He wants ” to move “ on the individualisation of the allowance for disabled adults (AAH). Emmanuel Macron expressed, on Friday April 15, the wish to modify the calculation of this aid – which today takes into account the income of the spouse – an unexpected development that his government and the majority have rejected several times in 2021.
“We have to move on this point”agreed the candidate president on Franceinfo, responding to Lucie Carrasco, globetrotter with a disability who explained that she was going to lose her allowance – and therefore her financial independence – by getting married.
Currently, in France, “whatever the service (…), we look at your family situation and therefore we look at the couple’s ability to contribute. What is true is that it creates an aberrant situation for people with disabilities, so we are going to move it”, he said. While the Franceinfo journalist pointed out to him that this proposal did not appear in his program, the Head of State raised the possibility of“to have an income which is not conditioned and which allows support but which is not this cleaver today which is absurd”.
Created in 1975, the AAH is intended to compensate for the inability to work. With a maximum amount of 904 euros per month, it is paid on medical and social criteria. It now has more than 1.2 million beneficiaries, including 270,000 people in couples.
“We would like to believe it”
Collectif Handicaps, which brings together around fifty associations, welcomed the candidate’s announcement on Friday, while preferring to remain cautious while awaiting details on the concrete terms of this development. “Two years of government opposition, against all political parties”then “an opening ten days before the second round” : “We would like to believe it. But a clearer answer from Emmanuel Macron (…) would have been interesting”commented the collective on Twitter.
“The good news is that the president seems to no longer be stuck on this issue”said Stéphane Lenoir, coordinator of the collective, to Agence France-Presse. “But we remain cautious, because his announcement is very vague”he added.
Marine Le Pen, the candidate of the National Rally, who will face the outgoing president in the second round, criticized the recent development of her competitor on this subject. « The deconjugalization of the AHH [sic] is a measure that I have always defended in Parliament”she wrote on Twitter. “Our compatriots with disabilities could already benefit from it if E. Macron had not refused it. President, I will keep my word and get this social justice measure passed.”promised the far-right leader.
Stormy session
In October 2021, the majority had rejected the individualization of the AAH to people in couples, after an eventful debate, while, from the Republicans (LR) to La France insoumise, the opposition demanded in unison this “deconjugalization” of the allowance. The Republic on the move considered this measure unfair, as it benefited both modest and wealthy people without distinction. “We assume the fact of giving more to those who really need it”had then argued Sophie Cluzel, Secretary of State in charge of disabled people.
This subject also sparked a stormy session in the Hemicycle in June, after the rejection of a proposal by deputy LR Aurélien Pradié. Red cards had notably been waved by opposition MPs as a sign of protest against the government.
Last year, twenty-two organizations and associations, including APF France Handicap, called on Mr. Macron to “a historic reform”for “consider this allowance above all as an individual subsistence income”.