When it comes to travel outside France while on benefits, the rules are the same for foreigners as they are for French people.
But the situation is probably more likely to arise for people who have family members in another country - for example you might be thinking of paying an extended visit to grandparents after the arrival of a new baby, or you might need to take a trip to care for an older relative outside France.
However if you are entitled to certain French family and personal benefits, there are some deadlines you need to know.
Family benefits
In general terms, the payment of French family benefits, such as the allocations familiales, is conditional on the parents and children being resident in France.
But the powers that be in France aren’t so sunk in penny-pinching fundamentalism as to stop payments the second you step over the border.
You will still be eligible to receive these benefits if you take a short holiday, for example. But longer stays may cross a key date threshold that you need to know about. Key times are as follows:
- For family benefits: parents and/or their children can spend up to 92 days per calendar year outside France;
- For RSA, Prime d’Activité and Allocation aux Adultes Handicapés (AAH): up to 92 days per calendar year.
- For housing assistance: you can be absent from the property for up to 122 days per calendar year as long as it remains your primary residence.
Basically, if you’re planning to spend more than three months abroad, it’s best to contact CAF to find out about what happens to your benefits, and what you need to do.
Unemployment
French unemployment benefits (chômage) have been tightened up considerably in recent years, with jobseekers now required to take a much more active role with their local job centre.
Therefore the, possibly apocryphal, days of signing on for chômage and then spending a year travelling the world are now definitely over.
If you receive unemployment payments, you can spend up to 35 days per calendar year outside France without any interruption to your payments, provided you inform France Travail in advance of any absence that exceeds seven consecutive days.
Failing to do so may result in a change in your jobseeker status, including the suspension or termination of payments, if France Travail decides you are no longer immediately available to take up a position.
Parental leave
It’s important not to confuse parental leave with maternity and / or paternity leave, which are very particular, and come with a strict calendar of visits and care that make travel abroad rather less straightforward.
READ ALSO Family-centred society: What it’s really like being a parent in France
But, following the birth of a child and until the child turns three, parents can, under certain conditions, take parental leave to cut down or interrupt their professional activity to care for their new child.
Parental leave is not automatically granted. Either parent can request it before the child turns three. And they can take it simultaneously or independently of one another, even if they work for the same employer.
Nor is it paid.
Every salaried employee, civil servant, or self-employed person is entitled to apply for parental leave. However, to qualify, they must have held their post for one year before the child’s arrival.
Some parents may use this time to travel with their children – for a few days away, or maybe to accompany a working partner on business trips so the family stays together.
Other parents choose to simultaneously interrupt their professional activities in order to travel for a few months or longer with their children.
In this case, it is best to have other sources of income or to have saved enough. Indeed, parental leave results in a suspension of salary, unless the company's collective agreement provides for specific arrangements. Only in the case of part-time parental leave is the employer required to pay the employee based on the hours worked.
However, it is possible to compensate for the loss of earnings with several allowances from the Caisses d’Allocations Familiales (CAF).
Following a certain period, salary stops for parents on parental leave. But, as long as they are up to date with their social security contributions and the children are registered with CAF, they will receive certain benefits to offset the loss of salary.
That will continue to be paid, according to the standard timescales.
Comments