11. French Social Security

1. 11.1. Structure
2. 11.2. Contribution Levels
3. 11.3. Relief from Contributions
4. 11.4. Social Security Benefits

11.1. Structure

A self-employed person pays social security contributions for health care, family allowances, invalidity, pension and death.

They do not pay contributions for unemployment insurance, so are not able to receive state benefits under the system of unemployment cover.

When you register your business the Centre de Formalities will notify the various social security agencies who will, in turn, communicate with you about your entitlements and the contributions you will need to make. Most of all they will communicate with you about your contributions!

Hitherto, there have been a multitude of bodies responsible for the administration of social security contributions and services to the self employed.

The picture is still a complex one, but the Government has recently taken steps to rationalise the institutional framework for all non-agricultural professions.

The Régime Sociale des Travailleurs Indépendants (RSI) is a newly formed government agency, which brings together three insurance funds previously responsible for the providing insurance cover for health, invalidity, maternity and pensions to the self employed.

You will pay most of your social security insurance premiums to this fund, who will also be responsible for making your health, invalidity, maternity and pension payments.

The previous insurance funds had the acronyms CANAM, CANAVA and ORGANIC and, until the merger is fully established, you will continue to hear and read of them.

If you are one of the professions libérales then you will obtain health cover from the RSI, but you will continue to pay into a separate pension fund administered through an umbrella body called the Caisse Nationale d'Assurance Vieillesse des Professions Libérales (CIPAV) . The name of the actual fund will depend on your professional activity.

The other agency you will come into contact with will be a body Union de Recouvrement des Cotisations de Sécurité Sociale et d’Allocations Familiales (URSAFF) . URSSAF is the main social security collections agency, who remain responsible for the calculation and recovery of certain social security contributions. The contributions are for family benefits, a training levy and a general social welfare levy called CSG/CRDS.

In practice, URSSAF will still be around, but in a supporting capacity to the RSI, who will be the sole agency with whom you will be expected to deal.

It seems that, for the time being at least, this change will not apply to those in one of the professions libérales.