The departments judged on Monday “inadmissible” that the 4.6% revaluation of the RSA planned by the government in 2024 “did not give rise to the slightest consultation” when it translates into 500 million euros in additional spending .
This increase of almost double the forecast inflation (2.6% in 2024 after 4.9% in 2023 editor’s note), by virtue of mechanisms designed for a period when inflation was almost zero, is no longer adapted to the present situation, explained in a press release Franois Sauvadet (UDI), president of Departments of France (DF).
It is certainly important for our compatriots who depend on the RSA to take into account the inflation observed, but we cannot make the departments bear it alone when at the same time we refuse to change their allocations, he said. added, recalling that the departments no longer raise taxes and depend entirely on grants paid by the State.
According to the departments, which are asking the government to stop picking their pockets, the non-indexation of allocations to inflation has caused them to lose more than 1.3 billion euros over the last two budgetary years.
Added to this are expenditures imposed by the government of 2.5 billion euros (increase in the index point of civil servants, the fire bonus for firefighters, etc.) and the sudden drop in transfer rights. onerous (DMTO), levied on real estate transactions, which deprived them of more than 3.5 billion euros in revenue due to the collapse of the real estate market.
According to a report from the Court of Auditors published at the end of October, the departments should see their gross savings, that is to say the difference between their revenue and their expenditure, decrease by 39% this year.
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne announced two weeks ago the release of more than 230 million euros to help departments finance their spending. Around fifteen of them are in the red today.