The final refinements are underway before the final green light for the accreditation of the “Dedicated to you” social card for 2026, the one-off bonus worth 500 euros intended for the purchase of basic necessities. Barring delays, disbursement should take place by the end of October. On the actual payment times, however, much will depend on the timing of INPS and Municipalities. Meanwhile, the definition of the beneficiaries divided by city has arrived from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry (Masaf): there will be 1,177,597 families, around twenty thousand more than last year.
The ISEE up to 15 thousand euros
For this year the requirements to access the contribution are confirmed. The bonus is intended for families who have an annual ISEE (indicator of the equivalent economic situation) not exceeding 15 thousand euros. To obtain support, there must be no other economic subsidies in the family unit, such as, for example, the inclusion allowance, training and work support, redundancy fund or Naspi. It will be up to INPS to draw up a ranking, with priority assigned to large families or families with at least three members and a child under 14 years of age.
The Municipality’s notice and the timing
The final list, the result of a cross-check between INPS and Municipalities, will arrive at the Italian Post Office: here the new beneficiaries, notified by their Municipality of residence, will be able to go to collect the card. For those who were already beneficiaries and maintain the requirements for the current year, however, it will be sufficient to wait for the amount due to be recharged on their Postepay. In any case, unlike other contributions, the “Dedicated to you” card is activated automatically and does not require the forwarding of questions on the website of the national social security institute.
As confirmed by the inter-ministerial implementing decree (Masaf, Mef and work) of last June, in compliance with the latest budget law which refinanced the measure by 500 million euros, the amount stored on the card will necessarily have to be disposed of within one year of disbursement, therefore October 2027. However, more stringent times for activation are envisaged, with a first payment to be made no later than 16 December of this year.
For both 2026 and 2027, the economic contribution is intended for the purchase of basic food items. Any type of alcoholic drink is excluded. Purchases must be made in stores that have joined the program. Furthermore, these shops will be able to apply discounts to holders of the Dedicated to you card. Here’s what you can buy, in detail:
- pork, beef, poultry, sheep, goat, rabbit meat
- fresh catch
- tuna and canned meat
- milk and its derivatives
- egg
- olive and seed oil
- bakery products (both ordinary and fine), pastry and biscuits
- frozen pizza and baked goods
- pasta
- rice, barley, spelt, oats, malt, corn and any other cereal
- cereal flours
- fresh vegetables; washed and packaged ready for consumption; processed; cooked, packaged and ready to eat; frozen
- peeled tomatoes and canned tomatoes
- legumes
- seeds and oily fruits
- fruit of any type, including washed and packaged ready for consumption as well as cooked and packaged ready for consumption
- baby and baby food (including infant formula)
- natural yeasts
- natural honey
- sugars
- cocoa powder
- chocolate
- mineral waters
- wine vinegar
- coffee, tea, chamomile
- Dop and Igp products
Potential beneficiaries
Chapter beneficiaries of the bonus. In the first three positions there are three large cities in the Centre-South. Third is Palermo with 18,447 beneficiaries of the 2026 “Dedicated to you” card, about ten thousand less than Rome, second with an “abstract” audience of 27,443 families. In first place is Naples, which overtakes the capital with 28,536 potential holders of the contribution.
There are 21 municipalities, capitals and otherwise, where the potential beneficiaries of the social card exceed two thousand. Padua, Sassari, Venice and Verona remain below the bar of three thousand nuclei. Syracuse, Bari, Florence, Bologna, Reggio Calabria, Andria and Foggia are placed above this threshold, although they remain outside the top ten. Among the top ten cities in the national ranking, two large municipalities in the South stand out, such as Taranto, with 4,808 future beneficiaries of the social card, which is one step below Messina, in ninth place with 5,633 households candidate to receive the bonus.
Genoa is in eighth place (5,634) behind Giugliano in Campania, a municipality in the metropolitan city of Naples which, despite not being a provincial capital, has an audience of 6,600 beneficiaries out of a population of around 120 thousand inhabitants. Going up the list, large cities such as Milan, Catania and Turin appear which are placed from fourth to sixth position, with groups of beneficiaries ranging between 8,522 in the Piedmontese capital and 13,642 in the Lombard city.