The proportion of employees who could claim unemployment insurance without resorting to it is “between 25% and 42%”, according to a government report sent to Parliament, which notes that the rate of non-recourse is “comparable to that observed on other social benefits.
This report, consulted by AFP on Monday as the debates on the bill on unemployment insurance begin in the Assembly, notes that non-recourse in this area has been little studied, and underlines that the phenomenon is difficult to measure.
The study, initially revealed by Les Echos, covers the period from November 2018 to October 2019, i.e. before the health crisis and the last unemployment insurance reform.
The authors underline that their estimation work is confronted with several difficulties, including the fact that the administrative data do not make it possible to observe the condition of effective job search or the fact that approximately one third of people with an end of contract are already covered by unemployment insurance due to their previous contracts.
Between 390,000 and 690,000 non-applicants per year
They specify that depending on the scope and the assumptions used, the estimate of the rate of non-use of people not registered for employment in the year following the end of their contract varies between 25% and 42%, which represents over one year between 390,000 and 690,000 non-users.
The central estimate of the report notably excludes people already covered by unemployment insurance from the analysis. According to this central hypothesis, approximately 30% of people aged 25 to 60 who experience the end of their contract in the private sector without having previously registered for Ple emploi and who meet the eligibility criteria do not take up unemployment insurance.
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The authors note that the non-use of unemployment insurance is thus close to that which can be observed for other benefits, citing the rates of 34% for the RSA, 32% for pensions.
This report, produced by the Department of Statistics of the Ministry of Labor (Dares) with economists, had been provided for by the law on the freedom to choose one’s professional future of 2018 which provided that it be submitted to Parliament within two year.
Since then, elected officials had expressly requested its publication, like Franois Ruffin (LFI), who had accused the government of censoring this document ahead of the presidential election.
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