Help for people caring for relatives

Someone who cares for an elderly, ill or disabled family member on a daily basis is called un aidant familial and there are several ways in which the state can help them.

Firstly, people who have been employed for at least a year have the right to stop work to look after someone – called congé de proche aidant – for up to three months.

This is renewable for a maximum of one year over their whole working life (permitted lengths can vary according to work sector). The person’s employer must keep their job open for them.

The worker has to ask to do this by letter or email to their employer and will need to provide evidence of the relative’s serious disability or loss of autonomy.

A congé de proche aidant may also, with the employer’s agreement, take the form of moving to part-time work.

A compensation payment called allocation journalière du proche aidant is available for up to 66 days at a rate of €65.80 per day.

There is also congé de solidarité familiale, for which the standard maximum length is three months, renewable once, for people stopping work to look after a relative at home who is thought to be near the end of their life.

A doctor’s certificate is required and usually 15 days’ notice should be given, although it can start immediately if the situation is urgent.

For this kind of leave it is possible to benefit from allocation journalière d’accompagnement d’une personne en fin de vie – a payment of €64.41/day (€32.21/ day for someone who moved to part-time working).

Family carers benefit from a ‘right to respite’ if they look after someone who receives allocation personnalisée d'autonomie (APA) and there is no one else who can take over to give them a break.

In addition to its usual funding, APA may fund up to €573.77/year of day or night care in homes (accueil de jour/de nuit), or temporary accommodation for longer periods, a stay with a host family (accueil familial) or visits from professional carers to the person in their own home.

This may be factored in as an increase to the APA or, if certain ceilings have been reached, it is additional and known as aide au répit.

A further one-off sum may be allocated for temporary care for the APA recipient if their family carer is hospitalised (up to €1,139.94 per hospitalisation).

It is also possible to ask for the amount of the APA benefit to be reevaluated in the case of a change in situation (personal or financial) of the recipient or that of their family carer. This can be requested by either the APA recipient or their carer.

Note that a family carer for an elderly person can also become their salaried employee, in which case a 50% tax credit applies within a limit of €12,000 + €1,500 per member of the household over 65 (within a maximum of €15,000 in total) or €20,000 if a person is registered disabled holding a carte d'invalidité or a 'category three' invalidity pension. The limit of €12,000 is also increased to €15,000 for the first year of a similar claim.

Exemptions from the employer’s social charges may also apply under certain conditions.

Intensive aid to enable people to stay at home

An Ehpad is the term for a nursing home. A new term being used in some areas is 'Ehpad hors les murs' (Ehpad 'outside the walls'), which refers to providing particularly intensive help to stay in one's own home in connection with an Ehpad. 

The aim is to help people stay at home as long as possible, putting off the need to move into the actual home – but with the possibility of doing so should the person's condition require it.

This is the kind of innovation the government is looking to make more use of. Such services can provide a range of help such as portage de repas (meals on wheels), nurse visits and a designated doctor, téléassistance services (ranging from an emergency button on a pendant to more sophisticated systems with motion detectors in the home or tablet computers to speak to a nurse).

They can also put in place systems to coordinate between various services and close family to ensure that the person is well, that they got up, they had a good night's sleep etc. Local information points should be able to tell you if any Ehpads in your area offer such a coordinated system of help at home.

Apart from such schemes, there are many options for téléassistance personal alert systems (often eligible for money off via a tax credit) which, if activated, connect to a call centre, where staff will make contact through the device – or a speaker and microphone system installed in the room – to check if help is needed. Staff will, if necessary, call for help from a list of friends and family or the emergency services.

These are generally run by private firms and associations but some mairies and departments also offer them. Check the annuaire (directory) for points locaux d'information. This will give you a bodies which should be able to recommend services in your area.

Another service to consider is paying to have the postman/woman make regular calls to check on someone's wellbeing.