Luxembourg's Social Welfare System: Overview
Luxembourg runs an insurance-based system. If you work in Luxembourg, as an employee or self-employed, you are compulsorily affiliated by the Joint Social Security Centre (Centre commun de la sécurité sociale, CCSS). Your employer handles this for you. One affiliation covers health and maternity, pension, accident and long-term care (dependency) insurance, and your health cover extends to dependent family members as co-insured persons. Contributions are shared by you, your employer and, for pensions, the State. Family benefits (CAE), the social inclusion income (FNS) and housing aid (Ministry of Housing) are paid by separate public bodies.
Most rules are national, and the commune (municipality) is your local office for registration, civil status and childcare vouchers. Amounts are adjusted when wages are indexed to the cost of living: the social minimum wage for an unskilled worker aged 18 or over is €2,771.33 a month (since 1 June 2026), and many benefits are set as multiples of it.
First registrations for newcomers:
- Commune: from 1 October 2026, third-country nationals enter with a long-stay visa (visa D), declare their arrival at their commune of residence within 3 days and then apply for the residence permit at the Directorate of Immigration. EU, EEA and Swiss citizens follow a separate registration procedure at the commune.
- Social security: after affiliation, the CCSS sends you a confirmation with your 13-digit national identification number, and you receive a social security card to show to doctors.
- MyGuichet.lu: most applications (family benefits, unemployment, tax) are made online with a LuxTrust product or an electronic ID card.
The nine areas at a glance
- Health: compulsory insurance through the CNS; adults are usually reimbursed 88% of doctors' fees, children 100%.
- Pension: statutory pension from 65 after at least 10 years of insurance; contributions 8.5% each for employee, employer and State (2026).
- Unemployment: benefit of 80% (85% with children) of previous gross pay, capped, for up to 12 months; REVIS after that.
- Family: family allowance of €315.04 per child per month (June 2026), plus age supplements and free childcare hours.
- Tax: progressive income tax from 0% to 42%, with tax classes 1, 1a and 2 and a 7–9% employment-fund surcharge.
- Housing: rent cap, deposit of at most 2 months' rent, rent subsidy of €10–520 a month.
- Education: school is compulsory from age 4 and now until 18; public schools are free; state aid for higher education.
- Parental: 20 weeks of maternity leave, 10 days of paternity leave, and 4–6 months of paid parental leave per parent.
Things to watch
- Benefits and thresholds change with each wage indexation (the last one took effect on 1 June 2026). Check the current amounts before you apply.
- Some benefits depend on residence status. For example, third-country nationals generally need 5 years of legal residence in the last 20 years, or long-term resident status, to receive REVIS.
- Cross-border workers follow different rules for several benefits. The pages in this section describe residents of Luxembourg.
Official guidance: Guichet.lu, CCSS: social parameters, IGSS: social parameters June 2026 (PDF), Government: new immigration procedure from 1 October 2026