Alexandre Chauveau / Credits: Magali Cohen / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP
modified to
8:13 a.m., May 28, 2024
Putting unemployed seniors back to work. This is one of the objectives of the new unemployment insurance rules that Gabriel Attal presented on Sunday, and which will come into force from December 1st.
When unemployed, seniors retain advantages over others, notably a longer duration of compensation. But there are still changes: the minimum age to benefit from it has been raised from 55 to 57 years and the duration of compensation will still decrease, from 27 to 22 and a half months, at most.
Furthermore, the government announced the creation of a salary-benefit combination system to encourage seniors to return to employment and businesses to call on them.
Seniors, unemployed people who are expensive
An imperative for the government, in particular because seniors weigh more than others on unemployment insurance finances. 600,000 French people over 50 are compensated. This represents 1 in 4 beneficiaries. And those aged 50-64 are, on average, those who receive the most, underlines Nicolas Marques, economist at the Molinari Institute: “Seniors have compensation higher than 25-49 year olds, and 50% higher than 18-24 year olds. This is normal, seniors have reached much higher salaries and therefore they have larger allowances.
The average allowance for those over 50 is close to 1,500 euros, which represents 200 euros more than the general average. And seniors, who have more difficulty finding employment, remain unemployed longer. As a result, they capture a significant portion of unemployment insurance expenses. “Those over 50 represent 26% of unemployed people receiving compensation in France and 30% of compensation.”
That is almost 10 billion euros per year out of just over 30 billion euros in benefits, hence the government’s interest in boosting the employment rate of those over 50. Good news, this rate has just reached 68%, its highest level since 1975. And the unemployment rate is only 5.1% in this age group, which is two and a half points less than in the general population.