Italian parents do not have to financially support an adult child
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The Italian Supreme Court has ruled that parents should not financially support their adult child if the child is of working age and has no physical or mental disability. A decision that will serve as case law.
In a landmark ruling that will serve as a precedent for similar trials in the future, the Italian Supreme Court ruled against the appeal of a 35-year-old man who was still awaiting financial assistance from his parents. This landmark conviction marked the end of a five-year case in which a part-time adult music teacher who earned an annual income of 20,000 euros (about $ 24,000) demanded financial aid from his parents.
In a first judgment, a Tuscan judge effectively awarded him a monthly allowance of 300 euros ($ 360) from his parents, a decision which was later overturned by an appeals court and last week by the Italian Supreme Court. The judges ruled that the financial aid for the parents of the 35-year-old could not last indefinitely.
“Reducing his adolescent ambitions,” the adult child “is called upon to find a way to support himself,” wrote Judge Maria Cristina Giancola, who presided over the jury. “The (adult) child should in all cases actively seek job for an independent livelihood.”
Giancola stressed that difficulties in finding a job that meets professional expectations cannot be used as an excuse to act as a financial burden on parents, adding that unless there is a physical or mental disability, parents are not obliged to financially help adult children.
The decision is expected to significantly affect a significant part of the Italian population, as the phenomenon described above is so prevalent in the country of pizza that there is even a term to describe the so-called adult child who live with their parents for a long time in their thirties, they are called “bamboccioni”.
“Italy is not the only country to know about these requests from adult children, but it is definitely the worst,” Gian Ettore Gassani, head of the Italian Association of Matrimonials Lawyers, told CNN. “Young Italians have to be more courageous, have to find the willingness to take risks, but it’s hard if your mother keeps bringing you a cup of coffee in bed every morning.”
The judgment should force young adults to finally “walk on their own feet”. Gassani says currently, one of three divorce cases in Italy is linked to the financial support of the couple’s adult children. However, this phenomenon, which is global, hides another reality. That Italy was Europe’s big loser. And people in their thirties are called the lost generation. Born in the 80s, 2001 stole their freedom and 2008 stole their future. These people are not lazy people who refuse to leave the family nest, but they live in a bankrupt world.
