2023-09-29 06:00:09
Published on Sep 29, 2023 at 6:00 a.m.
Having been increasing for forty years, the number of beneficiaries of aid guaranteeing a minimum income for people with disabilities jumped last year, before the entry into force on October 1 of a crucial reform for eligible people.
Beneficiaries of the allowance for disabled adults (AAH) increased by 3.4% between 2021 and 2022 to reach nearly 1.3 million, notes Drees, the statistical service of social ministries, in an overview of social minimums to be released this Friday. This is “the strongest increase observed in ten years”, underlines it.
Drees remains cautious about the reasons for this marked increase. It could reflect changes in the calculation of the allowance (flat rate reduction applicable to the income of the spouse of the beneficiary), as well as the exceptional revaluation decided in July 2022.
Prudence
However, last year’s development confirms the trend of constant growth in the number of beneficiaries since 1975, against a backdrop of population aging, increased life expectancy of disabled people, and pension reform. for incapacity or reduction of access conditions.
The AAH is the second social minimum in number of beneficiaries behind the RSA (1.9 million beneficiaries). Can reach up to 972 euros, it represented 38% of expenses among all social minima (compared to 41% for the RSA and 12% for the old-age minimum), indicates the Drees.
According to the latest data, eight out of ten AAH beneficiaries are people living alone. And these are mainly people aged 40 or over, without children.
People often over 40 years old
The profile of AAH beneficiaries could, however, change and their number should increase thanks to the new reform of the method of calculating the system, long awaited by those concerned and implemented this fall.
From this Sunday, the allowance will no longer be calculated based on the spouse’s income. This “deconjugalization”, adopted with enthusiasm in Parliament, should prevent a disabled person from seeing their allowance reduced or completely disappearing, if their income added to that of their spouse exceeds a certain ceiling.
For technical reasons, the implementation of this reform had been planned for this fall only. The government promised that the reform would not create any losers among current beneficiaries. The budgetary cost is estimated at 500 million for 2024 in the finance bill.
People who were already beneficiaries of the AAH in September and for whom it remains more interesting to take into account the spouse’s income to calculate the amount of the AAH will be able to continue to benefit from this “conjugalization”. On the other hand, a person whose allowance is paid without taking into account the spouse’s resources will not be able to come back with a calculation with “conjugalization”.
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