Conseil d'État orders CNAF to allow AEEH top-up alongside leave pay

On 9 November 2026 the Conseil d’ÉtatLegifrance, 1ère et 4ème chambres réunies (no. 504535), ruling on a claim by the association Tous pour l’inclusion (TouPI)Legifrance, partly annulled the Caisse nationale des allocations familiales (CNAF) decision of 26 March 2025 refusing to abrogate passagesLegifrance of its 5 December 2024 instruction on controlling the complémentLegifrance of the allocation d’éducation de l’enfant handicapé (AEEH) where a parent reduces or stops workLegifrance. The court ordered the CNAF to abrogate the unlawful passages within two months of notificationLegifrance and to pay TouPI 3,000 euros in costs.

The ruling restates the regime for documents of general scope. Circulaires, instructions, recommandations, notes and interpretations of positive law may be referred to the excès de pouvoir judge where they are liable to have notable effects on the rights or situation of persons other than implementing officers — in particular imperative documents or those amounting to lignes directrices.Legifrance Any interested person may demand abrogation from the issuing authority where the document is unlawful, whether from its adoption or through later legal or factual change, unless the unlawfulness has ceased, and the authority must comply.Legifrance The CNAF, which did not dispute that the instruction fell in this class, could not invoke the second paragraph of article L. 243-2 of the code des relations entre le public et l’administration to refuse on the ground that the alleged unlawfulness dated from the outsetLegifrance. The court assesses legality as of the date of its own decision, and may prescribe abrogation of its own motion under article L. 911-1 of the code de justice administrative.

On the substance, the complément compensates the income loss from a parent’s reduction, cessation or renunciation of work to help a disabled childLegifrance — the child being classified by the commission des droits et de l’autonomie des personnes handicapées into one of six categories under article R. 541-2 of the code de la sécurité socialeLegifrance. It cannot be combined with a benefit compensating that same loss where work stops for maternity, paternity, sickness, a work accident or job loss.Legifrance But where the parent had already reduced working time to help the child before that interruption, the complément in the category matching that reduction may be combined with the benefit compensating the interruptionLegifrance. By barring cumulation as a matter of principleLegifrance — a bar the CNAF’s 28 July 2025 instruction lifted only for daily sickness and work-accident allowances where the prior activity was part-timeLegifrance — the December 2024 instruction misconstrued those provisions for maternity, paternity and job-loss casesLegifrance, and the refusal to abrogate it was unlawful to that extentLegifrance. The court noted the instruction lacks regulatory character, which does not remove it from the abrogation dutyLegifrance.

Two criticisms failed. The instruction governs only controls for the reduction-or-cessation routeLegifrance, so it cannot be faulted for ignoring the alternative paid-third-party criterion. And holding payment in abeyance (mise en instance) pending proof that the reduction is effective is lawfulLegifrance: under article R. 541-4 the debtor body may verify effectiveness and meanwhile pays by way of advance the complément matching the observed situation, and under article L. 161-1-4 missing documents suspend payment until produced. The applicant narrowed its claim to the remaining passages, noting the July 2025 instruction had addressed daily-allowance cumulation for prior part-timers and the commission-notification duty.

Legal basis: code de la sécurité sociale, articles L. 541-1, L. 541-2, L. 541-5, R. 541-2 to R. 541-4 and L. 161-1-4; code des relations entre le public et l’administration, article L. 243-2; code de justice administrative, articles L. 761-1 and L. 911-1.