ECONOMY: The government hopes to “reach 100% of the people” who can benefit from the expanded Prime d’activité from 2019 …
The requests do not stop pouring in. The expansion of the conditions of access to the prime d’activité, decided in December to respond to the anger of the “yellow vests”, has resulted in an influx of applications for this benefit in family allowance funds since the beginning January, Secretary of State Christelle Dubos said Wednesday.
From January 1st to the 7th, some 120,000 new applications were filed, of which 73,000 have already been examined and received a positive response, about six times more than the number of cases filed in the comparable period of early 2018, said the secretary. State in charge of the fight against poverty .
Broaden the base of this service
The amount of the activity bonus, allocated to employees around Smic , was increased on the 1st January by a maximum of 90 euros – an increase which automatically benefits beneficiaries already registered in the files of family allowance funds.
At the same time, the government has also decided to broaden the base of this benefit, which should in principle now benefit 5 million households, against 3.8 million previously.
“With these emergency measures, we are increasing by more than one million the number of beneficiaries who will be eligible for the prime d’activité,” said Christelle Dubos during a visit to a Paris CAF.
Since the 1st January, “we have had more than 25,000 new applicants, while from January to November 2018 the average daily demand for activity bonus was in the order of 2,500,” said Vincent Mazauric , the director general of the national family allowance fund (Cnaf) .
A simulator available on the CAF website
“We see a sharp increase in the number of people who have said: + maybe I have something right,” said the secretary of state. However, a communication campaign will be “carried out by the CAF in order to minimise the non-recourse,” she added.
CAF has set up a simulator on its website that allows everyone to know, in a few clicks, if they are eligible. In three days, from January 1st to 3rd, this simulator recorded 1.4 million consultations.
According to Vincent Mazauric, only 77% of people eligible for the prime d’activité ask for it – figures that do not take into account the recent influx of files.
The government hopes to “reach 100% of the people” who can benefit from the extended prime d’activité as of 2019 and “will ensure that its payment is automatic from 2020”, had recently affirmed the Minister of Solidarity and Health, Agnès Buzyn, promising “information campaigns via the internet, town halls, employment center”.
