Chantal (she does not wish to give her last name), 60 years old, thin gold glasses, red streak and a piercing above her chin, is one of the million people welcomed in 2022 by Secours catholique. Like 95% of them, Chantal is below the poverty line, set at 60% of the median income, or around 1,210 euros per month. Like 72% of them, she is the only adult in the household. Like 17% of them, she has a job. And as the figures are not enough, Chantal agreed to tell her story, on the occasion of the publication, Tuesday November 14, of the report that Secours catholique devotes to the state of poverty in France, reporting this year the focus on women, particularly affected by the increase in precariousness – they now represent 57.5% of the people welcomed by the association.
“There are worse than me”, she puts things into perspective over a coffee, in the conviviality room of La Ronde des Vêts, a solidarity shop for Secours catholique in Estrées-Saint-Denis (Oise). But life hasn’t been kind to him. In her smoking voice, she warns: “ It’s enough to write a book. » Chantal is a “daughter of the DDASS”, placed at the age of 2 on a farm where you had to earn your meal by taking care of the animals, and where she had to rebel, at the age of 12, so that her nanny paid the pocket money she owed him and his siblings.
Married early, the young woman lost twins and raised four children. “I didn’t want them to go to foster care, I was afraid things would happen to them”, and at the time, she did not imagine that this would one day affect her retirement pension. She also took care of her disabled mother-in-law, “It made me want to work as a home help”. But these years were not paid or taken into account for his future retirement – in a recent report, Secours catholique and AequitaZ recommend compensating parents who do without childcare as well as so-called “inactive” caregivers, in the same way as those who stop working to do so.
At 50, Chantal learned that there was another woman in her husband’s life. She left him and got breast cancer, “because of the emotional shock”, according to her. After her dismissal and several years of incapacity, she was able to return to work, provided she worked few hours. It is limited to around ten per week, spread over six days, mainly with a man suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. “I love my job, but I couldn’t do more. There are times when I can’t stand. » She only allows herself fifteen days of leave per year, because this means losing part of her monthly 1,200 euros, obtained by combining disability pension, salaries, compensation under her provident insurance, housing assistance, “and also a few hours of black work, because if I declared them, my pension would decrease”. And she is worried: if she retires at 62, it will not exceed 826 euros per month. “As long as I can, I work. »
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