The personalized autonomy allowance (Apa) is paid under conditions of age (being at least 60 years old) and dependency (defined by one of the groups of the AGGIR grid) to people who stay at home, such as those accommodated in a specialized medico-social establishment. Depending on one or other of these situations, the steps to apply for APA are different
The APA is paid by the county council to dependent people who stay at home to help them pay the expenses incurred by staying at home. These expenses can take the form of home help services, adapted equipment, hygiene supplies, work to fit out the accommodation or transport expenses. There are no means conditions to qualify for the APA.
The APA application file must be collected either from the services of the department of the place of residence, or from one of the local information points dedicated to the elderly, or from the municipal center for social action (CCAS) or of his social security organization and his mutual insurance company. The completed file is then to be returned to the departmental council accompanied by a copy of an identity document, the last income tax notice, if necessary, supporting documents for the holding of assets and a Bank details. Some departments also require the issuance of a medical certificate and proof of address.
The departmental council acknowledges receipt of the APA request within 10 days. A medico-social team, made up of at least one doctor and one social worker, will then investigate the request by assessing the person's degree of autonomy and their needs in order to establish an assistance plan. This may provide for the payment of home help, assistance with transportation or the delivery of meals, or even technical aids and accommodation adaptation measures. During the investigation, this team goes to the applicant's home. The person has 10 days to accept or not the support plan thus defined. This aid plan is essential for the services of the department to grant the allocation of the APA.
Once the decision to grant APA has been notified by the department, the beneficiary must complete and return within one month a form indicating the employee(s) hired or the aid to which he has recourse.
The APA is also granted to the elderly who reside in specialized accommodation located in France and which accommodate at least 25 residents. If fewer people are accommodated there, APA at home must be requested.
There is no specific request to be made in order to be able to benefit from the APA if the establishment, which accommodates the dependent person, receives a global APA allocation from the department's services for all its residents and if the resident's former home is located in the same department as the host establishment.
On the other hand, if at least one of these two conditions is not met, an APA request must be made by the person concerned by withdrawing a file from the same structures as for home APA. The host establishment can in some cases also provide the application file to be completed. The services of the department acknowledge receipt of the request within 10 days of sending it.
The APA request is examined by the host establishment, which measures the degree of dependence of the person by classifying them in one of the groups of the AGGIR grid. In this case, the APA is used to pay the dependency rate in force in the host institution, part of which may however remain the responsibility of the elderly person.
