On January 6, at the opening of the congress of the Federation of Solidarity Actors, Emmanuel Macron relaunched an idea launched at the start of his five-year term. “We must fight against the entrenchment of poverty”, affirmed the Head of State, proposing “to put in place a new, fairer and simpler social assistance system”. The creation of a universal activity income (RUA), merging active solidarity income (RSA), activity bonus and personalized housing assistance (APL) – which has been the subject of many working groups, reports and reflections – therefore emerges in the form of a proposal for the next five-year term: “We could thus lift hundreds of people out of poverty”, pleaded Mr. Macron, who is not yet officially a candidate for re-election.
A report by the Court of Auditors, published Thursday, January 13, precisely takes stock of the effectiveness of the RSA, which it severely criticizes on its social support component and help in returning to work.
Created in December 2008 to replace the minimum integration income, the RSA is now the main instrument in the fight against poverty, at an annual cost borne by the State of 15 billion euros (2019 figure, including activity bonus and support expenses) for the benefit of some 2.1 million beneficiaries.
600,000 households left behind
The magistrates of the Court of Auditors first note that the target public is insufficiently reached, since the “non-recourse” – i.e. the number of eligible people who do not perceive it, deliberately or for lack of information – would concern “30% of the target population”, which leaves more than 600,000 households out.
Another criticism, the RSA does not make it possible to leave the state of poverty. Thus, 65% of recipients – including many single women with children, foreigners, young people under 25 and residents of priority areas of the city – live below the monetary poverty line, set at 60% of income. French median, or 1,102 euros per month, for a single person, while the RSA is capped at 559.74 euros (2019 figures).
A third (30%) of RSA beneficiaries deplore frequent bank overdrafts, compared to 15% in the general population; 30% restrict themselves to buying meat, compared to 7%; 43% have difficulty heating themselves, compared to 20%. But the RSA still warns of falling into extreme poverty, below 40% of the median income (735 euros per month), concedes the Court of Auditors.
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