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Students: how to get CAF aid?
The CAF, a family allowance fund, allows students to obtain housing assistance. We encourage you to take the online process to make your student life easier.
Among the social assistance to which a student is eligible, CAF offers student housing assistance which allows you to reduce housing costs as part of your studies. Student life is not always easy and it is good to know your rights well in order to optimize your chances of success.
What is CAF? Definition
The CAF, a family allowance fund, often nicknamed "Les allocs", is a public body intended to distribute state aid to the most disadvantaged people through social benefits. CAF operates in three areas: housing, integration and childhood.
- Childhood: CAF pays benefits to families who have just had a child, to help them with the costs associated with the arrival of the baby. Families can then receive allowances for the education and recreation of the children.
- Integration: CAF helps people in precarious, disabled or isolated situations by paying benefits such as RSA, active solidarity income, and AAH, allowance for disabled adults.
- Housing: CAF provides housing assistance benefits for people whose resources may be insufficient to support the amount of rent or repay a mortgage.
What assistance does CAF provide for students?
The Family Allowance Fund helps students with housing in order to reduce the cost of rent through the regular payment of a sum of money.
The assistance to which the student can claim are:
- the APL, personalized housing assistance, which covers part of the rent when the student occupies, as a tenant or co-tenant, an approved accommodation (see the APL on the Public Service website)
- the ALF, the family housing allowance, which is paid according to your family situation, especially if you have dependents (see ALF on the Public Service website)
- the ALS, the social housing allowance, which is paid to people who cannot claim either the APL or the ALF, i.e. living in non-contracted accommodation and having no dependents (see the ALS on the Public Service website)
CAF aid for students is subject to several social award criteria. In particular, we take into account his income. In addition, the accommodation must be decent, be on French territory and not belong to a member of the occupant's family.
If the student has a job at the same time as his studies, or if he receives university scholarships, he can also apply for CAF aid.
How to obtain CAF aid as a student?
To be entitled to CAF aid, you must complete an online procedure on the site www.caf.fr. The site is very clear. You will find the different sections in the left menu. You can also use the search field to enter “student aid” or “student accommodation” or simply “student”.
The CAF offers to help you financially if you need to rent accommodation to continue your studies. Depending on your income, depending on the type of apartment or house you rent, you can benefit from personalized housing assistance paid by CAF.
How to apply for housing assistance from the CAF?
Applying for housing assistance should be made very soon after you have settled into your room, apartment or house. The first monthly payments are paid two months after the request, which can be very long, especially in these periods of installation and moving which place a lot of strain on the wallet.
Go to the CAF website. You must have by your side:
- your income tax return,
- the lease agreement for your accommodation
- your RIB (bank identity statement).
If you are not of French nationality, you must bring your identity card or passport, a copy of your birth certificate (with a French version), and proof of education. If you are from a country in the European Union, you will also be asked for a European health insurance card. For any coming from outside the EU, it will be necessary to add your residence permits.
If you are already a CAF beneficiary, you must go to your personal space by clicking on “My account” at the top right. Your identification will be based on your postal code, your beneficiary number, your birthday and finally your password, an eight-digit code.
- Once identified, you will click on “Simulate or request a service”
- Then click “Housing”> “Housing assistance”> “Apply”
You will be asked to validate your profile (family situation, professional situation, children, address, contact details) following which you will be guided and answer the questions accurately, in particular the address of the accommodation, the contact details of the landlord or owner, type of rental (single or shared), number of people in the accommodation, etc.
If you are not yet a CAF beneficiary, no worries, registration will be done at the same time as the request.
- On the home page of the CAF website, click "My online services" then "Request a service"
- Then click “Housing”> “Housing assistance”> “Apply”
And you will continue the same path as requested above. But you can also choose to do a simulation.
How to estimate the amount of housing assistance to which one can claim?
The CAF site allows you to simulate a request. This is intended to give you an estimate of the amount of help you might receive. This will be an indicative amount, very close to what you will receive, but probably not to the nearest penny.
To carry out this simulation on the CAF website, after having identified yourself, you will have to click on “Simulate or request a service”, then “Housing”> “Housing assistance”> “Make a simulation”. Similar to a request, you will be asked to fill in your situation (alone or in a couple, with or without children, waiting for a child, etc.), your income, information on accommodation (type, postal code, furnished or no, contracted or not), if you rent alone or in a shared apartment, etc.
We recommend that you perform this simulation on the CAF site rather than on another site that offers this same service. The other sites may not be up to date in the calculation method and above all, to proceed with this calculation, must ask you for a good amount of personal data.
Unless you have a great deal of confidence in the site you are using, it is recommended that you use the CAF site instead, as this is where you will come back to make the actual request. There is also a simulator on the site www.mesdroitssociaux.gouv.fr which should in theory be well informed and rather secure in terms of data processing, since it is a government site.
Do not hesitate to go to the site www.caf.fr to request your student accommodation assistance. CAF is also an organization that will be useful to you throughout your life, especially during difficult times.