New Barrier Bonus, Associations: Elderly and Disabled at Risk

The decree excludes from the discount those who live in single-family homes and housing units in multi-family buildings; limiting the benefits to disability ascertained pursuant to 104 means not including many elderly people and people with various motor disabilities

Rome, January 16, 2024 - Article 3 of Decree 212, approved by the Council of Ministers on Friday, December 29, and which entered into force the following Saturday, substantially modifies the rules governing the tax deduction for the removal of architectural barriers. This significantly reduces the number of potential beneficiaries of the 75% invoice discount, making the process for obtaining the tax relief more complex and costly.

In fact, Legislative Decree 212 excludes a priori from the discount on the invoice all single-family homes and housing units located in multi-family buildings. Those who live in these types of homes (about 40% of Italian families) will be able to continue to benefit from the discount on the invoice only if they are able to demonstrate that they occupy the housing unit as their primary residence and have a reference income of no more than €15.000, or it is necessary that the family unit includes a person with a disability certified pursuant to art. 3 of Law 104/1992.

We believe that the discrimination that is created between residents of single-family homes and condominiums is totally unjustified and particularly penalizing: a person with mobility problems who risks falling every time they climb a staircase continues to be able to enjoy the discount on the invoice for an installation on the shared stairs of a condominium, while they must absorb 100% of the expense if the same intervention is carried out on the stairs of their own home, the ones they probably have to climb several times a day to access the bedroom or bathroom.

Making the recognition of a tax break dependent on the type of housing (condominium or private home, primary or secondary residence), in addition to being discriminatory towards citizens, is counterproductive from the point of view of the collective interest.

A public intervention that favors the removal of architectural barriers is justified by the objective of structurally improving the quality of the housing stock in order to make the homes of our country safer and more accessible, regardless of who lives in them today.

Excluding detached homes from the discount on the invoice because they are not currently used as a primary residence or because a person with a certified disability does not live there permanently does not help improve the quality of the housing stock.

In doing so, we lose sight of the true objective of overcoming architectural barriers, that is, making all buildings safer and more accessible, to adapt our housing structure to demographic evolution and the progressive aging of the population.

The new DL of 29/12 seems to forget that promoting the removal of architectural barriers in all types of buildings used for housing (regardless of who lives there today) is the most effective strategy for preventing domestic accidents and reducing the onset of disabilities, with obvious economic advantages for public health.

The new rules will inevitably discriminate even within the categories (low-income and disabled people) that the legislator wanted to favor.

In Italy there are many elderly and disabled people, with pathologies that reduce their mobility, who do not have a certification according to law 104; these people are excluded from the discount on the invoice.

Many elderly people, to cope with the loss of autonomy, are forced to move to their children and relatives but often they keep their original residence and do not officially become part of the family nucleus of the relative who takes care of them. These people, with the new rules, risk being excluded from the discount on the invoice.

Even the reference income of €15.000 based on the members of the family unit is particularly low when applied to the older population. According to recent ISTAT data, in Italy there are approximately 5.750.00 families in which a person over 65 lives and 55% of these (equal to 3.165.000) are made up of a single person.

For these 3.165.000 elderly people living alone, the overall income threshold to be able to benefit from the discount on the invoice must not exceed €15.000; we find it hard to believe that a widowed pensioner living alone with an income of €15.500 does not deserve the support of the discount on the invoice because she is deemed sufficiently wealthy!

We strongly request to correct the decree 212 by eliminating the discriminations and limitations to the applicability of the discount on the invoice.

The decision to remove architectural barriers by installing a stair lift, an elevator, or a lifting platform is often a difficult decision, resulting from the onset of difficulties and pathologies related to aging.

Supporting individuals facing these difficulties with an effective tool such as an invoice discount, helping them to preserve autonomy, mobility and safety is an investment that pays off for the community.

Preventing domestic accidents caused by stairs by removing architectural barriers not only reduces public health costs but improves the prospects and quality of life of older people, but also encourages their active participation in social life and helps us adapt the territory and our homes to demographic changes, in the interest of the entire population of all age groups.

Furthermore, with the new decree, in order to be granted the tax deduction, certification by qualified technicians of the compliance of the intervention with the technical standards indicated in Ministerial Decree 236/89 becomes mandatory.
For most taxpayers, certification risks becoming a complicated bureaucratic obstacle to overcome and an unnecessary additional cost.

The majority of interventions for the removal of architectural barriers take the form of the sale and installation of a good (stairlift, lifting platform, stair lift) which, due to the relative simplicity of the product itself and of its installation, does not require any enabling title.

In the case of installation of stairlifts, stair lifts and lifting platforms, which do not require a permit, we ask that the self-declaration of the supplier of the goods may continue to be considered sufficient to guarantee the appropriateness of the intervention to what is required by Ministerial Decree 236/89.