ABSTRACT
The guidelines for the disability protection system currently in force in Italy were established in the 1960s and, with a few important modifications, have survived to this date. The system is rather complex for two main reasons: first, because in each case several variables interplay simultaneously, such as cause and degree of invalidity or contributory and in some cases general economic status of the injured person; second, because the current situation derives from successive adjustments of existing laws with the further complication that in most cases new laws were applicable only to new cases but previously conceded benefits were not repealed and will therefore last as long as any of the original beneficiaries are still alive.
