What happened to the family
According to L'Unione Sarda and SardegnaTomorrow, both on 23 October:
2024: a couple whose child was born on 6 January 2023 move their residence to a village of about 2,000 people in Alta Gallura and start receiving the €600 monthly assegno di natalità. The Region's note quoted by L'Unione Sarda dates the move to 29 March 2024, less than three months after the child's first birthday; the paper's own text says the end of 2024. Neither outlet names the village.
2025: the regional offices say the bonus cannot be paid if the move did not happen in the child's birth year, and the benefit is revoked. The parents fear having to repay what they have received.
From July 2025: the village's comune and the Region exchange letters on how the rule should be applied.
24 June 2026: in a note on this case, the Region says the condition is met if the move happens within the child's first year of life, even across two calendar years. The family's move came after the first birthday, so the Region still finds the payment not due.
The family appeals to the TAR, the regional administrative court, through the lawyer Alberto Piccinnu.
On 26 October SardegnaTomorrow reported that the Directorate-General for Social Policies had reversed its interpretation before the court ruled, removing the exclusion tied to the child's first year, and that the family's bonus had been reinstated. L'Unione Sarda, three days earlier, wrote only that the Region was said to be preparing a new provision. «Il requisito della coincidenza con l'anno di nascita del minore non è presente nella legge né nel modulo di domanda» (the requirement that the move coincide with the child's birth year is in neither the law nor the application form), Piccinnu told SardegnaTomorrow on 23 October.
What the rules actually say
The bonus comes from article 13 of regional law no. 3 of 9 March 2022. It started in municipalities of up to 3,000 people and was extended from 2024 to those of up to 5,000, using ISTAT population figures for the end of 2022. It pays €600 a month for the first child born, adopted or placed for pre-adoption, and €400 for each further child, until the child turns five. Families must keep their residence in the comune for at least five years.
The timing condition changed between two sets of guidelines from the regional government:
Guidelines of 1 June 2023 (Delib.G.R. 19/80): families had to live in, or move to, a comune of under 3,000 people and keep their residence for five years, with payment running from the date of the move. There is no deadline linked to the child's birth.
Guidelines of 5 June 2025 (Delib.G.R. 30/52): families must «abbiano trasferito la residenza da un Comune con popolazione maggiore a uno con popolazione inferiore ai limiti indicati nell'anno della nascita del figlio», that is, moved from a larger to a qualifying comune in the child's birth year.
The 2025 guidelines are titled for children born from 2025, but their requirements also cover children born since 2022, and earlier beneficiaries have to reapply each year so that comuni can check they still qualify. The birth-year condition does not appear in the 2023 guidelines or in the 2024 municipal notices we checked; it does appear in the June 2025 guidelines. Whether it can be applied to a move made in March 2024 is what Piccinnu disputes. L'Unione Sarda reports that he cites the 2022 law, its 2024 amendment and the 2024 application form.
Comuni do not all describe the rule the same way. Domus de Maria's February 2026 notice, for example, asks only that families have moved to a comune of under 5,000 and stay five years, with no deadline tied to the birth.
What has not been confirmed
We could not find the regional document that reverses the interpretation, nor a TAR ruling. The reversal is reported by one outlet, SardegnaTomorrow, which also says it does not automatically mean recognition for every application previously excluded, because the other requirements still have to be checked. Piccinnu is still asking the TAR to rule, so that the legality of the old exclusion is settled. No source gives the number of families who were refused, revoked or asked to repay.
The money involved
The regional page lists commitments of €51,400,000 for 2026, €51,400,000 for 2027 and €50,000,000 for 2028, all signed on 24 December 2025. Comuni run the applications and checks; the Region transfers the money in two tranches a year.
The scheme sits alongside a new incentive reported on 23 October: up to €20,000 for under-40s who move their residence to Sardinia, rising to €30,000 in municipalities of under 5,000 people, La Nuova Sardegna reported. Its call has not been published yet.
What families can do
Applications go to the comune of residence or new residence, which checks the requirements. Families refused or revoked because their move did not fall in the child's birth year or first year can ask the social services office of their comune whether the file will be reviewed under the new interpretation, and ask for the decision in writing. Anyone facing a repayment demand may want legal advice before paying.
A note on the numbers
The two SardegnaTomorrow articles describe the village differently: about 2,000 people on 23 October, about 2,500 on 26 October; L'Unione Sarda also gives about 2,000. The guidelines are inconsistent on the threshold, saying "under 5,000" in the title and "5,000 or fewer" in the text. Amounts and conditions above are from the 2023 and 2025 guidelines; the June 2026 note and the October reversal are known only through press reports. We have not seen the original 2022 guidelines, which the 2023 ones replaced.
Photo: a lane in Mamoiada, one of the Sardinian villages under 5,000 people where the scheme applies. Photo: Sardinia Blog.
Sources: SardegnaTomorrow, 26 October 2026 · SardegnaTomorrow, 23 October 2026 · L'Unione Sarda, 23 October 2026 · Regione Sardegna, bonus bebè · Guidelines, Delib.G.R. 30/52 of 5 June 2025 · Guidelines, Delib.G.R. 19/80 of 1 June 2023 · Comune di Domus de Maria, 19 February 2026 · La Nuova Sardegna, 23 October 2026
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Sardinia Blog is published within the Rental12 ecosystem, an owner-operator letting homes it owns in Olbia and Golfo Aranci. Its own article on vacant homes and holiday lets in Olbia and its press archive are company statements, not independent evidence.