Since January 1, 2025, the Departmental Council of Meurthe-et-Moselle has removed certain aid for beneficiaries of the personalized autonomy allowance (APA), due to budgetary constraints. This decision, which particularly affects the delivery of meals and remote assistance, raises concerns.
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The Departmental Council of Meurthe-et-Moselle has decided, since January 1, 2025, to eliminate assistance for elderly people receiving the personalized autonomy allowance (APA). Finally remove, not completely, explains Catherine Boursier, vice-president of the Departmental Council, responsible for autonomy: “This concerns 2,900 people in total, except for complex cases, people in situations of great dependency whose situation requires special attention. They represent 10% of beneficiaries.“
The aid removed concerns the delivery of meals and remote assistance. Until then, APA beneficiaries had assistance which could cover, depending on their income, from 30% to 100% of the amount.
The vice-president defends herself: “It is not with joy of heart that we made this decision. This is to meet state budgetary requirements. I remind you that we have a right-wing government. The departments are in catastrophic financial situations. Our revenues have collapsed. Our social spending is exploding. And we are asked to make ends meet by making savings. The autonomy budget in the overall operating budget of the department represents 30%. We are obliged to participate in one way or another to achieve the requested savings.“
On the side of the associations, they understand that the situation is complex and the choice to prioritize “human help at home”. It is the suddenness of the decision that questions them. Most of them were not warned. To which Catherine Boursier reacts: “II recognize it and I apologize for it. I complied with administrative requirements.“
For the moment, the beneficiaries and their families have not canceled meals, explains the manager of a structure specializing in meal delivery. “CIt's a little early to measure whether there has been an impact on the beneficiaries.
“This is not good news”
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The people concerned have only just received the information.”adds Jean-Luc Lucien, from the ADMR federation. “This is not good news for the fragile people we support. Help with carrying meals is optional. The law does not oblige departmental councils. This is not the choice of many departments.“
Catherine Boursier reassures by explaining that the eliminated aid could be partly covered by the tax credit. Jean-Luc Julien takes an example: “If we take a meal price with delivery of 10 euros, the aid from the Departmental Council was three euros. If the meal costs six euros and the delivery four, with the end of this aid, the State will pay half of the four euros in the form of a tax credit. So in reality, the person will lose three euros per meal and gain two back. The difficulty for users will be the delay. The assistance is paid every month while the tax credit is from one year to the next. There is not yet the possibility of directly deducting the tax credit, but this will undoubtedly be implemented.“
“Si the price is 25 euros per month“, Jean-Luc Julien explains to us, “and you had 10% to pay, or 2.50 euros, you will have 25 euros to pay with a 50% tax credit, it will cost you 12.50 per month. But in the same way as for meal delivery, the tax credit will be deferred. If, on the other hand, the person was financially comfortable and did not have this assistance, for them it changes nothing, they will still have the tax credit.” According to our information, doctors are concerned that people with few resources and their families will be deprived of teleassistance in the future.
Catherine Boursier returns to complex cases: “First, we will look for alternative solutions for people who had 100% coverage. There may be remote assistance from their CCAS or assistance from their mutual insurance company.
For the 10% who are in a situation of high dependency and in great precariousness, we will continue to support them financially. They will continue to benefit from the system. We will not leave people whose lack of a remote assistance system would put their lives in danger.”
The measure caused a strong reaction from certain elected officials such as Valérie Debord for example or even Christopher Varin on his Facebook account.
Catherine Boursier responds: “They step into the breach. They are not wrong. They are shameless and only assume decisions that are made by people they support.“
She adds: “Well-informed people benefited from the department's system and requested their mutual insurance and sometimes took out a more favorable group contract offered by their municipality. As there was no remaining liability, the tax credit was not claimed. For us, it was overfinancing.”
The departmental budget allocated for the elderly was 123 million euros last year, an increase of 22 million compared to 2022.
