Prove you’re alive, pensioners told in drive to beat fraudsters

Italian pensioners living abroad must prove they are still alive to keep receiving payments.

The Colosseum in Rome.

Italian pensioners living abroad must prove they are still alive to keep receiving payments.

INPS, the national pensions institute, faces a constant battle against the ingenuity of fraudsters, with foreigners getting accomplices to collect welfare payments for them after leaving Italy and thousands claiming universal basic income without being entitled to it.

An initial group in the Americas, Scandinavia, eastern Europe, Asia and the Middle East will be contacted in February by Citibank, which handles Italy’s pension payments abroad, and given four months to provide proof of life. They can confirm their identity via video calls as well as through physical meetings with consular staff and authorised local officials.

If the pensioners have failed to produce adequate proof of their existence by June, INPS will make a final payment in July via a local branch of Western Union. The necessity of withdrawing the money in person will provide a final check the individual claiming it is really the one entitled to it.

Magistrates are winding up an investigation into 60 medical staff in Turin who are accused of approving false or exaggerated disability claims. Among the cases is that of a woman who collected €84,000 in allegedly unjustified disability payments for bunions and a curved spine.

The Times