This Saturday, October 17, 2020, is the World Day for the Rejection of Poverty. The Prime Minister is expected to make announcements regarding support measures for the most precarious, while a sharp increase in poverty is expected in the coming months.
What are the figures for poverty in France?
According to the latest INSEE count, 9.3 million French people lived below the monetary poverty line in 2018 (set at € 1,063 per month). Poverty concerns thus 14.8% of the French population. This rate had reached its lowest level in 2004 (12.7%), before gradually rising since the financial crisis of 2008.
Will the Covid make the situation worse?
Undeniably. According to those in charge of the associative sector, the health crisis will make a million additional poor by the end of the year. An estimate that Florent Guéguen, Director General of the Federation of Solidarity Actors, judges completely credible, even below reality, given the explosion of unemployment
. 800,000 jobs should be destroyed in France this year, and the Banque de France predicts an unemployment rate of 11% at the start of 2021. Another sign of this impoverishment, the number of beneficiaries of the RSA (active solidarity income) jumped 10% between August 2019 and August 2020.
A new public falls into precariousness
Students deprived of odd jobs, traders in difficulty, single mothers whose spouse can no longer pay child support, employees on short-time work, autoentrepreneurs … It’s a whole fraction of the middle class that can no longer fill the fridge
, worries Florent Guéguen. In front of the food banks, the queues are getting longer (read above). At the Secours populaire, 45% of people helped in recent months were not known to the association until now.
What responses from the government?
Several emergency measures have been put in place: university canteen at € 1 for scholarship students, exceptional aid of 150 € paid to RSA beneficiaries, revaluation of the back-to-school allowance, etc.
This crisis first affects the most vulnerable. Financial assistance will be provided to beneficiaries of RSA and APL: pic.twitter.com/84mLK7evRu
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) October 14, 2020
Commendable but punctual gestures,
deplores Christophe Devys, president of the Alerte collective. Emmanuel Macron said it himself, we have at least until the summer of 2021 with the virus. However, partial unemployment and the solidarity fund will not last forever, while the economic crisis will be the business of several years. We need structural measures.
What are the associations asking for?
Most agree on a priority: to increase the social minima, to start with the RSA (€ 564 per month for a single person and € 1,186 for a couple with two children). It must be raised by at least € 100 and open to young people under 25
, pleads Christophe Devys. The request was made to the executive … who kicked in touch. This ideological blockage is totally incomprehensible
, annoys the association manager.
Florent Guéguen calls for the tripling of the number of skills employment contracts (former subsidized contracts), as well as increased support for new RSA beneficiaries, so that poverty do not install
.
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