New French legislation removes age limits on disability benefit

A new legislation adopted on 26 February 2020 in France will from now on enable disabled people to benefit from the disability compensation allowance regardless of their age. This is an important victory for the mobilised civil society and older persons in France!

Since 2005 this allowance has been granted to disabled persons who were under 60 years of age when the disability occurred, and the persons aged over 75 years could not apply for it. They have had so far to rely on another allowance (the so-called ‘Personalized Autonomy Allowance’) to finance their various needs (human, technical, housing, transport,…) for assistance. Yet, this allowance is much less advantageous than the disability compensation allowance for an equal loss of autonomy. While the autonomy allowance can reach a maximum of 1,742 euros, the disability allowance is in theory uncapped: a person in need of help 24 hours a day can therefore receive up to 13,000 euros a month.

This obvious case of age discrimination has now been addressed, echoing the call of many national associations. Some of AGE members in France (Confédération Française des Retraités – CFR, Générations Mouvement, Fédération nationale des associations de retraités – FNAR) were part of the long-running campaign that led to this successful adaptation of the French legislation.

Read more in this article in French