The benefit cheque that has quietly subsidised student rent for two decades is about to disappear for almost every Indian student in France. From 1 July 2026, the Caisse d'Allocations Familiales (CAF) will only pay the housing allowances (APL, ALS, and ALF) to non EU students if they hold a French government scholarship on social criteria, a bourse sur critères sociaux. Service Public, the official government information service, now flags the change at the top of both its CAF housing aid page and its student housing eligibility page. The clock is ticking. The deadline is nineteen days from today.
What changes, in clean language
Until 30 June, an Indian student in France could open a CAF dossier with a passport, visa, lease, and a RIB, and the housing allowance flowed each month. The benefit took the form of APL, ALS, or ALF depending on the dwelling, and typically covered between 100 and 200 euros of monthly rent in mid sized cities, more in Paris. The 1 July 2026 reform attaches a single new condition. If you are not a citizen of the EU, the EEA, or Switzerland, you need a French government scholarship to claim the aid. Most Indian students do not hold one. The reform was tucked into article 179 of the 2026 finance law, and its application will be confirmed by a decree published before the end of June.
What it costs you, in real money
For a typical Indian master's student in Paris paying 700 to 900 euros a month for a small studio, the loss of CAF aid lands somewhere between 1,200 and 3,000 euros a year in added spending. The hit is sharper outside Paris, where rents are lower but CAF aid relative to rent was much higher, sometimes covering up to 30 percent of monthly housing costs. Multiply across the roughly 10,000 Indian students currently in France and the policy shift removes tens of millions of euros a year in support to this cohort alone. The change does not touch EU, EEA, or Swiss students, who keep the aid on the existing rules.
What you should do this month
Three things, in order.
First, if you are currently receiving CAF aid, do not assume your payments will keep flowing through the summer untouched. The official Service Public fiche is precise on what is settled and what is not. The law restricts who can demand the aid from 1 July onwards, but the same fiche explicitly states that an implementing decree will spell out the operational rules, and that decree has not been published yet. Watch your CAF dashboard for any change in scheduled payment, and check the official French government information service each week through June for the decree.
Second, check whether you qualify for a French government scholarship. The Charpak Scholarship from the French Embassy in India is the most direct path for Indian students, and it does count as a bourse sur critères sociaux for CAF purposes. Applications for the 2027 intake open in the autumn. If you are arriving in September 2026 and already have your visa, it is too late for this academic year. Plan for the next cycle.
Third, if you signed a lease counting on CAF income, talk to your landlord this month. Most Paris landlords have already heard about the reform, and a quiet conversation now beats a panicked one in August. A handful of CROUS residences and student foyers operate under different rent rules and may be cheaper to keep, but only if you move before September.
The bigger picture
This is the single largest cut in financial support to non EU students France has made in a decade. France still wants more Indian students. President Macron set a target of 30,000 Indian students a year by 2030 during his February visit to India. But the support landscape they arrive into is shifting fast, and the CAF cut is just the most expensive piece of it. Stay alert through the summer. We will publish updates as the implementing decree and the application details land.