Should family benefits be repaid if they are wrongly paid?

Verified 01 January 2026 - Public Service / Directorate of Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)

Yes, you must reimburse the benefits wrongly paid by the Family Allowance Fund (Caf) or the Agricultural Social Mutuality (MSA). The Caf or the MSA may ask you to reimburse benefits paid incorrectly during a period of Two years. This period is 5 years if the award of these benefits results from fraud or misrepresentation on your part. After these deadlines, the Caf or the MSA can no longer ask you to repay. We explain the rules to know.

The clawback of wrongly paid family benefits is done in one of the following ways:

  • In one installment
  • In several installments (an amount is then regularly deducted from the benefits paid subsequently).

In the case of fraud (e.g. acts to obtain or attempt to obtain the undue payment of benefits), the amount of the penalty is determined according to the seriousness of the facts.

For example, the intentional or repeated nature of the acts complained of, the amount of the damage and its duration, the means and methods used.

This amount can go up to €16,020.

Warning  

Penalties are increased when the intention to defraud is established.

If a change occurs in your household, you must declare it without delay to the Caf or the MSA, even if you have already declared it to another organization (Impôts, France Travail, CPAM: titleContent ...).

This will help you avoid having to pay back to the Caf any money that was wrongly collected.

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