Like the annual increases in basic retirement pensions, social and family benefits are increased each year. Not according to the same schedule: in January for pensions, in April for activity bonuses, family allowances and other RSA. If the 2024 increase will be very high again, that of 2025 promises to be lower… and could even be reduced by Bercy.
Budget screw tightening operation. The Minister of Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire announced it: a decree published this Thursday, February 22 validates the cancellation of 10 billion euros in budgetary credits, in 29 different areas (employment, work, defense, ecology , Higher Education…).
Don’t panic if you receive RSA, activity bonus, family allowances or other social benefits. The annual revaluation scheduled for April 1, 2024 and visible on your CAF or MSA payments from Monday May 6, 2024 is not called into question. Bruno Le Maire estimated it at 4.6% a few months ago. This estimate, also present in the report of the Social Security Accounts Commission, is still the last known figure, pending the officialization of this percentage in the days or weeks to come (read the box below).
Under-index social benefits in 2025? Bercy opens the debate…
Tuesday, February 20 in the morning, the Minister Delegate in charge of Public Accounts, Thomas Cazenave, launched a small bombshell live on France Inter, responding to a listener. He mentioned the debate on whether or not to index retirement pensions, firstly, then he mentioned a broader debate, referring not only to pensions but also to social benefits: “We will have this debate for the debate for the 2025 budget.”
“Do we continue to index all of our benefits, all of our transfers to inflation? »
“ This is a real question, continued Thomas Cazenave on France Inter. Do we continue to index all of our benefits and all of our transfers to inflation? Isn’t this a method to straighten out our public accounts? » He did not go any further, contenting himself with launching a debate for the next finance bill for 2025, while trying to reassure the fact that the 2024 developments were not called into question.
Without even deciding on under-indexing, the revaluation of social benefits in April 2025 will necessarily be lower than the 2023 and 2024 increases (5.6% in total last year and therefore probably 4.6% this year): In its economic publication unveiled in mid-December, INSEE anticipates inflation of around 2.5% from March and until June 2024, without anticipating a rebound in price increases during the second half of 2024. Consequently, in 2025, even if they remain indexed, social benefits should in all cases increase by less than 3%.
What is planned for 2024
- How much ? 4.6%, but this estimate still needs to be confirmed
- When ? As of April 1, 2024
“The high inflation observed in 2023 leads to a revaluation of legal benefits on April 1, 2024 of 4.6%”: extract from the explanatory memorandum of the Social Security financing law for 2024. This estimate has however been established in September 2023. However, as shown by the correction made on pensions (+5.3% instead of 5.2% anticipated), the regulatory calculation formula does not always confirm the forecasts to the nearest decimal point.
The final percentage has been known for a few days and the publication by INSEE, on February 16, of the final inflation for January 2024. The calculation takes into account the evolution of prices over the last 24 months, thanks to to the consumer price indices from February 2023 to January 2024. The final revaluation should indeed be close to 4.6%, but the Ministry of the Economy and Finance, requested by MoneyVox, has not yet confirmed this percentage increase.
| Average inflation at the end of January* | Annual revaluation on April 1st | Anticipated revaluation on July 1st | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 1.6% | 0.3% | – |
| 2020 | 0.9% | 0.3% | – |
| 2021 | 0.1% | 0.1% | – |
| 2022 | 1.8% | 1.8% | 4% |
| 2023 | 5.6% | 1.6% | – |
| 2024 (estimates) | 4.6% | 4.6% | – |
* Measure of inflation used for the revaluation of family benefits, i.e. the 12-month average stopped in January of the year of revaluation, compared to that of the previous 12 months.
Source: report of the Social Security Accounts Commission – 2022 results and 2023-2024 forecasts
Low salary: why your CAF bonus risks falling in 2024