The saga of benefits for blended cross-border families comes to an end

The docket, i.e. the agenda for the Court of Justice hearing, was full this Thursday morning: no fewer than 30 rulings were due to be delivered by the Court – a last hurrah before the end-of-year holidays. However, it was the most local of the judgments that was the most eagerly awaited, the one that could well put a definitive end to the tug-of-war that has been going on for almost ten years between the Caisse pour l'avenir des enfants (CAE) and frontier workers in the Grand Duchy.

The Court of Cassation had referred a question to the CJEU for a preliminary ruling on a matter that has been clogging up and poisoning the Luxembourg courts since 2016: the exclusion of the stepchildren of frontier workers from family allowances. At issue is a new definition of the concept of "family member", which is strictly limited to the biological and adopted children of the frontier worker. As a result, several thousand cross-border commuters have seen the family allowances they previously received for their spouse's or partner's children withdrawn overnight.