Could you really retire at 64 in Italy instead of waiting until 67?
For millions of workers, the answer today is still no.
But a new proposal being discussed ahead of Italy’s 2027 budget could open an early-retirement route to around 80,000 additional workers.
The idea is to extend the existing pension option available to so-called “pure contributory” workers to people who started paying contributions before 1996 and are therefore part of Italy’s mixed pension system.
There is, however, a catch.
Anyone choosing the new route would have to accept a complete recalculation of their pension under the contributory system — potentially reducing the monthly payment for the rest of their retirement.
And for some workers, even that would not be enough. Part of their TFR severance pay could also have to be converted into an income stream simply to qualify.
So this is not exactly a free shortcut to retirement.
Contents
Who Can Retire at 64 Today?
Under the current rules, Italy already allows some workers to retire at 64 through the early contributory pension.
But it is mainly available to people whose pension history began entirely under the contributory system — in practice, workers who did not pay contributions before January 1, 1996.
For 2026, the main requirements include:
- at least 64 years of age;
- at least 20 years of effective contributions;
- a pension worth at least three times the social allowance.
That last requirement is particularly important.
In 2026, the pension must reach approximately €1,638.72 gross per month, equivalent to €21,303.36 per year on 13 payments.
The threshold is lower for women with children: 2.8 times the social allowance for one child and 2.6 times for two or more children.
The New Proposal Would Open the Door to Pre-1996 Workers
The proposal promoted by the League would extend this opportunity to workers who have contributions dating back before 1996.
These people currently fall under the mixed system, where part of their pension may still be calculated according to the older earnings-related method and the rest according to the contributory system.
The proposed route would require at least 25 years of contributions, rather than the 20 currently required for pure contributory workers.
Deputy Labour Minister Claudio Durigon has suggested launching the measure experimentally for three years.
According to his estimates, around 80,000 additional pensions could be activated, at a cost to the state of approximately €1.5 billion per year.
But workers choosing the option would have to accept an important condition.
The Price of Leaving Early: Your Pension Would Be Recalculated
The pension would be recalculated entirely using the contributory method.
This means that even the pension rights built up before 1996 — which would normally benefit from the mixed system — would be converted to the newer calculation method.
For many workers, that means a lower pension.
Simulations produced by the CGIL pension observatory suggest reductions of around 10.6% in several representative cases.
That is not a fixed penalty written into the proposal. The actual reduction would depend on salary history, years worked before 1996 and the individual contribution record.
But the examples show how significant the difference could become.
A €35,000 Salary Could Mean Around €182 Less a Month
Consider a 64-year-old worker with 40 years of contributions, including nine years before 1996, and a final gross salary of €35,000.
Under the normal mixed calculation, the estimated pension would be approximately €1,726 gross per month.
Under a fully contributory recalculation, it would fall to approximately €1,543 per month.
That is a reduction of roughly €182 every month, or €2,376 per year.
There is an additional problem.
The recalculated pension would fall below the €21,303 annual minimum required to access the 64-year retirement route.
So even after accepting the lower pension, this worker would still not automatically qualify.
This Is Where Your TFR Could Become the “Shortcut”
The proposal attempts to solve that problem through TFR.
If the pension alone does not reach the required threshold, workers could potentially convert part of their Trattamento di Fine Rapporto into an additional lifelong income stream.
For example, a worker receiving €1,300 per month from the public pension would collect around €16,900 per year.
If another €400 per month came from a TFR-funded annuity, the combined annual income would rise to approximately €22,100, enough to exceed the current minimum threshold.
This is the real mechanism behind the proposed “shortcut”.
Instead of simply reducing the retirement age, the system would allow some workers to combine a recalculated pension with part of their accumulated severance pay to make early retirement financially possible.
Who Could Actually Benefit From Retiring at 64?
The proposal would not automatically make early retirement convenient for everyone.
It would work best for people who already have a relatively strong contribution history and a pension high enough to remain above the minimum threshold even after the full contributory recalculation.
Workers with higher salaries, long careers and substantial accumulated TFR could therefore have more room to use the new route without falling below the required income level.
For people with lower salaries or fragmented careers, the situation could be very different.
They might accept a lower pension and still discover that they do not meet the minimum income requirement needed to leave at 64.
Even 40 Years of Contributions May Not Be Enough
This is one of the most counterintuitive aspects of the proposal.
A worker may have paid contributions for 40 years and still fail to qualify for retirement at 64 if the recalculated pension is too low.
The reason is that access depends not only on age and contribution years, but also on the final pension amount.
That makes the reform very different from traditional early-retirement schemes based simply on reaching a certain number of contribution years.
In practice, the same age and the same career length could produce very different results depending on salary history and how much of the worker’s career falls before 1996.
What Happens With Higher Salaries?
The picture becomes more favourable as income rises.
A worker with a final gross salary around €50,000 or €70,000 is more likely to remain above the minimum pension threshold after the contributory recalculation.
That does not mean there is no cost.
The monthly pension could still be lower than under the normal mixed calculation, and leaving three years earlier also means giving up additional contributions that would otherwise have increased the future pension.
The key question is therefore not simply whether the worker can retire at 64, but whether the financial sacrifice is worth three extra years outside the workforce.
Retiring at 64 Versus Waiting Until 67
This is where the decision becomes genuinely personal.
Someone who retires at 64 would begin receiving pension payments around three years earlier.
That could represent tens of thousands of euros collected before the ordinary retirement age.
But the trade-off could be a lower monthly pension for the rest of the person’s life.
Waiting until 67 generally means three additional years of contributions, a more favourable transformation coefficient and, for mixed-system workers, retaining the pension calculation that applies under ordinary rules.
In other words, retiring earlier may produce more money immediately but less income every month later on.
The most important calculation is therefore the break-even point: how many years of receiving the lower pension would it take before the advantage of collecting three years earlier disappears?
Using TFR Has Another Cost
The use of TFR makes the proposal more flexible, but it should not be considered free money.
TFR is money the worker has accumulated during their career.
If part of it is converted into a lifelong income stream to satisfy the pension threshold, that portion will no longer be available as a lump sum for other purposes.
For many Italians, TFR can represent a substantial amount of capital used to repay a mortgage, support children, invest or simply create a financial reserve at retirement.
Using it to qualify for retirement at 64 therefore means exchanging capital today for additional monthly income over time.
Why the Government Is Considering the Proposal
Italy has spent years trying to balance two conflicting pressures.
Workers want more flexibility to leave before the ordinary retirement age, while the government needs to control the enormous long-term cost of the pension system.
A reform based on the contributory calculation offers a possible compromise.
Workers could leave earlier, but the state would avoid guaranteeing them the same pension they would receive under more generous calculation rules.
That is also why the proposal is very different from simply lowering Italy’s retirement age from 67 to 64 for everyone.
Is the 64-Year Shortcut Already Available?
No.
The existing early contributory pension at 64 remains available only to workers who meet the current legal requirements.
The extension to mixed-system workers is still a proposal being discussed in connection with the 2027 budget and could be modified, restricted or abandoned before becoming law.
Anyone planning retirement should therefore avoid making financial decisions based only on political announcements.
For the rules currently in force, the safest reference remains the official INPS guidance on early retirement.
If the reform survives the budget negotiations, however, thousands of workers who currently have to wait could suddenly face a new choice: work until 67 and protect the full pension calculation, or leave at 64 by accepting a smaller pension and potentially using part of their TFR.
That is the real shortcut — and also the real price.
If you’re thinking about leaving work early, it is also worth looking beyond the public pension alone: our guide to whether a private pension is really worth it in Europe explains how supplementary retirement plans can affect long-term income.
