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In France, the financing of dependency care for elderly persons is distributed between different actors (the state, local communities, the National Solidarity Fund for Autonomy, etc.). The Ambient Personalised Autonomy Allowance (APA) is one of the major relevant assistance schemes. The General Council evaluates the needs of persons living at home and notifies an assistance plan. The total sum allocated cannot exceed a ceiling depending on his or her level of dependency and any additional fees ( ticket modérateur) are paid by the recipient according to his or her resources. Hence, the needs of elderly persons are identified thanks to these plans but for those whose needs exceed the ceiling, overall needs and expenses cannot be observed. Such is the case with one fourth of them (the ratio increases with the level of dependency). The authors use an econometric approach to project the sums identified in the plans beyond the ceilings and to evaluate the expenses and additional fees paid by elderly patients : average amounts are estimated at 400 monthly Euros for the most dependent persons (while their ticket modérateur is 170 Euros) and 100 Euros for the least dependent (while their ticket modérateur is 60 Euros). In three cases out of four, this additional non-reimbursed fee exceeds 60 % of the recipient’s resources.