Announced several months ago, the real shift towards the social net amount as the sole salary reference to declare to your CAF to request the RSA or the activity bonus, it is for February 1st. From this date, the CAFs will only accept this reference income. What impact on your activity bonus?
1 – What’s new on February 1, 2024?
Logically, you already know the famous net social salary: employers were supposed to display it on your pay slip from July 2023. And latecomers had until the end of 2023 to comply. But until now this new social net amount was just a new line on the bulletin without any concrete impact, except for those who got ahead of themselves by declaring this amount to the CAF.
From now on, the use of the social net amount becomes obligatory to simplify your procedures for the RSA and the activity bonus, writes the CAF. From February 2024, beneficiaries will have to use it in their quarterly declarations of resources, supports the Minister of Labor, Health and Solidarity. This is the one and only amount reported on your quarterly declarations of resources (DTR), without any calculation being made on your side.
Small salary: what changes on February 1 to receive CAF bonuses
2 – What advantage(s) for employees and beneficiaries of the CAF bonus?
The switch to the social net amount raises fears of a drop in CAF monthly premiums. This development has a direct impact on the RSA and the activity bonus, since it changes the reference income declared each month. The social net amount concerns both salaries and benefits (unemployment benefits, etc.) and can thus have an impact on these two monthly aids. However, in fact, it is for the monthly amount of the activity bonus, this monthly aid supplementing the income of low earners, that the unions express the greatest fears.
The social net amount is not an instrument intended to make savings
Officially, the Minister of Solidarity said it and repeated: The net social amount is not an instrument intended to make savings, as MoneyVox explained by the Minister of Solidarity and Families in November 2023, therefore before the last reshuffle ministerial.
As the Directorate of Social Security (DSS) and the General Directorate of Social Cohesion (DGCS) write in a press release issued on January 18, the government is officially aiming for three short and medium-term objectives: knowing the reference amount to declare CAF without additional calculationSO avoid declaration errorsand term help reduce the non-recourse rate rights, that is to say the third of potential beneficiaries (approximately, according to recent studies by the Drees) who do not claim the RSA or the activity bonus even though they are entitled to it. For this last objective, CAF beneficiaries will theoretically benefit in 2025 from a pre-fill of their resources on the quarterly declaration. As for taxes.
RSA, activity bonus: what changes on February 1 to receive CAF bonuses
3 – An estimate of the reduction in the activity bonus?
Everything starts from a real problem, observed many times: The problem of filling resources is widespread: it’s enormous! explained last June Servane Martin, family branch mission manager and Cnaf delegation at Unaf (National Union of Family Associations), MoneyVox. The Court of Auditors has not certified the accounts of the family branch of Cnaf because there are too many errors (almost a quarter of the files) on the RSA, the activity bonus, etc.
Reason why the arrival of the social net amount was deemed necessary by all stakeholders: There are a number of undue payments, reminders… but without fraud! Just because beneficiaries do not understand what to declareinsisted Servane Martin before the summer and the appearance of the net social salary on pay slips.
But… as recipients tended to wrongly retain only the net salary paid before income tax, without adding benefits in kind, restaurant vouchers, holiday vouchers, etc., resources were often underestimated. By inadvertence and ignorance.
Consequently, now that the reference income is known and clearly demanded, resources will no longer be undervalued… and many premiums could fall. Mathematically, if the income declared to the CAF increases, the activity bonus granted decreases, explained last November Eric Gautron, confedral secretary of Force Ouvrière (FO) in charge of collective social protection, MoneyVox.
A first version of the calculation of the social net amount was corrected in mid-November. But in the base taken into account, there remain restaurant vouchers and vacation vouchers, recalls Eric Gautron, who provided us with examples that remain current last November.
Example 1: an employee on minimum wage (1383.09 euros net) single without children, with a restaurant voucher of 10 euros, his employer pays 60%, therefore 6 euros, the employee pays 4 euros. Instead of 1383.09 euros of net salary declared to CAF, this employee on minimum wage will declare 1467.09 euros in September and November (84 euros of salary share of meal vouchers) and 1471.09 euros in October (88 euros of salary share of meal vouchers) . Result of the activity bonus, with the CAF simulator: 227 euros per month before… and 194 euros per month with the social net amount. Either a loss of 33 euros on the CAF premium, each month.
Example 2. The difference will increase in several other situations, notably if the meal voucher amount is higher, if the employer share is only 50% and if there is no holiday in the month, explains Eric Gautron. For an employee on minimum wage with 50% employer share, the estimated monthly loss this time is 49 euros!
In a recent press release, Hlne Fauvel, FO’s economic secretary, asks that the calculation of the social net amount in the plan for payment at source of benefits should not result in a reduction in the rights of beneficiaries eligible for the RSA and the activity bonus.頻.
What was used by the CAFs was quite disparate and that is why the social net amount appeared
Are these union fears found in companies? We have not had this type of feedback on restaurant tickets, replies Elodie Chailloux, legal monitoring and social law consultant at ADP, which manages 3 million pay slips each month. Afterwards, what was used by the CAFs was quite disparate and that is why the social net amount appeared. Elodie Chailloux believes that the correction made in mid-November has calmed the most serious concerns: Since then, we have not had any specific recovery.
Small salary: why your CAF bonus risks falling in 2024
4 – When will you really realize the impact on the CAF premium?
As of February 1, if you are a CAF beneficiary for the activity bonus or the RSA, or if you claim one of these monthly aids, then referring to the social net amount is obligatory. But changes in premiums will not necessarily be immediate. At the end of the first quarter of 2024, it will still be early to have perspective on the impact of the net social amount on the activity bonus, judges Elodie Chailloux. When the social net amount is pre-filled on the CAF declarations, in 2025, the impact will become more concrete and questions will arise, she judges.
5 – How to test the impact on your activity bonus?
He doesn’t stop. If you are concerned by approximate declarations in recent months or years, and you switch to the social net salary at the start of 2024, your activity bonus may decrease. Of how many? The calculation is so complex that apart from simulations such as the one carried out by FO above on meal vouchers, it is impossible to estimate the losses. But you can try the comparison yourself using the official CAF activity bonus simulator.
How to react in the event of an error on the social net amount?
The social net amount results directly from the calculation of your salary and contributions made by your employer. In the event of an error on this one, it is therefore likely that other information on the pay slip is incorrect, answers the government site My social rights. It is up to you to report the error to your employer, therefore.
Please note: from March 2024, the net social amount will be displayed on your resources dashboard on mesdroitssociaux.gouv.fr. Once this switch has been made, you will be able to exercise your right to rectification by making a report on the portal a few months later.
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