Denial of the right to a lump-sum indemnity for an Italian citizen who definitively leaves Switzerland or asserts their right from abroad

Facts

The dispute concerns the question of whether the Federal Appeal Commission for Old-Age and Survivors' Insurance (OASIA) for persons residing abroad correctly denied the appellant, an Italian citizen, the right to a lump-sum indemnity instead of the old-age pension granted to him by the Swiss compensation fund. The appellant was entitled to a monthly pension of 107 francs, which corresponds to 6.83% of the full ordinary pension.

Considerations

The Federal Tribunal has ruled that, with the entry into force of the Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons (AFMP) between Switzerland and the EU, the AVS pension of an Italian citizen who definitively leaves Switzerland or asserts their right from abroad can no longer be paid in the form of a lump-sum indemnity. This is due to the fact that the AFMP and Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71 govern the same scope of application as the 1962 Italian-Swiss Social Security Convention, and do not expressly provide for the maintenance of the possibility of liquidating the minimum pension by means of a lump-sum indemnity.

Furthermore, the Tribunal considered that the lump-sum indemnity does not in itself constitute a more…