The expected bonus that Italians will be able to spend at the psychologist to treat themselves from the effects of the pandemic is starting. Health Minister Roberto Speranza has just signed the decree establishing the procedures for obtaining it. The contributions will be assigned on the basis of three Isee income brackets which in any case must not exceed 50 thousand euros and must be spent within 180 days. The risk, however, is that there are many excluded and the resources – only 10 million – run out in a sort of click day: “INPS – explains the explanatory report to the decree – will accept applications up to the amount of resources available in the area and The benefit will be paid on the basis of the order of arrival of the application, primarily at
people with lower ISE “.
Who can claim the bonus
The benefit can be enjoyed by people in conditions of depression, anxiety, stress and psychological fragility, “due to the pandemic emergency and the consequent socio-economic crisis, who are in a position to benefit from a psychotherapeutic path”, warns the draft decree Article 1. “The benefit – adds article 2 – can be used to support the expenses related to psychotherapy sessions at private specialists regularly enrolled in the list of psychotherapists, in the register of psychologists, who have communicated the ‘adherence to the initiative to the professional order of belonging ». The list of professionals participating in the initiative will be published on the website of the National Council of the Order of Psychologists and on the websites of the regional and provincial orders.
How to submit the application
The benefit can be requested by accessing the Inps site for a period of not less than sixty days. On the INPS website and on the website of the Ministry of Health – explains the explanatory report to the decree – «the date from which it will be possible to submit the application, the time interval in which it can be forwarded, the modalities and the necessary requirements “. Once the period for the submission of requests has elapsed, INPS will draw up the rankings for the individual regions, divided according to the residence of the applicant, and “will accept applications up to the amount of resources available in the reference area”. As already pointed out, the resources, 10 million in all, may not be enough: the explanatory report to the decree underlines that a potential audience of 16 thousand beneficiaries is estimated. For this reason “the benefit will be paid on the basis of the order of arrival of the application, primarily to people with the lowest Isee”.
Beneficiaries assigned a code
The INPS will then communicate to the beneficiaries the acceptance of the request together with the unique code, in deduction, of the amount attributed. The unique code (associated with the benefit) will be usable, for a period of 180 days, for the use of psychotherapy sessions with private psychotherapists, registered with the association of psychologists, who have joined the initiative. At the end of the 180 days, the univocal unused code or the unused part of it will be canceled and the previously committed and unpaid economic resources will be reassigned on the basis of the current ranking.
There are three income brackets provided
To access the psychological bonus it will be necessary to have an Isee of less than 50 thousand euros as a requirement. The decree identifies three bands for access to the contribution: the bonus will be paid up to the maximum amount of 600 euros for people with Isee up to 15 thousand euros; 400 euros for people with Isee between 15 thousand and 30 thousand euros; Finally, 200 euros to people with Isee over 30 thousand euros and no more than 50 thousand. “A contribution of up to 50 euros per session has been foreseen – the report to the decree still reads -, leaving the possibility of reshaping the same on the basis of the actual expenditure incurred by the beneficiary”, given that the tariff of the Order of Psychologists identifies in the “Lower limit of the professional’s fee band amounts even lower than 50 euros and respecting the autonomy of the professional who could identify in couple, family or group psychotherapy, the most appropriate way for the service to be beneficial”.