La CAF... Financial assistance for renting... and babies!

So... You wanna figure out how French people pay these outrageous rents..
Caisse d'Allocations Familiales or in English Family allowance!

CAF is the agency which determines which level of social assistance each residence in France in Eligible to receive. Most often this splits into two categories, renting allowance or baby allowance.
CAF is available to EU residents and holders of Carte de Sejour (residence permit)

Renting assistance APL (Aide Personalisée au Logement) can go from 80-320 euroes a month depending on various factors.
Baby allowance can go as high as 2000EU per month, although I do not have personal experience with this so I do suggest you do your own research.
Excellent blog for having children in France http://having-a-baby-in-france.blogspot.com/search/label/caf

Obtaining the APL can be a long a tiring process, although once obtained they will cover the period of the application and sometimes even the time prior to it.
So I suggest you head up to the local CAF center as soon as possible after you begin renting!


Renting (APL):
The amount the CAF pays you is variable according to your location, age, size of the apartment , present and past income (past is income from two years ago for example for 2011 its based on 2009).

The APL will begin at your second month of renting (a calender month). For example if you will start paying rent at 25/jan the APL will begin at 01/feb.
The city your in is a big factor as to how much they pay.
For example: in Paris the CAF is known to give around 200EU while in Marseilles its around 120.


You will need a number of documents, in my case I needed: Rental contract, National Insurence number, proof of present income (they ask for every payslip), past income (they didn't ask me for proof), RIB,
and ID.
They also asked me for a proof that I can support myself in France although I was able to dodge this one as I filed a request as a couple through my French girlfriend.

There is a rumor that as a couple you are able to receive a higher amount, so if you have a female roommate it might be worth a try. Also sometimes the CAF workers are willing to cut corners, I heard of people having debts of thousands of Euros wiped by some generous employee. (Yes the CAF will find you and ask for the money back if they find out you have been getting assistance which you are no longer entitled for.)

So all I can do now is wish you good luck!
Personally it took 5 months before I got my first APL payment  me but they paid back for all the time since I started renting.
I know of people who got it as quickly as two weeks.


Did I get something wrong? got a sad\funny story with the CAF?
I would love to hear about your experience with the CAF.

Links-

Application form  allowances
You can download the application form here:
http://www.caf.fr/wps/portal/particuliers/formulaires/metropole/al

This will need to be filled by your landlord.

APL renting allowance calculator
http://www.caf.fr/wps/port...
note that this calculator is not especially reliable.