Qwho should we believe? The President of the Republic, who announced during his presidential campaign that there would be for recipients of the active solidarity income (RSA) a “obligation to devote fifteen to twenty hours a week to an activity leading to professional integration”or the report on the missions of France Travaildelivered on April 19 by the High Commissioner for Employment and Business Commitment, Thibaut Guilluy, in which it is indicated that more intensive courses will be tested with fifteen to twenty hours of integration, but only “for those who need it” ? The greatest vagueness actually reigns over the policy that will actually be implemented to remedy what the Court of Auditors considers to be a real failure: support for RSA recipients.
In 1988, the law creating the minimum integration income, the RMI, was voted unanimously and indicated, from its article 1erthat “the social and professional integration of people in difficulty is a national imperative” : it was indeed a duty incumbent on society. Article 37 of the law specified the wide variety of forms that this integration could take, covering in particular activities enabling beneficiaries to regain or develop their social autonomy.
But this conception of solidarity quickly came under fire from criticism, as the number of recipients increased, as the idea of “inactivity trap” (beneficiaries would be discouraged from returning to work), and that the image of the lazy and fraudulent recipient, promoted and relayed by political leaders, was spreading to increasingly large sections of society. It is undoubtedly to them that the President of the Republic was addressing himself by assuring that there is no right without duty and by implying, breaking with French tradition, that a counterpart to the payment of the allowance would be required. It also suggested, like the France Travail report, that it is incomprehensible that so few beneficiaries are working (17%) when there are serious recruitment difficulties.
Several options
However, we must remember a few facts: the RSA is a “differential” allowance, that is to say that the sum paid only supplements the household’s income to allow a certain amount to be reached (currently 607 euros for a person only). It is also a “family” allowance: the income of the whole family (including social benefits) is taken into account.
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