ISEE parificato · how the numbers work
How your family's income and assets abroad become ISEE and ISPE
If your family lives abroad, DiSCo Lazio cannot read its income from an Italian tax record. Instead, a turns your family's papers from home into two numbers: the and the ISPE. Both must stay under DiSCo's caps. This page shows the arithmetic and the source of every rule, so you can see where you stand before you pay for translations.
Next: Sign it in person at a DiSCo-affiliated CAF once you are in Italy. Its deadline comes after the application.
ISEE cap 2026/2027
€28,339.88
Income plus 20% of assets, divided by the family-size scale.
ISPE cap 2026/2027
€61,608.48
All of the assets, divided by the same scale.
Go over either cap and you are excluded, even if the other number is low. Bando 2026/2027, art. 12
The ISEE also sets the size of the grant. At or below €14,169.94, a student gets €7,556.78 a year instead of €6,571.11. From €18,893.25, the grant gets smaller in proportion, down to half. Bando 2026/2027, art. 8
The two formulas
ISEE = (income + 20% of assets) ÷ scale
ISPE = assets ÷ scale
For a family abroad the bando calls them ISEEUP and ISPEUP. The arithmetic is the same.
- Income is what each family member earned in 2024, before tax. The family's total income cannot be zero. Bando 2026/2027, art. 12.2
- Assets are the buildings and the savings that each member owned on 31 December 2024. Buildings are valued by their size, as explained below. Bando 2026/2027, art. 12.2
- Rent: if the family rents its home, the bando asks for the yearly rent too. Bando 2026/2027, art. 12.2 In the ordinary ISEE, rent is taken off income, up to €7,000.00 a year (a little more from the third child). Ask the CAF how it counts yours. DPCM 159/2013, art. 4
- Currency: amounts in your home currency are changed into euro at the Bank of Italy rate. Bando 2026/2027, art. 12.2
The ISEE formula is written in the bando Bando 2026/2027, art. 12, and in Italian law for students whose family lives abroad DPCM 159/2013, art. 8. The ISPE uses the same scale but counts every euro of the assets, not only 20%. DiSCo ISEE guide That is why buildings and savings can push a family with a low income over the ISPE cap.
You do not have to do this maths yourself. A DiSCo-affiliated CAF does it for free from your documents, and DiSCo uses the CAF's figure. Bando 2026/2027, art. 12.2 The CAF works from official documents from your home country, translated into Italian. It does not accept self-declarations, affidavits or sworn statements. Bando 2026/2027, art. 12.2 The documents, country by country: Kazakhstan, Iran, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh.
You sign the ISEEUP at the CAF by 10 December 2026 ( ). Miss it and you are excluded. Bando 2026/2027, art. 12.2
One exception: particularly poor countries
If you come from a country on Italy's list of particularly poor countries (Allegato E on the bando page), DiSCo judges the income requirement from a certificate by the Italian embassy or consulate in your country. It must state that your family is not known to be rich and of high social standing. You still sign the ISEEUP at a CAF. Bando 2026/2027, art. 12.2
The family-size scale
A family of four needs more money than one person. So the ISEE and the ISPE divide by a number that grows with the size of the family. DPCM 159/2013, Annex 1
| Family members | Scale |
|---|---|
| 1 | 1.00 |
| 2 | 1.57 |
| 3 | 2.04 |
| 4 the example below | 2.46 |
| 5 | 2.85 |
| 6 | 3.20 |
From the sixth member on, add 0.35 for each extra person. The decree also adds a little in some cases, for example 0.20 for a family with three children. DPCM 159/2013, Annex 1
The family is the one on your family certificate. The bando asks for each member's name and date of birth, so that the CAF can pick the right value. Bando 2026/2027, art. 12.2
Property abroad: €500.00 per m², buildings only
For a family abroad, the bando asks for every building each member owned on 31 December 2024, with its floor area. Bando 2026/2027, art. 12.2
“gli eventuali fabbricati posseduti da ciascuno di essi […] con l’indicazione della relativa superficie”The bando does not say how those buildings are valued. Italian law does: the 2001 decree on university aid, which is still in force, values property abroad only if it is a building. A building counts at a fixed €500.00 per m², whatever it would sell for. DPCM 9 April 2001, art. 5(8)(a)
“i patrimoni immobiliari localizzati all'estero […] sono valutati solo nel caso di fabbricati, considerati sulla base del valore convenzionale di 500 euro al metro quadrato”So an 85 m² flat counts as €42,500.00 in any country. The CAF guides that Italian universities publish use the same value. CAF guides
And land?
The decree values property abroad “solo nel caso di fabbricati”: only if it is a building. So an empty plot should not count at all. DPCM 9 April 2001, art. 5(8)(a) The bando does not say how land is treated. Bando 2026/2027, art. 12.2 But the CAF decides, not you and not us. Ask a DiSCo-affiliated CAF how it treats your family's land before you pay for translations.
The answer matters. Valued like a building, a 500 m² plot would count as €250,000.00. That alone is more than the €151,556.86 of assets a family of four can have under the ISPE cap. If it does not count, it adds nothing.
Never leave property out
Declare every building and every plot, and let the CAF decide what counts. If DiSCo proves that you or your family made a false declaration, you lose the scholarship, pay a fine of three times what you received, pay back the cost of the services you used, and get no more aid for the rest of your studies. Italian criminal law can apply as well. DiSCo checks with the Guardia di Finanza, the tax office, embassies and consulates, among others. Bando 2026/2027, art. 47.1
You are ranked on the figures in your application. If the ISEEUP the CAF sends is higher, DiSCo ranks you again and changes your result and your grant. Bando 2026/2027, art. 12.2
Worked example: a family of four
An invented family, to show the steps. Two parents, the student and a younger brother: four people. They own the flat they live in, 85 m². In 2024 the parents earned €9,000.00 together, before tax and changed into euro. On 31 December 2024 they had €6,000.00 in the bank. They own nothing else.
- 1The scale. Four people: 2.46.
- 2The assets. The flat: 85 m² × €500.00 = €42,500.00. Add the savings: €42,500.00 + €6,000.00 = €48,500.00.
- 3The ISEE. (€9,000.00 + 20% of €48,500.00) ÷ 2.46 = (€9,000.00 + €9,700.00) ÷ 2.46 = €7,601.63.
- 4The ISPE. €48,500.00 ÷ 2.46 = €19,715.45.
ISEE €7,601.63: under the €28,339.88 cap. It is also at or below €14,169.94, so a fuori sede student from this family would get the higher grant.
ISPE €19,715.45: under the €61,608.48 cap.
Look at step 3: the flat and the savings add €9,700.00 before the division. That is more than the family earned in the whole year.
This family stays under the ISPE cap while its assets are at most €151,556.86 (€61,608.48 × 2.46): that is 303 m² of buildings with no savings. It stays under the ISEE cap while its income plus 20% of its assets is at most €69,716.10.
This is an estimate. The CAF's figure can differ, for example if it takes rent off income or adds one of the decree's extras to the scale. The CAF's figure is the one that counts.
Where each rule comes from
Rules from the bando, rules from Italian law, and CAF practice are kept apart on purpose. The tags above link here.
From the bando 2026/2027
The caps (art. 12) and the grant sizes (art. 8). The ISEE formula, the income year and the asset date (art. 12). What a family abroad brings to the CAF, the CAF deadline and the exception for particularly poor countries (art. 12.2). The penalties for a false declaration (art. 47.1).
Bando 2026/2027 (PDF, Italian) ↗General ISEE rules: DPCM 159/2013
Italy's ISEE regulation. The family-size scale and its extras (Annex 1). The 20% share of assets for students whose family lives abroad (art. 8). The rent rule of the ordinary ISEE (art. 4). Not part of the bando.
DPCM 5 December 2013, n. 159, Gazzetta Ufficiale text on inps.it (PDF, Italian) ↗University aid rules: DPCM 9 April 2001
Italy's decree on university aid. It values property abroad only if it is a building, at €500.00 per m² (art. 5(8)(a)). It is still in force: Legislative Decree 68/2012 keeps its rules on economic condition until a new decree replaces them (art. 8(5)), and decree 1320/2021 of the university ministry (MUR) says it applies until then (art. 6(2)). Not part of the bando, though the bando cites the same decree for other rules.
General ISEE rules: DiSCo's ISEE guide
DiSCo's own ISEE guide gives the ISPE as assets divided by the scale, and says the CAF or INPS does the calculation, not you. Not part of the bando.
DiSCo, ISEE guide (PDF, Italian) ↗CAF practice: university CAF guides
These guides give the same €500.00 per m² value for buildings abroad, “only in the case of buildings”. They show how CAFs apply the decree; the rule itself comes from the decree above.
Sources read on 16 October 2026. This is our reading of them, not tax advice: the CAF calculates your ISEEUP, and DiSCo uses its figure.
Questions students ask
- How is the ISEE parificato (ISEEUP) calculated for the DiSCo Lazio scholarship?
- Add the family's gross income for 2024 to 20% of the assets it owned on 31 December 2024, then divide by the family-size scale (2.46 for four people). A DiSCo-affiliated CAF does this from your documents, and DiSCo uses the CAF's figure.
- How is property abroad valued in the ISEE parificato?
- Italy's decree on university aid (DPCM 9 April 2001, art. 5(8)(a)), which is still in force, values property abroad only if it is a building, at €500.00 per m², whatever it would sell for. The DiSCo bando asks for every building the family owns, with its floor area.
- Does land abroad count toward the ISEE parificato?
- It should not: Italy's decree on university aid (DPCM 9 April 2001, art. 5(8)(a)) values property abroad only if it is a building. But the CAF decides, so ask a DiSCo-affiliated CAF before you pay for documents. Never leave property out: a false declaration costs you the scholarship and a fine of three times what you received.
- What is the ISPE, and what are the 2026/2027 caps?
- The ISPE is the family's assets divided by the same family-size scale, with every euro counted. For 2026/2027 the ISPE must be at or below €61,608.48 and the ISEE at or below €28,339.88. Going over either one excludes you.
Get reminded before the ISEEUP deadline.
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