The food card is not something you apply for: the municipality puts you on the list, if you have an ISEE

«Dedicata a te» is a payment card the State loads once a year, to buy food. In 2025 it was worth € 500 per family. The measure has been refinanced for 2026 and 2027.

The first thing to know: you do not apply. No form, no counter, no app. INPS builds the lists from data it already holds, and municipalities check them.

Who ends up on the list

All three of these are needed:

• being registered with the municipality where you live (ANPR, the national registry);
• holding a valid ordinary ISEE up to € 15,000;
• being a family of at least three people.

When the money is not enough for everyone — and it never is — priority applies: larger families first, and among equals the lower ISEE.

It is not for those already receiving other anti-poverty support: this card is for people left outside those.

What you have to do, and it is little

1. Be registered with the municipality, you and your family. If you live in one town but are registered in another, or not registered at all, for these lists you do not exist.
2. Have your ISEE done. No ISEE, no list: ISEE step by step: how to do it yourself, from your phone.

How you find out you have it

Your municipality tells you: it sends a letter with the card code. No text message from the government, no email: if you receive a message asking for your details to «unlock the food card», it is a scam — you can spot them with SMS and WhatsApp scams.

The card is collected at a post office, bringing the municipality's letter and an ID. Anyone who already had it the year before collects nothing: the money is loaded onto the same card.

⚠️ The thing that loses it all: the first purchase

Remember this part, because it has happened to many people.

You must make at least one purchase by a set date, or you forfeit the benefit and the money goes back. In 2025 the date was 16 December. And the sums must be used up within the deadline.

So: when the card arrives, spend something straight away, however small. Do not wait for the right moment.

What you can buy

• Basic food — bread, pasta, rice, milk, meat, fish, vegetables, oil;
• fuel;
• local public transport passes.

No alcohol. The card works in food shops and supermarkets; some give an extra discount to those paying with it.

What this card cannot do

These are the things people find out at the till, when it is too late. With «Dedicata a te» you cannot:

• withdraw cash — it is a card for paying, not for taking money out;
• buy online;
• use it abroad, not even on holiday;
• top it up with your own money.

At a Poste cash machine (the Postamat) there is one thing you can do, and it is worth knowing: check how much is left and the list of purchases made.

Two practical points. The PIN arrives in a separate envelope from the card: they are two pieces and should be kept in two different places. And below € 25 you pay by tapping the card, without typing the PIN — convenient, and also the reason a lost card must be blocked at once.

The extra discount in participating shops is real, but it varies from chain to chain: the list of participating shops is on the Ministry of Agriculture's website, among the sources at the end of this page.

If you lose it or it is stolen

Three steps, in this order:

1. Phone immediately the free number 800 210 170 (from abroad +39 06 4526 3322, where the call is charged) and ask for your block number: write it down.
2. Report it to the carabinieri or the police. Without the report you will not get a new card.
3. Go to a post office with the report and an ID document: you fill in a form and they give you a new card, with the money that was left on it.

If the card is only damaged or demagnetised, just take it to a post office and they replace it, again with the balance that was on it.

If you think you qualify and nothing arrives

1. was the ISEE issued? Starting the procedure is not enough: you need the certificate;
2. are you all registered at the same address?
3. is the address the municipality holds the one where you live now? The letter goes there.

Then ask the municipality's social services office: they keep the list, not INPS and not the post office.

For 2026

The measure exists, but amount and dates change every year with the decree that refinances it. What does not change is the mechanism: registry, ISEE below the threshold, municipal list, collection at the post office, first purchase by the deadline.

So the useful thing to do now is one: have your ISEE. When the lists come out, there is no time to do it.