Prime Minister Michel Barnier has announced that he wants to create a single social allowance. But what exactly is this reform and what changes could it bring? Explanations.
Michel Barnier relaunches a project which could well shake up the social assistance landscape in France: the single social allowance. This concept, already defended by the Prime Minister when he sought the Republican nomination for the 2022 presidential election, aims to merge several social benefits into one. During his passage on France 2, this October 3, 2024, the Prime Minister confirmed that he would “open a construction site” on this measure, while specifying that its implementation would not be immediate.
The idea behind this project is simple: rationalize social assistance to put an end to the addition of allowances which, according to Michel Barnier, could discourage a return to employment. “So that work pays more than the addition of benefits”, He said, a single, capped social aid would prevent low-income households from receiving more aid than they could earn by working.
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A merger of several social benefits
Concretely, the single social allowance would bring together several benefits intended for the most modest households. According to the first drafts of the project, there is talk of merging benefits such as active solidarity income (RSA), unemployment benefits, as well as other aid paid by the Family Allowance Funds (Caf) and the Agricultural Social Mutualities ( MSA), with the exception of aid linked to old age and disability.
The idea is also to limit income from social assistance by setting a ceiling, particularly for beneficiaries of RSA and housing assistance (APL). Olivier Marleix, LR deputy and rapporteur of the project during the 2021 primaries, explained that the aim was to “limit assistance income”, in order to create a stronger incentive to return to professional activity.
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Rewards to benefit from the aid
Another essential part of this reform concerns the compensation requested from beneficiaries. Michel Barnier and his supporters wish to strengthen the obligation for recipients of engage in an activity that brings them closer to the world of work. This could involve professional training, or even community services in establishments that are understaffed, such as nursing homes, schools or hospitals. This conditionality is reminiscent of the recent reform of the RSA, currently tested in 40 departments and which will be generalized from January 2025. From now on, payment of the RSA is subject to the completion of 15 hours of weekly activity, a means of redirecting beneficiaries towards employment.
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The single social allowance that Michel Barnier wishes to put back on the table is reminiscent of another social reform project: universal income from work. The latter, supported by the government of Édouard Philippe during Emmanuel Macron’s first mandate, also aimed to bring together several social benefits, including the RSA, the activity bonus, and the APL. However, this overhaul was never implemented, in part because of its potential impact: it could have resulted in a drop in resources for 3.55 million low-income households, according to a report relayed by The World in 2018.
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