The principle is simple: in terms of social assistance, family solidarity takes priority over national solidarity. Thus, when an elderly person enters a retirement home or with a family caregiver, social assistance for accommodation (ASH) is only granted by the department if the family, held to a maintenance obligation by law, cannot cover accommodation costs.
The aid is equal to the difference between the amount of the invoice and the contribution of the person accommodated and that of their food obliged. A third of ASH beneficiaries who are not married have maintenance obligations. The amount of the maintenance obligation amounts on average to 270 euros per month.
From now on, grandchildren are no longer required to contribute financially to these costs: the law of April 8, 2024 laying down measures to build a society of healthy aging and autonomy exempts them from this.
Before determining the extent of social assistance for accommodation, relatives are therefore contacted. The request for ASH triggers the maintenance obligation. According to article 205 of the civil code, “children owe support to their father and mother or other ascendants who are in need”.
Sons-in-law and daughters-in-law are also affected by this obligation, but it ceases upon the death of their spouse and in the absence of children or when the children of this union have died. Consequently, if the parent’s resources are insufficient to cover the accommodation bill, the family must come to their aid.
A departmental competence
The financing and management of the ASH is a departmental responsibility. Also, each departmental council defines its own rules. Some had chosen not to ask for grandchildren, others, for budgetary reasons, did not hesitate to do so, thus creating inequalities depending on the territory.
According to the figures, all departments have recourse to children, sons-in-law and daughters-in-law within the framework of the maintenance obligation, but it is different regarding grandchildren: 27% of departmental councils systematically resort to grandchildren, 20% sometimes and 53% never. THE Libault report of March 2019, from which these figures came, proposed to harmonize practices across the country, by removing the maintenance obligation in terms of ASH for grandchildren. This is now done (article L. 132-6 of the social action and families code).
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