ISEE 2026 income 2024: what you need and how to prepare the DSU

Why the 2026 ISEE looks back to 2024

Nadia cleans two offices in the town centre and her husband works in a warehouse towards Sesto San Giovanni. In September they came to us for the reduced nursery fee for their youngest, holding their August payslips, convinced that was all we needed. It was not: for the 2026 ISEE what counts is not today's salary but the one from two years ago. In a single appointment we sorted everything out and the application went in on time.

The rule is always the same and it applies to everyone. The Single Substitute Declaration (DSU) you file in 2026 describes your household using the income received between 1 January and 31 December 2024 and the assets held on 31 December 2024. The 2024 income is proven by the Certificazione Unica 2025, or by the 730 or the Modello Redditi filed in 2025. The attestation that comes out of it is valid until 31 December 2026 and is needed every time an authority asks you «how much does the family earn».

What it is for and which document proves your income

The doors the ISEE opens

The ISEE is not a tax: it is the figure that authorities read to understand how much your family needs help. The lower it is, the more things you qualify for. In Cinisello Balsamo it is asked for the fee of the municipal nursery and school canteens, for reduced university fees and scholarships, for the social bonus on electricity, gas and waste, for the single and universal child allowance, for the nursery bonus, for the newborn bonus and for the inclusion allowance. Those with a dependent family member also use it for care-home fees.

Which CUD do you need for the 2026 ISEE?

The question reaches us every week, and the answer is simple: you need the Certificazione Unica 2025, the one your employer or INPS gave you in 2025 and which records the 2024 income. If you filed the 730 or the Modello Redditi in 2025, a copy of that is fine too. If in 2024 you received NASpI, allowances, scholarships or maintenance payments, those certificates are needed as well: they are the documents most often missing and the reason we have to postpone a case.

The folder to bring to the office

There is nothing complicated to prepare: an envelope with the right papers, and we fill everything in together at the desk. Here is the checklist to go through before you leave home.

• a valid identity document and the tax code of every member of the household, children included
• the Certificazione Unica 2025, or a copy of the 730 or the Modello Redditi filed in 2025
• the certificates of tax-exempt income, allowances, NASpI and maintenance payments received or paid in 2024
• the balance on 31 December 2024 and the 2024 average balance of current accounts, savings books and prepaid cards
• the value on 31 December 2024 of securities, investment funds, savings bonds and redeemable life insurance policies
• the land-registry records of any property and the outstanding capital of mortgages on 31 December 2024
• the registered rental agreement, if the home you live in is rented
• the number plates of cars and motorcycles of 500 cc or more registered to the household

If you have accounts abroad, cryptocurrencies or holdings in companies, tell the operator: the DSU has dedicated sections and they must be filled in to avoid corrections. The same goes if someone in the household lives in another city or if there are dependent children living elsewhere.

Average balance and 2026 changes: the two points that make the difference

The figure most often missing from the folder is not the income: it is the 2024 average balance of the accounts. Many people turn up with the year-end balance, which is a different thing and not enough. Preparing this document before the appointment saves you a trip.

What the average balance is and how it is calculated

The average balance is the average of the money held in the account on every day of the year: you add up the balance of each day of 2024 and divide by 365. A simple example: if for four months the account held 6,000 euro and for the other eight months 9,000 euro, the average balance is around 8,000 euro. Banks and Poste certify it on request, from the customer area, the app or the counter; for joint accounts only each holder's share is reported.

What is new in 2026 for families

From 1 January 2026, for certain specific benefits, INPS calculates an ISEE with more favourable rules: it applies to the single and universal child allowance, the nursery bonus, the newborn bonus, the inclusion allowance and the support for training and work. For DSUs filed in 2026 the recalculation is automatic: you do not need to request anything in particular.

The family home and the equivalence scale

The most concrete change concerns the family home: its value is reduced by an allowance that in 2026 is 91,500 euro, plus 2,500 euro for each cohabiting child after the first. The allowance rises to 120,000 euro only for those living in a municipality that is the capital of a metropolitan city: Milan yes, Cinisello Balsamo no. For the families in our area the threshold therefore remains 91,500 euro.

The equivalence scale, which weighs how many of you there are in the family, also has new increases: 0.10 with two children, 0.25 with three, 0.40 with four and 0.55 with five or more children. For all the other benefits, however, the ordinary ISEE calculation still applies: it is a difference that can change the outcome of an application, so it is worth checking before giving up a benefit.

How it works at our patronato, step by step

Filing the DSU at our patronato in Cinisello Balsamo takes place in a single appointment, with the declarant present. We are at Via Oreste Terenghi 21/23 and we are open from Monday to Friday, from 9:30 to 12:30 and from 15:00 to 19:00.

• you book however you prefer: a phone call, a WhatsApp message or in person at the office, so you do not have to stand and wait
• you bring the folder of 2024 documents and we check together that everything is there
• we fill in the DSU, show it to you before sending and transmit it electronically
• the ISEE attestation normally arrives from INPS within the tenth working day, and we hand it to you

Let's go back to Nadia's story: her folder was almost complete, only the average balance of the account was missing. She requested it from the bank over the phone while we filled in the rest, and the following afternoon the case was closed. Before we start we tell you the cost of filing: no surprises at the end of the work, and if the figure that comes out does not convince you we work out the reason together.

If 2024 no longer looks like you: the current ISEE

It happens that the photograph from 2024 tells the story of a family that no longer exists today: someone who lost their job, someone put on short-time work, someone whose hours were halved. In these cases you can update the indicator with the current ISEE, calculated on the last twelve months of income (or on the last two months multiplied by six, for those who have lost or reduced a permanent job). It can be requested when the household income changes by more than 25%, when a benefit stops or the work situation changes, or when the assets fall by more than 20%. The current ISEE with only the updated income lasts six months; if you also update the assets it is valid until 31 December of the year of filing. The change must be reported within two months, and from 1 April of each year the asset change alone can also be used.

The questions we are asked most often

Here are the five answers we give most often at the desk. If your situation is different, call us or message us on WhatsApp: we receive by appointment at Via Oreste Terenghi 21/23, in Cinisello Balsamo, from Monday to Friday from 9:30 to 12:30 and from 15:00 to 19:00.

What the right ISEE unlocks: the benefits that depend on that number

The ISEE is a single number that is then used everywhere: the universal allowance for children, nursery fees, university tuition, reductions on utility bills, public competitions with an income threshold, regional bonuses and local contributions. Every body reads that number and applies its own scale — which is why an error of a few hundred euro can move you into a different band and cost a benefit worth far more.

The point almost nobody checks is that several versions of the ISEE start from the same household but apply different rules: the ordinary one, the university one, the socio-health one, the one for people with disabilities. Asking for the wrong version means receiving a correct number for a calculation that is not the one you need.

Ordinary, university and socio-health ISEE: which one you need

The ordinary ISEE is what most local and regional benefits require. The university ISEE looks closely at the situation of a student living away from the family home and applies different thresholds. The socio-health ISEE, used for services such as nurseries and local welfare, also takes account of disabilities and dependants under its own criteria.

To know which one applies, ask a single question: who is asking for the document? The body usually names the version on the application form itself. If it is not written, bring us the form: in two minutes we work out together which DSU has to be filed, and the practice is done once instead of twice.