Family allowances: their amount should not depend on the country where the child lives

Brief

The idea of indexing family allowances paid by each Dtate to European workers established on their territory at the standard of living of the country where their children reside has resurfaced in the European debate as part of the revision of the regulation on the coordination of social security systems.

| 19/04/2018

| Sofia Fernandes | Justine Daniel |

| Labour and social affairs

This idea has its origin in the agreement between the United Kingdom and the EU signed in 2016 before the referendum on the membership of this country in the Union. This agreement, which was abolished by Brexit, included a provision providing for the indexation of family allowances paid to EU citizens and transferred to the country of residence of their children. Although the Commission rejected the idea of changing European rules to provide for such indexation, some EU countries have come out in favor of this measure. In the European Parliament, this issue is also a source of debate and divides parliamentarians.

In this Policy Brief, Sofia Fernandes, senior Research Fellow at the Jacques Delors Institute, and Justine Daniel, research assistant at the Jacques Delors Institute, recall the terms of the debate and the positions of the different Member States, before explaining how the indexation of family allowances is unjustified and ineffective.

Policy Brief only available in French