Automatic membership of supplementary pension schemes: what changes from today for new hires

Starting today theautomatic membership of new hires of the private sector to supplementary pensions, introduced by Budget Law 2026: the severance pay automatically flows into the pension fund provided for by the collective labor agreement or, in the presence of multiple reference collective funds, into the one in which the greatest number of employees are registered, unless otherwise agreed by the company. The newly hired worker has in fact 60 days to choose whether to join a supplementary pension scheme or keep the severance pay with the employer.

In the absence of a choice, the automatic opt-in mechanism applies collective pension form provided for by the collective agreement applied in the company or, failing that, to the residual pension form. In the case of a worker with previous employment relationships, who had already joined a supplementary pension scheme in the past, in the 60 days following the start of the activity he will have to indicate to the new employer the pension fund to which he wants to allocate the accruing severance pay. In fact, it will not be possible to opt for retention in the company, unless the position in the previous fund has been fully redeemed.

In the absence of collective reference funds, the Ministry of Labor recalls in the FAQ, the complementary pension form for which automatic membership is intended is the residual one identified by the regulation referred to in the decree of the Minister of Labor 85 of 31 March 2020, to which the entire amount of the severance pay is conferred (the Cometa Fund, which from 1 October 2020 collects tacit memberships to replace the abolished Fondinps, whose individual positions were transferred to Cometa). Public sector workers and domestic workers are excluded from the new rules and, unless otherwise indicated in the implementing decree, intermittent workers.

Choice times and differences with previous legislation

The worker has 60 days from the date of hiringand no longer 6 months as in the old silent consent mechanism for those hired before July 1, 2026, to express an explicit choice on the destination of their severance pay. If you do not express yourself within this time frame, automatic membership is triggered. You can allocate it to a supplementary pension scheme, adhering to it, or leave it in the company, not adhering to any form of supplementary pension, a choice which however can always be revised.

Unlike the previous legislation, automatic membership involves: the payment of the severance pay in full; il employer contribution to the extent established by the applicable agreements; The worker contribution to the minimum extent established by the applicable agreements.

Il worker has the right not to pay the required contribution at his expense if his gross annual salary is lower than the annual amount of the social allowance. For workers registered with compulsory social security before 29 April 1993, in the absence of provisions of the applicable bargaining, a measure of no less than 50% can be allocated. The partial assignment, including the minimum amount of 50% for workers registered before 29 April 1993, concerns the hypothesis of explicit choice within 60 days. In the absence of any choice, full automatic membership operates.

Specific rules for non-first-time workers

For those who have already had previous employment relationships in the private sector, therefore for workers who are not hiring for the first time, it is necessary to distinguish between subjects who declare have membership in a supplementary pension scheme fueled in whole or in part by severance pay and those who declare during the hiring phase do not have this form of membership.

For non-first-time employees who declare that they have already joined a pension fund previously with total or partial severance pay, automatic membership is triggered, unless they opt to explicitly join a freely chosen pension fund. However, for those who declare that they do not already have membership in a pension fund previously funded with total or partial TFR, automatic membership is not triggered and the TFR remains in the company or in the INPS Treasury Fund. However, the worker can always review this choice by allocating the TFR accruing to a freely chosen pension fund.