people spend 16.4 billion hours a day on unpaid care work, and women do more than three quarters of it.
Countries answer this in very different ways. Some fund professional care services. Japan and Germany, for example, run long-term care insurance schemes. Others rely mainly on families, and try to make it possible for working relatives to step in without losing their jobs or income. Italy is a clear example of the second model, and its main tool is a law known simply by its number: 104.
What is Law 104?
Law No. 104 of 5 February 1992 is Italy’s framework law on the rights of people with disabilities. It covers assistance, social inclusion and protection at work. For many Italian families, however, its best-known part is Article 33, which supports the people who provide the care.
Under Article 33(3), an employee who cares for a family member with a serious disability can take up to three days of paid leave per month. The leave is paid, and social security contributions are credited, so caring does not cost the worker their pay or their future pension.
The idea behind it is simple: caring is work, and a society that depends on family carers should protect them.
What has changed
Until 2022, only one relative, the “single designated caregiver”, could take this leave for the same person. In 2022 Italy removed that rule, as part of the reforms that brought the EU Work-Life Balance Directive into national law. Since then, several family members can apply and share the care.
That was a step forward, because care rarely rests on one person. But it also raised a practical question: if three siblings are all authorised, do they each get three days a month?
The answer is no. In Circular No. 100 of 18 September 2026, Italy’s National Social Security Institute (INPS) set out how the shared leave works:
- The total does not grow. The limit is still three days per month for each person with a disability, however many relatives are
- Carers take Authorised relatives must use the leave on an alternating basis, and INPS asks them to coordinate.
- Local offices will remind applicants. Every authorisation must state the three-day monthly
- Excess leave is recovered. If relatives take more than three days in total in a month, the extra pay is reclaimed from whoever took the extra days or
- Overlaps are shared. If two or more relatives take leave on the same days or hours, the pay for that overlap is reclaimed from all of them, split
INPS says the aim is twofold: to make sure the person with a disability actually receives care, and to stop the leave being used in ways that do not match the purpose of the law.
Why it matters beyond Italy
Italy’s story shows a tension that every care system meets. Sharing care among relatives is fairer and closer to how families really work. But when support is a fixed budget of time, someone has to decide how it is divided, and families are asked to plan care like a shift rota.
It also raises a wider question. If families carry most of the world’s care, should support be measured per person cared for, as in Italy, or per carer? And how much should the state step in directly, rather than lend relatives a few days a month?
There is no single right model. But as populations age, every country will have to answer the question of who cares for the carers.
For Italian readers, a detailed look at the new rules follows below.
Approfondimento in italiano: permessi ex Legge 104/92, quando a usufruirne sono più lavoratori
L’art. 33, comma 3, della Legge n. 104/92, come ampiamente noto, prevede che i lavoratori dipendenti possano fruire di permessi retribuiti (coperti da contribuzione figurativa) per assistere un familiare in condizioni di disabilità, entro il limite complessivo di 3 giorni mensili.
Nel 2022 il Legislatore modificò la citata previsione eliminando il principio del “referente unico dell’assistenza”; pertanto, da allora, il diritto ai permessi, su richiesta, può essere riconosciuto a più soggetti tra gli aventi diritto.
Negli ultimi anni l’INPS ha tuttavia rilevato un utilizzo dei permessi a volte non in linea con la ratio della Legge n. 104/92. Pertanto, con la circolare n. 100 del 18 settembre 2026, ha chiarito che, da un lato, la predetta novella del 2022 non ha comportato un aumento del numero complessivo dei giorni di permesso disponibili per il medesimo familiare disabile e, dall’altro, proprio in ragione del permanere del limite complessivo di 3 giorni mensili, in caso di più lavoratori dipendenti autorizzati a beneficiarne trova applicazione il principio di fruizione in via alternativa tra gli aventi diritto.
L’INPS invita pertanto i diretti interessati a pianificare congiuntamente la fruizione dei permessi, così come invita i propri uffici periferici a richiamare il limite complessivo di 3 giorni mensili nei provvedimenti di autorizzazione alla fruizione del beneficio, sia per garantire l’effettiva assistenza del familiare in condizioni di disabilità sia per evitare lo sforamento del predetto limite mensile e sovrapposizioni di giornate e/o ore di permesso.
Con la circolare in questione l’INPS ha altresì chiarito le sanzioni applicabili qualora il limite di fruizione dovesse essere superato, prevedendo nello specifico che:
- in caso di fruizione da parte di più aventi diritto di un numero di giorni mensili di permesso superiore a 3, con conseguente superamento del limite di legge, si deve procedere al recupero dell’indebito a carico del lavoratore che ha fruito dei giorni e/o delle ore di permesso in eccesso;
- in caso di contestuale fruizione da parte di più aventi diritto dei giorni mensili di permesso, con conseguente sovrapposizione delle giornate e/o delle ore di permesso, si deve procedere al recupero dell’indebito nei confronti di tutti i lavoratori che hanno fruito dei permessi nella medesima giornata e/o nelle medesime ore, suddividendo l’indebito in parti uguali.
Sources
- WHO, Ageing and health fact sheet
- ILO, Care work and care jobs for the future of decent work (2018)
- INPS Circular 100 of 18 September 2026, as summarised in the original Italian article
