Family allowance in Switzerland when your children live in France: who pays first and how much

When one parent works in Switzerland and the children live in France, work decides: the country where a parent is employed pays before the country where the family merely lives. EU Regulation 883/2004, which applies between Switzerland and France through the Swiss-EU agreement on the free movement of persons, ranks claims in this order: employment or self-employment, then a pension, then residence (article 68). Each country owes benefits for children living in the other as if they lived on its own territory (article 67).

In practice the family allowance fund of the Ain (Caf de l’Ain) sets out three cases. Both parents are employed in Switzerland: Switzerland pays first. The other parent has work or income in France (wages, unemployment benefit, invalidity pension): France pays first. The other parent has neither work nor income: Switzerland pays first. The second country pays the difference if its own amounts are higher.

The French differential allowance (allocation différentielle) is the gap between the total French child benefits the family would receive and the total Swiss benefits paid for the same period. The French Social Security Code bars drawing both in full and, where foreign benefits are lower, allows only a differential allowance (article L512-5).

The comparison covers every child-related benefit, not just family allowances. The Caf de l’Ain counts, among others:

• family allowances (allocations familiales) and the basic PAJE allowance for young children
• the shared child-rearing benefit (PreParE) and the childcare supplement (complément de libre choix du mode de garde)
• the family supplement (complément familial) and the back-to-school allowance (allocation de rentrée scolaire)
• the family support allowance (ASF) and the disabled child’s education allowance (AEEH)

After a separation the priority order stays the same: each parent’s work counts whether or not the parents live together. In France the allowance goes to the parent who has actual and permanent care of the child; with alternating residence the parents name the claimant or split the entitlement in half (Social Security Code, article L521-2).

On the Swiss side, if the parent receiving the benefits does not spend them on the children, the institution may pay them directly to the person who actually maintains the children, at that person’s request, through the institution of their country of residence (article 68a of the regulation). For separated parents the Caf de l’Ain asks for both parents’ details and sends the certificate to the Swiss fund itself.