A report highlights the worsening of poverty in the North and Hauts-de-France

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Catholic Relief supports a million people per year in France. Swe report poverty highlights the realities encountered on the ground. The opportunity to take stock, but also to propose recommendations. What are the emerging trends for 2023 ? The situation deterioratesfor the most precarious. THE non-recourse to rights exploded: 40% of people who come to Secours catholique in Lille would be entitled to RSA and do not have it!

In the North-Lille delegation, which concerns Lille and its metropolis, Secours catholique supported 2,500 households, including 632 volunteers.

The profile of people welcomed mainly concerns women (56.7% nationally, 60.7% in Lille), single-parent families (28.4%), the proportion of young people (20-45 years old) is increasing.

Worsening poverty

Concerning poverty indicators, Secours catholique points to “a deterioration”. On what criteria? The median income is falling, explains Héloïse Hazard, facilitator of the Secours catholique solidarity network for the North-Lille delegation: “It is €555 in 2023, it has fallen by 19% compared to 2022.” Conditions of access to benefits Social security is becoming tougher, with stricter eligibility criteria, and certain rights being subject to conditions.

Above all, the association's teams note a “record rate of non-use of RSA”: at the national level, we are at 36.1%, and it is 40.2% in Lille!

A strong demand for administrative assistance

In Secours catholique receptions, aid takes several forms: 46% concerns food (50% in Lille), 13% clothing, and new, the demand for administrative assistance is exploding! “It is at 13% of requests in 2023, or +7% in one year! » This is why in Lille, in the premises at 67 rue des Meuniers, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:30 a.m. to 12 p.m., reception is reserved for various administrative proceduresparticularly via digital platforms.

It can happen to anyone

And it can happen to anyone. “In 2023, 60% of people met in our reception centers said they had had a life accident, an illness, a divorce, a dismissal…”

Proof with Mélissa, who testified to this real obstacle course to access her rights. Of a good social standing, with her doctorate in political science, she experienced a dispute with her employer in November 2020. “I got into an administrative mess until today,” she explains. She starts by going to the industrial tribunal with a lawyer. “But I no longer received a salary, and at the same time I could not find a contract elsewhere since I was not made redundant, and even less have access to unemployment! » She confides that she worked undeclared to get by. “I am helped by food aid from associations. »

In July 2022, her company was in liquidation, she learned a few months later that she was being made redundant. but the trouble does not stop.

In November 2022, I can finally register with Pôle Emploi, I receive my severance pay, which is mainly used to pay my debts to my family, to ENGIE… Pôle Emploi then announces to me that my unemployment will only be released in a year since my severance pay is supposed to be enough for me.

His mental health takes a hit. “I am devastated after these ordeals. » She doesn't even think about asking for the RSA. “I thought I wasn’t concerned!” We don't know our rights, even when we are armed in life. » She obtains it in November 2023, i.e. 3 years after losing her job. “I was then offered a 9-month Health Employment Course, with psychological support, various workshops… I asked why I had been offered this, and I was told: ‘Because you speak well’…”

Recommendations

From this observation, Secours catholique draws recommendations:

• the creation of a guaranteed minimum income;
• physical access to administrations “to humanize”, and not a digital counter;
• real personalized support for people “with individualized management”;
• the non-conditioning of the RSA to 15 hours of activities, a program which is currently being tested in several territories in France, “and which should be generalized in the North from January 2025” regrets Héloïse Hazard;
• revalue the RSA and open it to young people.

Concerning the conditioning of the RSA to a weekly voluntary activity, “our association is opposed to it! the first findings in the experimental territories reveal that since its implementation, the rate of non-use of the RSA has increased by 10%.

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