I’ve just been browsing the AGIRC-ARRCO site to do a simulation of my anticipated French pension. I found in amongst all the info that if you have three or more children then your pension may increase by 10%. However there is mention of a Carte de Famille, which I don’t have. Has anyone claimed an increase in their French pension by virtue of having 3+ children and what proof was necessary in the absence of a Carte de Famille? Many thanks.
Your livret de famille or failing that the CAF might do as proof.
My kids are all now in their forties and have never lived with me in France. The way I understand it, perhaps totally wrongly, is just the fact you’ve had 3+ children may entitle you to a 10% increase in the French pension. I’ll have to have another look at the AGRIC/ARRCO website. Kind regards.
No idea then I’m afraid, I have a livret de famille which works as proof of how many children I have and probably will still even in another 20+ years or more.
If you tell them you have x amount of children, then they will ask for proof and tell you what is what, I’d say that as everyone’s situation is subtly different it is better to get the information from the horse’s mouth.
Having at least 3 children gives you all sorts of weird privileges in France.
Lower train fares for example. The mysteries of the famille nombreuse. We never got past number one.
Exemptions on taxe de sejour in gîtes…
The idea is not to penalise people for having future taxpayers and cannon-fodder, so in addition to the perks above, having 3 children also means you can also enter the civil service exams etc without having to have the same qualifications (although everyone is marked the same and anonymously). You get a reduction on the canteen at school etc. All this applies when they are under 18 or still students though, not for life! I think it is a good thing.
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There is a 10% uprating for having had 3 children : https://www.service-public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F19643. I don’t know however if there any conditions to fulfill, or if it only applies to certain pensions. You need to check it out with AGIRC-ARRCO. This link may help : https://www.info-retraite.fr/portail-info/sites/PortailInformationnel/home/mes-droits-a-la-retraite/ma-vie-personnelle-1/famille/droits-lies-aux-enfants.html.
Thank you Fleur. This is some of the information that made me ask my original question of “Has anyone claimed an increase in their French pension by virtue of having 3+ children and what proof was necessary in the absence of a Carte de Famille?”
This is what I was thinking about when I referred to the livret de famille etc. I don’t know how UK people prove things like how many children they have. Birth certificates?
I suspect the carte de famille is a carte famille nombreuse, I can’t think what else it would be. It wouldn’t apply to you now anyway seeing your children are so old.
I got the most almighty shock when my eldest left home earlier this year, I was honest and told them straight away 
!CAF payments have dropped over €500 / month to barely nothing. It was devestating as that is what we had been living on since I lost my job. I think this is pretty unfair as it doesn’t now cost me 20% of what it cost going from 3 to 2 kids! I cried when I saw it, in Oz you get CAF allowance calculated per child (and on your earnings of course) and you don’t have almost everything taken away for only having 2!
Sorry I know this is an old thread but had to comment as the 3 kid thing is just everywhere!
Totally agree. If you have older children in higher education it is v expensive and since no 2 was 20, we got nothing for the third who was still at home. He’s now a student too and yes, we get bourses etc but having just done the ‘going back to uni’ food shop, driven a 75 km round trip today to the orthodontist and looking forward to taking him back to Bordeaux on Sunday (nearly 300k), I can sympathise. They cost more as they get older, not less!
I think I’m correct in saying that children count for trimestres for the mother. I seem to recall each child was ‘worth’ four trimestres.
Yes but jam tomorrow, eh 
@Peter_Bird - So my three kids would give me an extra 12 trimesters? Wonderful but what proof will be required?
Proof that they were born and maybe raised in France I suppose.
I’m pretty sure my wife has been given nine years worth of trimestres for bringing up our four kids from when we arrived in 2005 till the youngest was 18 in 2014.
Interesting, did she work as well or was at home with the kids (which is obviously far, far harder ‘work’ than going out so no offence intended in my question!)?
I wouldn’t say that - I think both are hard and rewarding in different ways. It is a lot easier to work if you have small children in France, though, and it is considered slightly weird not to work at least part-time, which isn’t something I saw in the UK where being a stay at home mother is socially more acceptable.
In Germany if you work and have small children you are a ‘Rabenmutter’ and Very Bad 
.
I always find it highly amusing when people just assume I don’t work on account of having hordes of children.
Although our business is in joint names we only pay pension contributions for me due to the extra cost involved, for the first few years I worked on my own whilst she ran the home and looked after the children.
Our plan is to close the existing business when I hit 62 and technically retire and then start a new one solely in her name and run that for a few years so she has accumulated enough trimestres to receive her own pension.