Capping Social Assistance at 1,500 Euros? What the French Think

According to an Odoxa survey for the iFRAP Foundation, 72% of French people are in favor of capping social assistance at 1,500 euros per month.

According to an Odoxa survey for the iFRAP Foundation, 72% of French people are in favor of capping social assistance at 1,500 euros per month. This measure could make it possible to make around ten billion euros in savings per year, estimates Agnès Verdier-Molinié.

With the idea a single social allowance, recently relaunched by Sébastien Lecornu, also emerges that of a capping of social assistance. According to an Odoxa survey for the iFRAP Foundation published in September, a majority of French people support this measure. As pointed out Agnès Verdier-Molinié in his economic editorial on Europe 1 this Thursday 20th November, “this is an important expectation of the French who are 72% to be for a maximum of 1,500 euros per month“, according to this survey.

“If we capped, we would add around ten billion euros in savings per year, which is not negligible ⁇ , estimates the director of iFRAP. According to her, “this bill should also include the obligation to include in the reference tax income all social assistance received under resource criteria”. A measure that “would also make it possible to produce much more advanced statistics and to identify duplicates and anticipate merging with other aid to create a truly single social allowance”.

A bill expected in December

On the 14th November, during the Departmental Conference, Sébastien Lecornu announced that he wanted “approach the Prime d’activitie, the RSA and a certain number of housing aids” behind the term of a “single social allowance”. These social benefits would then be paid in one go, on a common date. In the digital age, “it is improbable that France is not yet capable of offering a single social allowance”, the Prime Minister had underlined.

The head of government assures that this reform does not aim to reduce the amount of social assistance, as some associations fear, but to achieve “management economies”. “It is time to finally create a real social.gouv.fr that allows social workers” and to the departments responsible for social assistance, “to be able to have personalized support” beneficiaries, said Sébastien Lecornu. The government will table a bill in December in favor of this “single social allowance”.