The disability compensation benefit (PCH), when it is paid to a family carer, belongs to this carer whom it compensates or remunerates and must therefore be taken into account in the household’s income.
The disability compensation benefit (PCH), when it is paid to a family carer, belongs to this carer whom it compensates or remunerates and must therefore be taken into account in the household’s income. It follows, according to the Court of Cassation, that in the event of the death of the disabled person, the carer may be entitled, by way of pecuniary damage, compensation promised by life accident insurance.
An insurer refused to compensate for the loss of PCH suffered by a mother after the death of her disabled child. The family had taken out an insurance contract against life accidents which provided, in particular, for compensation in the event of death. But the PCH, argued the insurer, is intended to compensate for the costs caused by the disability, such as the financing of a third party. The disappearance of the disabled child, even if it eliminates the income of his mother, is not a family prejudice since this benefit was not intended to maintain the family, concluded the insurer.
But this PCH both intended for the helper and calculated on the basis of a percentage of Smic, observed the judges, it belongs to the helper and it is indeed an income from his household. Its disappearance linked to the death is therefore indeed an economic loss which can be compensated by the insurer for the entire family, the indirect victim.
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(Cass. Civ 2, 16.6.2022, W 20-20.270).
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