This was a promise from candidate Emmanuel Macron in 2022. Experimented in certain territories since March 2023, the reform of active solidarity income (RSA) now applies to the entire territory. Since 1is January, all RSA beneficiaries, i.e. 1.2 million people, were automatically registered with France Travail.
15 to 20 hours of activity per week
These new registrants will have to complete a questionnaire and sign an “engagement contract” which aims to determine social and professional integration objectives and which could condition the payment of their allowance on 15 to 20 hours of weekly activity. This “renovated support” includes interviews, CV construction, training, internships or company immersions. “It is about putting an end to the phenomenon of exclusion caused by the RSA, which boiled down to an allowance and a lack of real support for returning to work,” explained the Director General of France at the end of December. Work Thibault Guilluy at AFP.
In the event of non-compliance with this obligation, the job seeker is exposed to two types of sanctions. A sanction known as suspension or remobilization, which implies an interruption of the payment of the RSA with the possibility of retroactive regularization if the commitments are respected again. Or a partial or even total cessation of the allowance if the breaches are considered serious with a repetition of the offenses or the refusal of an inspection. The law provides, however, that people suffering from a disability or health problem and single parents of children under 12 years of age and who do not have a childcare solution are exempt from this obligation.
In 2018, among unemployed RSA beneficiaries who are not looking for work but would like to work, 40% say that their health problems are the main reason why they do not try to find work, noted the Directorate of the Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics (Drees) in a report.
“A profitable tool for employers”
In an opinion adopted on December 19, 2024, the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights (CNCDH) considers that this new system “infringes human rights”. She denounces “a system which subjects the payment of a minimum subsistence income to the achievement of a counterpart”. As a reminder, the amount of the RSA is 635.70 euros for a single person, 953.56 euros for a couple without children and 1,334.98 euros for a couple with two children. An amount which “does not allow us to live with dignity”, adds the CNCDH.
“The 15 hours is not free work,” defended the Minister of Labor and Employment Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet on December 31. “The experiments in 49 departments” highlighted “a return to employment and long-term professional integration of 42% of the beneficiaries of this experiment,” she declared. “There is no time limit for company internships. This poses a problem for us because it looks like free work,” points out, on the contrary, Alexis Bordes, general secretary of the CGT for precariously unemployed workers. “This will replace positions in certain places, we know that employers will use it as a profitability tool. »
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