A big change is brewing at CAF. A new feature will allow more people to receive social assistance. Paperwork will be significantly reduced.
RSA, activity bonus, APL… The millions of French people who do not request this aid each year will soon be able to benefit from it. Other good news for those who already receive these social benefits: paperwork will significantly decrease. Indeed, something new is being prepared in all CAFs in France to simplify the lives of households.
Non-recourse to social assistance is a problem often overlooked in France. Each year, more than a third of households eligible for social benefits do not claim them. The figures speak for themselves: 37% for housing assistance, 34% for the RSA and even 53% for the activity bonus.
Two major problems explain this phenomenon. On the one hand, households are often unaware that they can benefit from certain aid, due to lack of information. On the other hand, the procedures to obtain these benefits are sometimes long and tedious. To overcome these obstacles, CAF will put in place a new system called “Solidarity at source”.
The objective is to considerably reduce the number of administrative procedures. Concretely, the CAF will send a pre-filled form to beneficiaries and future beneficiaries. This document will provide information on the “net social amount”, now present on the pay slips of all employees, the composition of the household, the person's bank details and their address. Beneficiaries will simply need to verify the information and validate the form. In short, a system relatively similar to that of the income tax return pre-filled by the tax authorities and sent to taxpayers.
Once the form has been validated, recipients and future recipients will receive their social assistance directly into their bank account, without having to take any other steps. This system will allow thousands of French people to automatically receive the RSA, the activity bonus or even housing assistance, sparing themselves administrative hassles, incessant email exchanges and calls with the CAF counter.
The “Solidarity at source” system will be tested from October 2024 in four pilot departments: Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Hérault, Aube and Alpes-Maritimes. CAF beneficiaries will receive the pre-filled form to certify their income and obtain the corresponding aid. According to the planned timetable, all CAFs should move to this new organization from March 2025.
Thus, households which did not receive aid will be able to access it. Those who were already receiving RSA, for example, may discover that they can also benefit from APL. The only downside is that for the moment the test only concerns current CAF beneficiaries. It is difficult to know whether the system will be effective in allowing households eligible for certain aid to benefit from it even though they are not asking for it.
