Financial Intermediation of Maintenance (IFPA)

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

You are separated and maintenance is fixed for the maintenance and upbringing of your child? Financial intermediation of maintenance payments (IFPA) helps to secure the payment of this pension and prevents conflicts by promoting regular and timely payments. We present you the information to know.

The IFPA consists in putting an intermediary between the parent who must pay the pension (called the debtor) and the one who is to receive it (called the creditor).

The role of intermediary is entrusted to the Agency for the Recovery and Intermediation of Maintenance Payments (Aripa). This service is managed by the Caf: titleContent (or the MSA: titleContent for the agricultural scheme).

Specifically, Aripa collects or collects the amount of child support from the debtor parent each month and remits it to the creditor parent.

In the event of late payment or unpaid, Aripa will be responsible for the amicable or forced recovery of the arrears of maintenance.

The IFPA is set up only between parents for the payment of a child support obligation.

Aripa does not act as an intermediary for child support paid directly to the child or for child support owed to the child's own parents, grandparents or in-laws.

Nor does Aripa intervene in respect of pensions payable between spouses or former spouses in respect of the duty to provide assistance, the contribution to the costs of marriage or a compensatory benefit.

Maintenance shall be fixed in one enforceable title. It may be a judicial act (judgment, or agreement approved by the judge) or extrajudicial act, i.e. established without legal proceedings.

Maintenance shall be fixed by a judicial act :

  • Judgment pronounced (or agreed) approved) by a Jaf: titleContent (divorce, legal separation, maintenance for children born out of wedlock or after divorce, protection order)
  • Judgment of the court (e.g. recognition of paternity).

The pension may also be fixed by extrajudicial act noting the agreement of the parents:

  • Divorce agreement or body separation by mutual consent established by lawyers and deposited with a notary
  • Authentic Act drawn up by a notary
  • Transaction or agreement of mediation, conciliation or participatory procedure countersigned by lawyer and wearing enforceable formula by the graft
  • Enforceable title issued by the Caf or the MSA. If you agree on the amount of child support, your parental agreement may be enforceable by the organization that pays the family benefits. You must not be married and be separated (Civil partnerships or cohabitationlack of common life).

Where an enforceable instrument fixes maintenance, the establishment of the IFPA is systematic.

The IFPA is discarded by the judge if the two parents refuse its implementation. Parents must express this refusal during the legal proceedings. They may do so by any means: orally at the hearing or in writing, personally or through a lawyer, together or separately.

Warning  

In case of domestic violence, the IFPA is imposed to parents who cannot dismiss it even by mutual agreement.

In any case, the judge may decide to dismiss the IFPA if the implementing rules or the situation of one of the parties are incompatible with its establishment. He must motivate his decision.

If your enforceable title provides for the IFPA, you do not have to take any action. Otherwise, you can request its implementation.

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The enforceable instrument provides for the IFPA

Reminder

Where an enforceable instrument fixes maintenance, it shall provide for systematic the establishment of the IFPA.

The establishment of the IFPA begins with the transmission of the enforceable title to Aripa.

Parents do not have to take steps, because the transmission is done by the Registry when the enforceable title is a court decision (or by the creditor's lawyer or notary in other cases).

If the maintenance is fixed or approved by a court decision, the graft notify the IFPA to the parties by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt. The Registry then forwards the enforceable title to Aripa with all the information necessary for the establishment of financial intermediation.

If the maintenance is fixed in a divorce agreement by mutual consent filed with the notary, the lawyer of the creditor must transmit all these elements to Aripa.

If the maintenance is fixed by notarial deed, the notary must make this transmission.

The creditor's lawyer or notary shall inform the parties by any means of such transmission.

The enforceable instrument does not provide for the IFPA

Some enforceable titles fixing maintenance do not provide for the IFPA either because of their seniority or because the judge has ruled it out.

In this case, you can request financial intermediation from Caf or MSA.

The request for intermediation is made on the Internet:

Application for financial intermediation

The approach is possible even without the consent of the other parent.

You have no no need to be a Caf or MSA beneficiary.

Please note

If the IFPA is dismissed by reasoned decision of the court due to incompatibility, the matter must be referred to the Family Court Judge (Jaf) to ask for his recovery.

Before being able to withdraw or collect and repay payments, Aripa must examine your file: the service will ask you to provide additional information and documents.

Warning  

During the examination of the file, child support must be paid directly between you in accordance with enforceable title.

Aripa informs you by post of the end of the investigation of the file and the date from which payments must be made to Aripa.

Payment of the pension to Aripa by the debtor

If the maintenance is fixed or approved by the judge, the amount shall be taken from the debtor's account or paid by him to Aripa on the date specified in the enforceable instrument.

In other cases, maintenance is paid from the debtor's parent's account, or by the debtor to Aripal 1st, on Tenth or the 15th day of the month at the debtor's choice.

Payment of the pension by Aripa to the creditor

Aripa pays the pension to the creditor the day after receipt of payment from the debtor.

Whether it's a holiday or not workmanlike, payment shall be made on the first following working day.

FYI  

The first payment of the Aripa to the creditor parent must take place at the latest 60 days after receipt of the information and additional documents requested for the examination of the file.

The methods of revaluation depend on the enforceable instrument which fixes the maintenance:

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Enforceable title drawn up with legal proceedings

The upgrading takes place every year, on the date and by index Insee: titleContent mentioned in the court decision or the approved agreement.

If the enforceable instrument does not specify the methods of revaluation, Aripa automatically revalues the pension each year, on the anniversary date of the enforceable instrument in according to the consumer price index of all households.

Enforceable title established without legal proceedings

Aripa automatically revalues the pension every year, on the anniversary date the enforceable title and according to the consumer price index of all households.

There are 2 types of incidents: the unpaid by the debtor and overpayment by the creditor.

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Settlement of unpaid child support

In the event of a delay or absence of payment or incomplete payment of the pension by the debtor, Aripa shall take action to recover the arrears.

The intervention of Aripa goes as far as recovery arrears of 5 years which precede the establishment of intermediation.

First, Aripa hires a amicable procedure with the debtor parent.

Then, if the debtor does not comply, Aripa proceeds to forced recovery, by any of the following means:

  • Direct payment with the employer, the bank, the social security fund or retirement, France Travail (formerly Pôle emploi)...
  • Collections public by the Directorate-General for Public Finance, in particular for self-employed maintenance debtors (self-employed, craftsman).

Aripa may collect debts abroad.

It can also recover in France maintenance payments ordered abroad.

Recovery proceedings may be challenged by the debtor before the enforcement judge.

Please note

If you are a single parent with a child under the age of 20, Aripa will pay you, at your request if you meet the conditions, Family Support Allowance (FSA). This payment is made from the 1ster months of unpaid child support pending recovery.

Settlement of Overpayment of Maintenance

If you have received more than the amount of the pension due to you, Aripa informs you that you must refund the surplus to the other parent. In case of refusal, Aripa can adjust the upcoming deadlines.

If Aripa repaid the overpayment to the debtor but was unable to recover the amount from the creditor, it may refer the matter to the judicial court a request for reimbursement.

If the debtor is not reimbursed for the overpayment, he may also initiate proceedings against the creditor parent.

The IFPA ends in the following cases:

  • In case of death of either parent or the child
  • To the expected date in the enforceable title
  • If a new enforceable title abolishes maintenance or terminates intermediation
  • On request of a parent with the consent the other parent (except in cases of domestic violence).

FYI  

If the maintenance debtor is insolvent or incarcerated, intermediation is suspended. In this case, the Caf or the MSA may pay Family Support Allowance (FSA).

The service is free for the 2 parents (debtor and creditor). No fees are charged for its implementation.

In case of unpaid, the debtor must pay management fees at the height of 7.5% the amount due for amicable recovery and 10% backlog for forced recovery.

Who can help me?

Find who can answer your questions in your region

  • To find out

    Agency for the Recovery and Intermediation of Maintenance (Aripa)

  • If you depend on the general plan

    Family Allowance Fund (Caf)

  • If you depend on the farm system

    Agricultural Social Mutuality (MSA)

  • To find out

    • accès

      For more information on this subject, you can contact Allô Service Public.

      Attention: the service does not have access to users' personal files and therefore cannot provide information on their progress.

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