The “whatever the cost” policy has made it possible to stabilize the poverty rate in 2020 despite the Covid crisis, a committee of experts noted on Monday, calling for indexing the benefits of the most modest in the law to inflation. purchasing power examined at the Assembly.
France had in 2019 (latest known official figures) 9.2 million people in monetary poverty (living on less than 1102 euros per month for a single person), i.e. 14.6% of the population, a rate that remained stable in 2020, according to the committee responsible for evaluating the government’s anti-poverty strategy launched in September 2018.
“The poverty rate has not increased, according to still provisional figures, between 2019 and 2020, and this is a remarkable result”, noted during a press conference its president Louis Schweitzer, while the associations feared an increase in precariousness during the crisis.
This situation is due to “all the measures following the health crisis”, which were not, moreover, reserved for people in precarious situations, “it is a remarkably positive effect”.
11.7 billion euros for the activity bonus
“In the absence of these measures, the poverty rate would have increased by at least half a point during this period,” said the former boss of Renault.
“Indicators relating to the labor market have improved significantly over the period of deployment of the poverty strategy, in particular for young people”, notes the committee, which nevertheless considers “impossible to link these positive trends to the measures of the strategy alone”. .
On the other hand, the committee led by France Strategy “notes that there is no improvement in the indicators of inequalities in terms of early childhood and educational success”.
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Some 13.1 billion was spent over the years 2019 to 21 (compared to 8 billion initially planned for 2018-22) for this strategy, including 11.7 billion “related to the activity bonus alone”.
Faced with the current difficulties caused by the rise in prices, which particularly affects people living in poverty, the committee calls for “guaranteeing the purchasing power of the most modest by indexing the targeted benefits to inflation”.
“I am not completely reassured [sur le fait] that the purchasing power law fully compensates for it,” noted Mr. Schweitzer.
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