€100 French inflation bonus: Foreign pension income not applicable

UPDATE January 28, 2022: The government has decided the bonus will be payable to those with French-taxable foreign pensions

The €100 inflation bonus being paid out to those with main incomes of less than €2,000 net a month will not apply to people who live solely off foreign pensions or rents or investments.

The Prime Minister’s office has confirmed the point to The Connexion.

It is because the recipients must have a significant income source from a French employer or official French pension or other body – and it is these bodies or the employer which will be charged with making the payment. A foreign pension body could not be charged with making the payment.

As a result, those with foreign pensions, rental incomes etc will only qualify if they also, for example, receive Aspa French pension top-up money, or certain other French benefits, a spokesman for the prime minister’s office said.

“A person who simply receives a pension from a foreign pension body, a UK state pensioner for example, will not be eligible to receive the bonus,” he said.

“But if for whatever reason you also benefit from a French social benefit, then you may fall into the cases that we have provided for.”

Employers will be reimbursed by a scheme to help with payment of social charges that will be due after paying the bonus, the government says in a statement of the rules. It adds that the other bodies concerned will also be entirely compensated by the state.

For example:

• If you receive Aspa but do not have a French state pension, the body concerned with paying you should be the MSA agricultural pensions caisse, which was recently charged with responsibility also for Aspa payments for those without French pensions
• For those with RSA income support it would be Caf or MSA (the latter for those who have worked in an agricultural sector)
• The same applies to those with AAH benefit for disabled people; the revenue de solidarité Outre-mer (RSO: An RSA supplement for over-50s in the overseas territories); or prestation partagée d’éducation de l’enfant (PreParE: For those who have cut back on work after having a child)
• For those with a French invalidity pension, or with the Asi disability benefit it will be Cpam or MSA

Official statements on the rules do not mention any benefits paid by departmental councils or other local authorities as being relevant.

Most other situations other than those living off foreign pensions or rents/investments, are provided for.

Here are some other examples of how different niche groups can benefit:

• Students with means-tested grants: The payment will come from the Crous
• Jobseekers and those with the allocation de solidarité spécifique (a benefit for those who have exhausted their normal unemployment benefit rights): Pôle Emploi
• Independent workers and people employed at home by members of the public: Urssaf
• Those on short contracts with an interim agency will be paid by the agency. Those on other short contracts, such as successive CDDs of less than a month each, should speak to one of their recent employers, usually the one they currently have a link to, or the one with which they did the most work in the month of October.
• Cross-border workers living in France will receive money via the tax office

Previous articles

Foreign pensions and France’s €100 inflation bonus

Will I get inflation bonus twice if I have two jobs?

€100 For people in France with less than €2,000 a month