France’s Christmas ‘bonus’ paid to two million households from today

The payment of Christmas ‘bonuses’ will begin today in France, helping some 2.3 million lower income households to manage the cost of the end of year festivities.

This annual bonus has been paid since 1998 to people who receive the following benefits:

• The revenu de solidarité active (RSA)
• The allocation de solidarité spécifique (ASS)
• The allocation équivalent retraite (AER)

Read more: France’s Christmas ‘bonus’ state aid: who is eligible?

Payments are made automatically by bank transfer and eligible people do not need to do anything in order to benefit from it, other than make sure that their details are up to date in the caisse d’allocations familiales (CAF) portal.

For people who receive the RSA the bonus sum will depend on their family situation and the number of children they have.

A single person will, for example, receive €152.45, two people living together – maybe a couple or a parent and child – will get €228.67.

If you are a recipient of ASS or AER, your bonus will be fixed at €152.45 regardless of the number of people in your household.

If you are entitled to a prime de Noël and do not receive it before December 21, you should contact your CAF, on whose national website you can also find further information about the sums paid.

If you only become eligible for the bonus this month, you will get it in January.

This week has also seen the first of France’s exceptional ‘inflation bonus’ payments made to people whose income is less than €2,000 per month.

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