the Senate votes for two extensions for the dependency of elderly or disabled people

On Friday, November 22, senators approved two financial extensions to departments and retirement homes in the Social Security budget for 2025, in order to increase the amounts allocated to dependent elderly people and people with disabilities.

“Relieve the finances” of the departments

A first, of 200 million euros, was first validated for the dependency allowances (APA) and disability (PCH) paid by the departments, in order to “relieve finances” of these communities, explained the Minister of Solidarity, Paul Christophe. Adopted by a very large majority by senators, this government amendment comes “concrete” a commitment made last week by the Prime Minister, Michel Barnier, at the annual congress of departments.

This measure also makes it possible to ” to guarantee “ for the APA one “compensation rate” by Social Security of at least 43%, as in 2024, assured Mr. Christophe, defending a “first stone” to achieve the target of 50% by 2030.

“Emergency aid” for nursing homes

The Upper House of Parliament then voted “exceptional help” of 100 million euros “for nursing homes”so that these accommodation establishments for dependent elderly people “find room for maneuver”according to the minister.

A “emergency aid” welcome, recognized the rapporteur Chantal Deseyne (Les Républicains), recalling that the sector is “still in great difficulty” financial and advocating for “structural reforms” through a “old age law”.

Earlier in the day, senators had extended the article on the supervision of medical and paramedical temporary work in hospitals to all social and medico-social establishments.

Furthermore, the chemical submission screening experiment was expanded to include the various necessary tests and analyses. A particularly sensitive subject in the Senate, where the elected representative of Loire-Atlantique Joël Guerriau has been accused for a year by the deputy Sandrine Josso of having drugged her without her knowledge.

An increase in pensions in two stages over the year 2025

The Senate, with the support of the government, also approved, during the night from Friday to Saturday, the two-stage revaluation of pensions for 2025.

Adopted by 231 votes to 100, this amendment to the Social Security budget takes up the main lines of the compromise negotiated between Michel Barnier and the strong man of the right Laurent Wauquiez.

The measure, defended by Senator Pascale Gruny (LR), “ensures a revaluation of all basic pensions from January 1 to the level of half of inflation”she explained before the vote. This first increase has already been estimated at 0.9% by the Minister of the Budget, Laurent Saint-Martin.

Retirees receiving a total pension (basic and supplementary) below the minimum wage “will then be revalued a second time up to the inflation observed on 1^is July “with the added bonus “making up for the shortfall” over the first half, so that they “will thus be fully protected against inflation”added M^me grunt

According to the text of the amendment, this indexing will be complete until “1,500 euros gross per month”. An intermediate level is also provided for “insured persons whose pension is slightly above this threshold”which will benefit from a revaluation “reduced”.

Compared to the government's initial proposal, which wanted to postpone the increase in pensions by six months to save 4 billion euros, the new version “reduces the expected return by around 500 million”specified the senator, judging “this more equitable solution”.

The Minister of Labor, Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet, nevertheless supported this rewriting, because “an agreement was reached with parliamentarians”. “With one of the smallest groups in the Assembly”retorted the ecologist Raymonde Poncet-Monge, deploring seeing the executive and the senatorial majority “happy to modulate the drop in purchasing power” retirees. The socialist Monique Lubin, for her part, denounced “a scam”which will result in “a dead and definitive loss for all retirees”.