Social protection spending returned to a level close to “from before [la] health crisis » in Europe, France remaining, for the seventh consecutive year, the country which devotes the largest share of its gross domestic product to it (32.2%) according to a study published Thursday December 14 by the Directorate of Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics (Drees).
Overall, social benefit spending has “continued to increase”, but less than in previous years: they were up 1.7% in France in 2022 (compared to + 2.6% in 2021 and + 6.9% in 2020), and 2.5% on average in the Union European (+ 3.1% in 2021 and + 8.3% in 2020), details this “overview of social protection” of the Drees. This increase nevertheless remains below inflation.
France devoted 848.9 billion euros to these services, or 32.2% of its gross domestic product (GDP), an amount close to that of 2019 (31.2%), and “significantly inferior” to 2020 (35.1%), notes Drees. For the seventh consecutive year, it is the spending champion ahead of Italy (29.6% of GDP) and Germany (29.2%).
French benefits amount on average to 12,550 euros per year per inhabitant, including 5,550 euros linked to “old age survival risk” (pensions, minimum old age, welfare, etc.) and 4,700 euros linked to “health risk”.
Reduction in employment-related benefits
Other benefits are less expensive, whether related to family (850 euros), employment (700 euros), poverty and exclusion (500 euros) or housing (250 euros). They represent only 18% of spending in France and 17% in Europe.
In 2022, European countries will “put in place various mechanisms” to limit the effects of inflation on households, which have “took over exceptional expenses” due to Covid-19, decreasing (vaccination campaign, partial unemployment, etc.).
The services of “employment risk” decreased sharply (-20.7% in France in 2022, after -19.0% in 2021). For Drees, this is partly explained by the drop in the number of beneficiaries or the favorable economic context, but also by the entry into force at the end of 2021 of the unemployment insurance reform, which lowered the amounts paid and tightened the conditions for granting rights.