Personalized housing assistance (APL) is a social subsidy that enables partial financing of rent costs. It benefits tenants as well as owners who have taken out a property loan to finance the purchase of their main residence. Since it is not subject to age conditions, APL also benefits pensioners, provided they meet various eligibility criteria.
The first condition for using APL is to stay in France for at least 6 months a year. The applicant must be a French citizen or have a valid residence permit. He must also have a rental agreement in his name.
It is also necessary for the rented accommodation to be approved by APL as it must meet safety and health standards.
Regarding the income criteria, the maximum threshold that must not be crossed to qualify for this housing benefit is 5,186 euros for a single person. For the couple, the upper limit of funds is set at 7,430 euros.
The applicant must also respect rent thresholds that vary depending on the composition of the household and the location of the accommodation.
For example, in Zone 1, the upper limit is 319.30 euros for a single person. In Zone 2 and Zone 3, the upper limits are EUR 278.28 and EUR 260.82, respectively.
It is important to emphasize that these conditions apply to employees as well as to pensioners and students.
Other housing benefits available to pensioners
If he is not entitled to APL, the pensioner can claim other housing assistance. Among them is Family Housing Allowance (ALF) which allows, in the same way as APL, to cover part of the rent or mortgage costs.
The advantage of this assistance is that it can be used to finance the accommodation of pensioners in a Retirement Home or EHPAD.
As for the criteria for obtaining ALF, some are related to the pensioner’s situation.
The criteria for obtaining ALF are related to the specific situation of the pensioner, in particular if he uses family allowances or AEEH, if he has a dependent child under the age of 21 in good health, if he takes care of a parent who is more than 80% disabled, or if he is older than 65 years.
On the other hand, the pensioner must have an income higher than the upper limit of eligibility for ALF. It is fixed, as for APL, according to the R0 package currently 5186 euros for a single person and 7430 euros for a couple.
The income that is taken into account is that of the last 12 months.
It is possible to conduct an online simulation on the Croatian Armed Forces website to find outassistance in housing on which its amount can be claimed or assessed.
