Observation (CEACR) - adopted 1998, published 87th ILC session (1999)

Equality of Treatment (Social Security) Convention, 1962 (No. 118) - France (Ratification: 1974)

Article 3, paragraph 1, of the Convention (branch (d)) (Invalidity benefit). With reference to its previous comments, the Committee notes with interest that section 42 of Act No. 98-349 of 11 May 1998 on the entry and residence of foreigners in France and on the right to asylum has inserted into the Social Security Code sections L.816-1 and L.821-9, according to which Titles I and II of Book Eight of the Social Security Code, providing respectively the supplementary allowance of the National Solidarity Fund (FNS) and the allowance for disabled adults, have been made applicable to foreign nationals possessing residence permits or other documents regularizing their stay in France, notwithstanding any provision to the contrary. The Committee understands therefore, from the Government's report, that the provisions of sections L.815-5 and L.821-1 of the Social Security Code, which subject the entitlement of foreign citizens to these allowances to the existence of a reciprocity agreement with the country concerned, have been repealed. It would ask the Government to confirm in its next report the implicit abolition of these provisions if this is the case or, in the negative, to indicate the manner in which they continue to be applied. Please supply also the list of residence permits and documents referred to in sections L.816-1 and L.821-9 of the Social Security Code.

Article 4, paragraph 1 (branch (d)) (Invalidity benefit) and branch (f) (Survivors' benefit). In its previous comments, the Committee had noted that the legislation imposed the condition of residence in France for the provision of social security benefits (in this case invalidity and survivors' benefits) to foreigners insured under the general scheme (section L.311-7 of the Social Security Code), the agricultural scheme (section 1027 of the Rural Code) and the mines scheme (section 184 of Decree No. 46-2769 of 27 November 1946). In its report for the period 1 July 1991 to 30 June 1992, the Government had indicated that concerning invalidity pensions, and invalid widowers' or widows' pensions, the condition of residence shall be fulfilled at the time of making a claim in the case of nationals of a country with which France does not have an agreement. It added that, with regard to survivors' pensions, the benefit of a reversionary pension may, in the case where the deceased insured was not a national of a country with which France has entered into an agreement, be obtained in the following situations: the deceased insured person has already obtained validation of the right to an old-age pension; the insured person who had not exercised the right to the pension had resided in France at the moment of death. The Committee had noted that a condition of residence always exists for non-national beneficiaries, but only at the moment of exercising the right to benefit, that is to say, at the time when presenting the request to receive the invalidity or survivors' pension.

In these conditions, the Committee hopes that, in all cases where the insured or the deceased was subject to the social security system in France at the moment of the contingency, appropriate measures will be taken, concerning branches (d) and (f), to ensure the application of this provision of the Convention for payment of benefits, both in law and practice, without condition of residence for nationals of all States bound by the Convention.