ALERT | News 2025 on parental leave

With Circular No. 95 of May 26, 2025, INPS provided practical instructions on parental leave, for which the allowance was increased by the 2025 Budget Law from 60% to 80% for the second month and from 30% to 80% for the third month of leave.

The circular clarifies the objective, subjective, and temporal scope of application of the new provisions, as well as indicating how the leave can be taken and how the new provisions will be coordinated.

The increases in allowances relating to parental leave currently apply to the first three months of leave, which can be taken by one parent or shared between both parents, on a daily or hourly basis.

To benefit from the above increases, parental leave shall be taken before the child reaches the age of six (or within six years of the child joining the family in the case of adoption or foster care).

The new provisions introduced by the 2025 Budget Law apply to parental leave taken from January 1^st, 2025, and in cases where maternity or paternity leave has ended after that date:

• on December 31^st, 2023, for the right to an increased allowance from 60% to 80% for the additional month (2024 Budget Law);
• December 31^st, 2024, for entitlement to increased allowance from 30% to 80% for the additional month (2025 Budget Law).

Regarding parental leave, we remind you that Article 34 of the Consolidated Law on Maternity and Paternity establishes that, within the first twelve years of a child’s life, parents may take leave for a cumulative period not exceeding ten months (increased to eleven months if the father takes at least three months of parental leave, either in a single block or in separate periods).

The above overall limits apply:

• the mother was entitled to a maximum of six months’ leave, taken as a continuous period or in separate periods;
• the father was entitled to a maximum of six months’ leave, taken as a continuous period or in separate periods (seven months in the event of absence from work for at least three months);
• if there was only one parent, they were entitled to a continuous period or separate periods of up to 11 months.

The new provisions introduced by the 2025 Budget Law therefore affect not only parents who take compulsory maternity or paternity leave this year, but also those who do so in 2024, although with different effects.

With the Circular of May 26, 2025, INPS also provides operational instructions by indicating the codes to be entered in Uniemens for the correct management of the cases highlighted above and updating the procedure for submitting leave applications.