End of the road for family allowances

By Camille FratiMisch PautschLex Kleren Switch to French for original article

The Court of Cassation has rejected the appeal of a Belgian cross-border commuter who was denied family allowances for his stepchildren, even though his lawyers had hoped to refer the case to the Court of Justice of the European Union.

There will be no second ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on the Luxembourg family allowance reform of 2016. The Court of Cassation decided to do so even though it had the legal possibility to refer the matter to the CJEU to ask it to clarify its case law on the criteria to be used to assess whether or not a cross-border commuter provides for the care of his/her spouse's children. It did not do so and also considered that the High Council of Social Security (CSSS) had correctly examined the facts.

The case of this Belgian cross-border worker who has been living with his wife and her children since 2013 was the first to reach the Court of Cassation, while thousands of recomposed families are facing the refusal of the Caisse pour l'avenir des enfants (CAE) to grant them family allowances since the 2016 reform, as reported by the Lëtzebuerger Journal in a previous article.

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