Last year, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that Luxembourgish child benefit regulations were discriminating against cross-border commuters. Adaptation processes have been underway since, but CSL president Nora Back already criticises the proposed solutions: "To solve the discrimination problem, the government is now taking away benefits from residents as well. It looks as though child support will only be awarded for biological and adopted children, and no longer for those of partners that one lives together with."
Back further criticises the government's reasoning behind the adaptation: "They basically admit that the measure will not hurt residents in a significant manner given that most concerned children have at least one biological parent living and working in Luxembourg."
Around 350 children would be concerned by this new regulation. CSL believes that this will certainly lead to new complaints being filed to the ECJ. An intermediary solution is urgently needed, Back emphasised.
The CSL president further noted that a retroactive indexation of child support is necessary, given that this has not been done since 2006. They believe a 7.7% compensation rate will be enough to help families make up losses suffered between 2014 an 2022.
