Who is entitled to the allowance?
Who is entitled to the allowance?
"I'm divorced and my ex-husband receives 200 francs a month in child benefit for my son, who lives with me. This would be a great help to me, as I am currently unemployed, but my ex-husband refuses to pay it to me.
Is it possible for child benefit to be paid directly to me?
Marion, Geneva
There are several types of family allowance: some are paid as a single benefit, such as birth and adoption allowance. Others are paid monthly, such as vocational training allowance, child allowance and household allowance.
In principle, they are paid directly to the beneficiary, who is entitled to them for children with whom he or she has a legal parent-child relationship, stepchildren, foster children, brothers, sisters and grandchildren if he or she is predominantly responsible for them.
Where more than one person is entitled to family allowances for the same child, priority is given to: the person who is gainfully employed; the person who has parental authority or had parental authority until the child came of age; the parent with whom the child lives most of the time or lived until the child came of age; the parent to whom the family allowance scheme of the child's canton of residence applies; and the person with the highest income subject to AHV contributions. If the parents are divorced and the mother is not employed, the father may receive the subsidies, but must then pay them to the mother, in addition to any maintenance contribution. If the father does not comply with this obligation and the subsidies are not used for the benefit of the child, the mother may ask the family allowance fund to pay them directly to her.
It should be noted that the person receiving the subsidies must spontaneously and without delay report any change in their personal, financial or professional situation that may have an impact on the entitlement and the amount of the said subsidies.
Any useful forms or additional information can be found on the website of the Caisse cantonale genevoise de compensation, at the following address: www.caisseavsge.ch.
