Unemployment, RSA… what is this unique social benefit that Michel Barnier wants to create?

Capital Video: Unemployment, RSA… what is this unique social benefit that Michel Barnier wants to create?

“I am going to open a project, which will take a little time, which will not be immediate for next year, which will be that of the single social allowance.” This Thursday, October 3 on France 2, Michel Barnierthe Prime Minister, announced that he wanted to relaunch a project that he carried during the Republican primary – which he did not win – with a view to the 2022 presidential election. “So that work pays more than the addition of benefits”the former European Commissioner therefore wants to create a single capped social assistance.

In detail, the measure he defended at the time consisted of merging several benefits allocated to low-income households into a single social allowance: active solidarity income (RSA), THE unemployment benefits and all other aid paid by Caf and MSA (excluding old age and disability aid). As explained to Capital Olivier Marleix, LR deputy and rapporteur for Michel Barnier’s project during the Republican primary in 2021, the principle was to “limit assistance income, in particular with a ceiling between the RSA and les APL (personalized housing assistance, editor’s note)”.

A minimum of activity required in return for payment of single social assistance

In this context, the compensation requested from beneficiaries would also have been strengthened. Each beneficiary would thus have had the obligation to commit “at least to follow training allowing him to get back into the business for a certain time” or to participate in a public service, for example “in nursing homes, schools or even hospitals where there is a shortage of staff”specified Olivier Marleix in our columns. A will which is reminiscent of the reform of the RSA, currently being tested in around forty departments and will be generalized throughout the country on January 1, 2025, since payment of the benefit is now conditional on the completion of 15 hours of activity per week, allowing them to reorient themselves towards employment.

If on France 2, this Thursday, the Prime Minister did not specify whether he intended to resume the project as is, he still indicated that within the framework of the single social allowance, certain benefits could be increased , like those “to people with disabilities”.

Generally speaking, this unique social allowance is in reality strongly inspired by the draft universal income from activitycarried by the government of Edouard Philippe from the first five-year term of Emmanuel Macron. In this context too, it was planned to agglomerate at least the RSA, the activity bonus and APL, as well as the specific solidarity allowance (ASS) and the allowance for disabled adults (AAH). An overhaul of social benefits which never saw the light of day and which could have led to a drop in resources for 3.55 million low-income families, according to a France Stratégie report relayed by the World in 2018.