It is one of the measures in support of the most requested and expected citizens: the psychologist bonus returns for which the application can be submitted to INPS starting from Monday 15 September. There will be two months to request it and the maximum amount expected for the lowest income is equal to 1500 euros. Also this year, as happened in 2024, a boom of requests is expected to face data that the National Council of the Order of Psychologists (CNOP) judges alarming: in Italy it is estimated, in fact, that there are 5 million people who need psychological help but who cannot obtain it for economic reasons.
Therefore, the node of those who, despite having needed it, will eventually be able to obtain this service: no more than 6300, according to INPS estimates. The application for the 2025 bonus can be submitted to INPS from Monday 15 September until November 14th. The applicant must have an ISEE less than 50 thousand euros. The maximum amount that can be paid is 1,500 euros for those who have an ISEE less than 15 thousand euros, 1,000 euros for those who have an ISEE between 15 thousand and 30 thousand euros and 500 euros for those with an Isee between 30 thousand and 50 thousand euros. The rankings for the assignment of the benefit, distinct by region and autonomous province of residence, take into account the lower ISEE value and, with the same ISEE value, of the chronological order of submitting applications. INPS says that the autonomous province of Trento has communicated the will not to finance the service.
For 2025 the resources are 9.5 million therefore, estimates the INPS, they will be enough for just over 6,300 applicants if, as happened in previous years, there will be a request among those who have the lowest ISEE to achieve the maximum expenditure amount. The disbursement of the amount due, in the maximum fee of 50 euros per session, takes place directly in favor of the professional. No sums of sums is carried out to the beneficiaries of the service. The beneficiary has 270 days to take advantage of the contribution. The psychologist bonus was introduced in 2021 with the decree-law 228/2021, but became operational in July 2022 and was then made structural by the Budget Law 2023, becoming a permanent measure. Last year, 400,505 questions received and managed to obtain the bonus just over 3,300 applicants.
Therefore, the node of resources remains to finance an increasingly requested measure and whose benefits are evident: the bonus, in addition to advantages in terms of psychological health, according to a study of the CNOP, has in fact led to a decrease in the days of illness and absence from work with savings, only for 2022, equal to 312 million euros and it is estimated that 21 billion could be reached, equal to 1% of the GDP, if the figure was parameterized with the entire Italian population psychological disorders that needs therapies.
Meanwhile, it is stall for the DDL on the basic psychologist, stopped at parliamentary commissions. A figure all the more necessary for the increase in the incidence of psychological disorders in the population, also foreseen in the new National Action Plan for Mental Health Pansm 2025-2030, already transmitted by the Ministry of Health to the State-Regions Conference. According to the CNOP, it is an indispensable figure: “The psychologist bonus was and is an important measure, born in full health emergency. Today, however, it is time to take one step more: we cannot limit ourselves to extraordinary interventions, a stable and universal response is needed. We ask for accessible and proximity psychology services, with the basic psychologist in the territories, capable of intercepting the growing needs and to guarantee continuous taking charge, especially for young people “, tells the ANSA Maria Antonietta Gulino, president of the National Council of the Order of Psychologists.