Other important considerations

...within a month of the death:

Juge aux affaires familiales

Apply to the juge aux affaires familiales of the local tribunal judiciaire or tribunal de proximité if the deceased left minor children without another parent.

Caisse d’assurance maladie

Inform the deceased's caisse d’assurance maladie (state health insurance body).

If appropriate, ask for the payment of un capital décès – this is a sum available to family, for example to help cover funeral costs (fonctionnaires are also entitled to a special capital décès sum from their public sector employer).

Those with a 'priority' right to claim it within one month are the deceased’s dependants if the person was working or registered unemployed or in receipt of a French incapacity benefit.

If there are several dependants, the order is: spouse or civil partner, children, then ascendants (eg. parents).

If no priority claim is made then claims can be made by those with the same relationship to the deceased (but not necessarily financially dependent on them) within two years.

The sum is a set €3,977 and should be claimed within a month by priority claimants. You must provide payslips, proof of your relationship and identity and bank details. An application form can be downloaded here. 

Ask for any remaining health reimbursements that may have been due for the deceased.

Ask to be personally registered with the health caisse if previously your registration was via a spouse.

If household income has reduced the survivor may now also be eligible for help with healthcare costs such as the Complémentaire Santé Solidaire, a scheme which tops up the non-reimbursed part of healthcare costs for those on low incomes. 

This is either free of charge for those with income of less than €10,339/year for a single person (€15,508 for a couple) or at a modest monthly contribution for those with income between that level and €13,957 / €20,936.

If the deceased was a British or EU state pensioner who had health care in France funded via presentation of an S1 form and you benefited as their spouse, this will cease unless you are also now eligible for an S1.

You should contact the DWP's Overseas Healthcare Team to see if it is possible to have a temporary continuation (Tel: 0044 191 218 1999).

You should also let the DWP know if the deceased had been receiving an exportable disability benefit.

Otherwise, as a resident of France you should be able to remain affiliated to the French healthcare system in your own right.

If in doubt speak to your local caisse primaire d’assurance maladie or call the Cpam English-speaking helpline 09 76 77 36 46 (Monday to Friday, from 8:30 to 17:30).

Tax office

Inform the local tax office.

Mutuelle

Inform the deceased’s top-up medical insurer (mutuelle) if they had one.

Caisse d’allocations familiales

Inform the caisse d’allocations familiales (Caf) if you receive family social security benefits (allocations familiales, RSA, allocation logement...).

Look into benefits available to help a survivor. Notably, if the survivor will be a single parent, there is the allocation de soutien familial (ASF); if their income is low they may be eligible for income support such as RSA or Aspa (for old age pensioners on low incomes). Another possibility is housing benefit (aide au logement).

Aspa

If the family has been receiving Aspa via Saspa (applicable in the case of people who had not worked in France), let the body know of the change in circumstances (see also below about recuperation of benefits). 

Retirement caisse

Inform the deceased’s state retirement pension body or bodies and – if they had one – private pension firm/s.

A surviving spouse of a person who was retired or near to retiring may be eligible to receive part of their pension payments, called a pension de réversion.

This is possible for part of the basic state pension (retraite de base) on certain conditions: the survivor must be aged at least 55 and have means below a certain ceiling.

As for money from the 'complementary' part of the French pension (Agirc-Arrco), you also need to be aged 55+ but there are not any means ceilings.

The age threshold is waived for those looking after at least two children, or disabled people.

The surviving spouse of a working person or one who was registered unemployed or claiming disability benefits may be entitled to temporary French widow/er’s benefits (allocation de veuvage) however this does not apply to pacs or British civil partners.

Some caisses will give a specific payment to help with the funeral costs.

...in the six months following death

• Finalise inheritance issues with the notaire

• Deal with any outstanding payments of taxe foncière and, possibly, taxe d’habitation

• Income tax declarations must be made

If the deceased was single the heirs must make an income declaration for him or her, at the usual time of year (May/June), relating to income from January 1 until the date of death. This should now in most cases by undertaken online at impots.gouv.fr. 

If the deceased was married or in a pacs/civil partnership, two declarations must be made. One is for all members of the tax household from January until the date of the death.

The second is in the name of the survivor for his or her income (and that of dependants) from the death until the end of the year (under situation de famille write the date of death of your partner and tick veuve ou veuf – widow/er).

In the second declaration, the survivor continues to benefit from the same number of family quotient parts as when the deceased was alive for purposes of reducing his or her taxable income.

NOTE: If the deceased was self-employed then professional income needs to be declared within six months of the death.

• If the deceased was a property wealth tax payer and had already declared with regard to his or her wealth on January 1 of the year when he or she died, then there is nothing to do with regard to this tax. 

However if the declaration still has to be made then the heirs must make a wealth tax declaration in the name of the deceased (or the couple if the deceased was a member of a couple who declared together) based on wealth on January 1 of the year of the death. This should be done online along with the income declaration if appropriate, or otherwise on the

2042-IFI tax form if declaring on paper or not making an income declaration. 

In the latter case the relevant form is the 2042-IFI COV sans revenu.

• Check with the deceased’s employer if there is any remaining money entitlements that the person had built up.

• If the deceased was a jobseeker, the survivor may be able to get an allocation décès from France Travail – you can apply up to two years after the death.

• Arrange to change joint bank accounts to individual ones.

Recuperation of certain benefits

Some French welfare benefits, including the Aspa pension top-up, have to be paid back out of people’s estates after death if the total value of the claimant’s estate exceeds a set threshold. 

Other social aid from the departmental council – for example, towards home-help, meals-on-wheels or living in a retirement home – is also subject to repayment rules.

 In the case of Aspa, the ceiling for when this payback applies rose substantially in recent years from €39,000 in 2023 to €107,616 in 2025.

The ceiling relates to net assets in the estate after debts have been settled: potentially amounts of Aspa that the deceased received can be recuperated from the part of the estate that is above this level. 

However, Aspa reclaimed cannot add up to more than a certain amount per year of payment (in 2025 this is €8,388 for a single person, or €11,222 for a couple, in which case half is assumed to have been received by each). 

In the case of the deceased person leaving a spouse or partner, or dependants who lived with them, it is often possible to request to defer repayment from their inheritance until after their own death. 

People who live in France and are aged 65 or more can apply for the Aspa top-up benefit if their overall income is low. This holds whether or not they have worked in France. If you have French pension rights, then you apply via your French pension caisse, if not you can apply via your mairie.

Income ceilings to benefit in 2025 are €1,034/month for single people or €1,606/ month for couples, not including certain social benefits (eg. for housing or disability). The function of Aspa is to top up your income to this level.

Other matters to consider

• Sort and retain key papers – for example the person's avis d’imposition should be kept for three years while assurance-vie certificates should be retained for 10 years.
• Change the name on the deceased’s 'carte grise' (registration document) for their car. This is not necessary if the heirs sell the car within three months of the death.
• Tell the landlord if the person was renting (and the managing syndic of their building if they lived in flats) and, if they were a landlord, update the tenants on who they now need to pay their rent to.
• Tell insurance companies, relating to life insurance (check your entitlement from this), car and home insurance etc. Certain other insurance contracts may provide for payouts on death, including some for accidents de la vie and some for motoring.
• Inform utility companies and internet providers if the contracts are in the person's name so they can make necessary changes (EDF, Engie, France Télécom, internet and mobile telephone service providers etc).
• Arrange to end contracts of home service employees who carried out tasks for the deceased, whose work is no longer required.

Organ donation

In France it is assumed that you want to donate your organs after you die. This means there is no national register of would-be donors, for example.

When a person dies, the medical authorities can use their organs for transplants unless the deceased made his or her wish not to donate known, by registering on the Registre National des Refus or by telling their close family, who will be consulted by the medical team.

It is preferable to do this in a note in writing, dated, to a close family member, but it can be merely oral.

You can register your wish to have none of your organs or tissues used, or just certain ones if you prefer.

It is also possible for someone to give their body for scientific research.

This has to have been arranged in advance by them writing to one of 28 ‘centres de don’, who will provide a donor’s card.

The body will only be transferred to the relevant research centre on presentation of this card.