CAF is asking you for allowances paid wrongly?

We guide you to assert your rights.

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IStock / City Presse

Anyone who has already applied for assistance from the Family Allowance Fund (CAF) knows how complex the calculation of rights is.

Age, marital status, children, work, household resources ... The eligibility form for social benefits involves a myriad of elements encompassing your personal and professional life.

However, once registered as a beneficiary, the slightest change can impact the amount of your allowances, at the risk of causing some hiccups in the calculation.

RSA and activity bonus in the sights

"Our services are determined from the information declared by the beneficiaries," recalls Jérémie Audoin, deputy director of the Network of the National Family Allowances Fund (Cnaf).

As the payment is monthly, it is enough that the households forget to notify us of a change or that they do it too late for it to cause an overpayment, if they have received more than they should have, or a reminder of benefits when they should have received more.

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If the family allowances pose few problems, errors are legion for the active solidarity income (RSA) and the activity premium, which are recalculated every three months, while the recipient's situation may have changed at all. at all during this time.

In total, the Cnaf must recover 2.5 billion euros overdue per year, or about 3% of the approximately 94.6 billion euros in benefits that were paid in 2019, according to the latest available balance sheet.

Don't make things worse

But if any money wrongly paid must be returned, this is not to put families in more difficulty.

Rather than forcing beneficiaries to dip into their meager savings to reimburse the overpayment, CAF deducts the necessary amount from the following services.

In the same vein, a legal collection scale has also been put in place, as detailed by Jean-Baptiste Hy, accounting and financial director of the National Fund: “The phasing can be extremely long since it adapts to the level. resources of the beneficiary.

It can extend over several months or even years.

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And the expert to take the example of a couple with two children, whose annual income is 12,000 euros and who receives 300 euros in monthly family benefits.

Whatever the amount of the overdue payment, the deduction from allowances cannot exceed 61.50 euros per month.

The remedies

However, when it is already difficult to make ends meet, it can be a blow to have a few tens of euros less on your helpers.

Before going to court, you have several options for asserting your rights.

If you feel there are additional things to consider, start by making a complaint to your manager.

If no arrangement is made, you can appeal to the mediator of your fund.

Once informed of the overpayment, you also have two months to seize the amicable recourse commission of CAF, in order to contest the amounts claimed or to obtain a debt remission.

As long as the case is not decided, the reimbursement is suspended.

And this independent body is often favorable to beneficiaries.

Note: the letter informing you of the overpayment specifies the steps to be taken to exercise these remedies.

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Take matters into your own hands

To avoid any error in the amount of your allowances, it is imperative to update your file at the slightest change of situation.

You can do this online, by accessing your personal space on your CAF's website, by contacting it by phone or by sending an e-mail to your manager.

In any case, the family allowance funds take exceptional circumstances into account and have in particular shown a great deal of flexibility during the period of medical confinement.

So don't hesitate to explain your situation to your manager to find a solution.

Finally, note that an ordinance of July 24, 2019 provides for strengthening the rights of beneficiaries by establishing a "right of rectification", which would allow a legal deadline to be imposed before the implementation of the recovery.

While the necessary implementing decree was to be published before July 1, 2020, it has not yet appeared.

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  • Allowances