2024-01-30 20:18:08
In mid-January, Emmanuel Macron announced a new crackdown on the unemployed. Gabriel Attal was responsible for lifting the veil on a shock measure: the end of the specific solidarity allowance (ASS), an aid created in 1984 and financed by the State to guarantee minimum resources to job seekers with exhausted their rights to unemployment insurance. “I will propose its removal,” launched the Prime Minister this Tuesday, January 30, in a phrase buried in his long declaration of general policy to the National Assembly.
We must “fight inactivity traps,” he insisted. And to put forward an argument which will not fail to make the unions jump. “The ASS allows, without working, to validate quarters of retirement. However, retirement must always remain the fruit of work. »
So what will become of the 322,000 people currently in ASS? They will switch to the RSA, said the head of government. The allocation conditions are a little more restrictive, in particular concerning the ceiling of the household’s monthly resources. As for the amount, it is slightly higher, but decreasing depending on income (up to 607.75 euros per month in RSA for a single person compared to 545.10 euros in ASS). Where the difference is significant is in retirement rights. In fact, people with RSA do not contribute to retirement and the periods are not taken into account in the calculation (unlike the ASS).
Eyes fixed on the “full employment objective”
“Seeking a more efficient and less costly social model is not a bad word, it is an imperative,” argued Gabriel Attal. More generally, “we must go further in the reform of unemployment insurance”, he continued, recalling that a negotiation had been launched between social partners “in favor of the employment of seniors”.
The government is firmly awaiting agreement on this subject and has set a target of at least 440 million euros in savings over the period 2024-2027. How ? By raising the age limits from which unemployed people aged 55 and over are entitled to longer compensation and by reducing this duration. If the financial trajectory “deviates”, the government will not hesitate “to ask the social partners to put the work back on track, on the basis of a new framework letter”, threatened Gabriel Attal.
With his eye fixed on the “full employment objective” – while the unemployment rate has started to rise again (7.4% in the third quarter of 2023 compared to 7.1% in the first quarter) – the Prime Minister also announced that “a new stage of labor law reform” will be initiated “after the summer”.
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