Shared Law 104 leave: new INPS rules for employers and employees

Since 2022, Law 104 leave to assist a person with a severe disability may be granted, on application, to more than one eligible employee. Sharing the care does not multiply the allowance: the same assisted person still has an overall entitlement of three days per month, including leave taken by the hour.

INPS Circular no. 100 of 18 September 2026 addresses two practical situations: eligible relatives exceeding the monthly limit and two or more employees taking leave on the same day or during the same hours. The clarification is directly relevant to employees, employers and payroll teams.

Who may share the leave

Subject to the statutory conditions, applications may be made by parents, including adoptive or foster parents, a spouse, civil-union partner, de facto partner and, in the circumstances provided by law, relatives or relatives by marriage up to the third degree of a person with a severe disability who is not receiving full-time residential care.

Each employee must submit an individual application and obtain INPS recognition. Authorising several people allows them to alternate in providing assistance, but does not give each person a separate three-day allowance: the ceiling is linked to the assisted person.

When the three-day monthly limit is exceeded

If the combined leave taken by the authorised employees exceeds the overall limit, INPS applies chronological priority. The first three days, or the equivalent number of hours, exhaust the monthly entitlement; any days or hours taken afterwards are undue.

Recovery is made from the employee who used the excess amount after the allowance had been exhausted. The Circular gives the example of two relatives taking four days in total during the same month: the fourth day is recovered from the person who took it.

When leave is taken simultaneously

Two or more eligible employees taking leave on the same day or during the same hours breaches the alternating-use requirement. In this case, there is no chronological priority that would make only one person’s leave valid.

The undue payment is therefore divided equally among the employees who used the benefit at the same time, with the recovery adjusted to each person’s working hours. In the INPS example, a day taken simultaneously by two employees is 50% undue for each of them.

Practical implications for employers and payroll teams

Employers continue to advance the allowance and offset the authorised amounts against social security contributions. Where several relatives are involved, particularly when they work for different employers, an orderly information flow becomes important: an employer may not know what leave other eligible employees have already taken.

Employers should retain the employee’s INPS documentation, record requested days and hours accurately and remind the employee that the limit applies to the assisted person rather than to each employment relationship. Requests for information should remain proportionate and comply with personal-data confidentiality requirements.

Prevention depends on planning

INPS expressly calls for joint planning by authorised family members. Before each month starts, they should decide who will take leave, on which days and for how many hours, promptly updating the plan when circumstances change.

For employers, a clear internal procedure reduces the risk of offsetting amounts that are not due and having to make later corrections. More complex cases — several employees, part-time work, hourly leave or different employers — should be reviewed with the payroll team in advance.