Fat Italians entitled to pensions – court

The Independent reports the court described obesity as an illness and rejected a 1992 decree that obese people are entitled to an invalidity payout if the degree of invalidity caused by obesity reaches 74%. The Bench ruled that the entitlement of very fat people to help should be calculated case by case, depending on the individual degree of incapacity. The case was brought by a woman who though only 1.5m tall weighs 130kg. She took her case to the court after a tribunal twice rejected her plea. Ruling in her favour, the Bench declared that ‘a situation like that … requires a direct inquiry to ascertain the degree of invalidity, without referring to the limits specified (in the minister\'s decree)’. Full report in The Independent