Question 13508 — family benefits

Summary

Ms Hélène Laporte questions the Minister of Health, Families, Autonomy and People with Disabilities on the measurement of the impact of postponing the age of the child to 18 years giving entitlement to an increase in family allowances for the household. Article L. 521-3 of the Social Security Code provides that each dependent child, with the exception of the eldest, is entitled from a minimum age to an increase in family allowances. Since 2008, this age, set by decree, has been 14 years. Decree No. 2026-138 of February 27, 2026, which entered into force on March 1, 2026, postponed this minimum age by four years for all children born from March 1, 2012. The impact of this measure, which translates, at the levels currently in force, into an annual loss of 900 euros per year for each child affected by this increase, has been estimated at 210 million euros for 2026 and 1.2 billion from 2030. However, in the current situation of historic decline in the French birth rate, while the number of births fell by 192,000 between 2010 and 2025 and the natural balance, systematically positive between 1945 and 2023, is now negative, the appropriateness of this measure raises questions. The increase plays an important role in consolidating household income at a stage in the child's life where the cost of his education changes frequently. With the postponement of this increase until age 18, many households will have to face an increase in costs likely to reduce their standard of living and pose difficulties for the child's future access to higher education. As economic uncertainty constitutes one of the main factors in the fertility choices of the French, a negative impact of this reform is likely. Also, she wants to know about what studies the Government was able to rely on to assess the impact of the measure on the standard of living of households and the birth rate.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

Timeline

No timeline events have been ingested for this record yet.

Votes

No vote records are attached yet.

Versions

No version snapshots stored. Document URLs remain at the source.

Documents

No documents linked.

Sponsors

No sponsors or actors listed by the source.

Related records

No cross-record relationships stored yet.