Benefits do not add up

I was interested to read Gillian Harvey’s article (April) on benefits of having children in France.

My daughter, who has lived in France for 15 years, has two children and is an active member of the community serving on various committees relating to children, says the amount of child benefit stated is wrong.

I have looked on the internet myself and it clearly states that for one child the benefit is €184.62 up to the age of three years and it is means tested.
The French system is good for low earners but there is not such a great divide between the UK and France as suggested.

J STANLEY, by email

Gillian Harvey replies:“The close-to €200 stated is based on the €167 given per month per additional child (over 3) which is non-means tested. The PAJE at €184 is now means-tested (since 2015). Non-means-tested benefits improve for larger families, as does the earnings threshold for calculating means-tested benefits. As this was a short comment piece, the figure stated was generalised. Apologies if this wasn’t clear.”