Toulouse: “Today, it has become impossible to speak directly to a person face-to-face”, when the poorest suffer from “administrative mistreatment”

“Today, it has become almost impossible to be able to speak directly to a person face-to-face.” “They ask you to check the ‘I’m not a robot’ box, but they’re the robot.” These are the kinds of testimonies that Secours catholique collects daily from people who live below the poverty line in the department and in Toulouse, with a median income of 534 euros and who feel increasingly helpless in the face of dematerialization. administrative procedures.

“They’re the robot…”

Completing an online application for vulnerable people, without a computer, with a mobile phone, who struggle to decipher the administrative verbiage, has become vital, particularly for receiving social benefits. In 2023, Secours catholique Ariège-Garonne, which made its 2023 activity report public on Thursday November 14 in its premises on rue Périole in Toulouse, noted this in the majority of the 4,545 people welcomed, “i.e. a 45% increase” compared to the previous year. “Isolated people are down by 38%, the share of single-parent families has increased by 27%,” notes the association.

For many, “it’s an obstacle course”

If social benefits are for many “a safety net”, Secours catholique denounces a form of “administrative mistreatment”. “For many, it is an obstacle course to access or maintain them,” explains the association. Changes in eligibility conditions, the complexity of administrative procedures, dematerialization and the difficulty of accessing public services in certain zones are all obstacles that people must face on a daily basis […] Thus, a significant proportion of them give up and do not even have recourse to these benefits”. To the Ariège-Garonne delegation, “this non-recourse is estimated at 37% for people eligible for RSA (active solidarity income ) and 33% for those eligible for family allowances.

The situation is getting worse for migrants

For migrants welcomed in Toulouse, the situation is “worse”, confides Jean-Michel Richard, aged 75 and a volunteer with Secours catholique for more than ten years. He describes “the impossibility of dialogue” with the administration. “Ten years ago, at the Haute-Garonne prefecture, there was a reception. Often, we could accompany people who received their information which we could complete and they had an answer immediately. We had even experienced cases protest movements over the quality of reception and measures have since been taken, the reception problem has been completely resolved: there is no more.

“We welcome the poorest part of the population”

“Overall, explains the Toulouse delegation, we continue to welcome the poorest and most precarious part of the people, with a majority below the extreme poverty line. For people with resources, they are most often insufficient to cope with constrained expenses We note that the prospects for positive developments in their situation are often blocked or conditional on the successful completion of long and complex procedures.