image la cades

CADES is a sinking fund established to redeem French social debt. It was created under government order No. 96-50 of 24 January 1996, later amended under Act No. 2004-810 of 13 August 2004 whose purpose was to reform French social protection. CADES is therefore a key component of current efforts to balance Social Security accounts.

Its mission is to fund and redeem the debt that has accumulated under the general Social Security scheme.

An administrative state agency, CADES is an autonomous central government entity and a “general central administrative body”. It is supervised jointly by the Minister of The Economy and Finance and by the Ministers in charge of social security, who appoint the agency’s directors and closely monitor its operation. Established by the French central government (the ‘State’), CADES’ resources were protected from its inception with the following measures:

  • The establishment of an exclusive source of funding, the CRDS “social debt redemption” tax, pursuant to section 2 of government order No. 96-50 24 January 1996
  • Protection of financial resources, under Article 7 of government order No. 96-50 of 24 January 1996 and Article 20 of the Organic Act of 2 August 2005.