One of the key measures in favor of purchasing power is finally revealed. The food check, supposed to give a little air to the most fragile, strangled by inflation, which is forecast at 5.5% over the year, should benefit 9 million households, as revealed by Les Échos this Monday, information confirmed by government sources. The project provides aid of 100 euros, to which will be added an additional 50 euros per child. The money should be paid at the beginning of September directly into the bank accounts of the households concerned: recipients of the active solidarity income (RSA), the disabled adult allowance (AAH), the minimum old age (Aspa) or personalized housing assistance (APL).
This device, which will cost around 1 billion euros to the State, will not appear in the bill on purchasing power, which must be presented on July 6 in the Council of Ministers. It will be set up by decree and the necessary credits will be released via the amending finance bill in preparation.
“This is a track considered, but nothing is fixed yet,” tempers a government source. The measure will indeed be the subject of broad discussions in the National Assembly, where the government only has a relative majority. From this Tuesday, the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, will receive the leaders of the opposition groups in the National Assembly to “lead the consultations”. Ella has already received, this Monday, the bosses of the majority groups.
A “help to better eat” also in project
“We can only welcome this initiative, but it will not be enough, warns Marie-Andrée Blanc, president of the National Union of Family Associations (Unaf). We must think about a long-term and more robust device. A family with two children loses an average of 220 euros in purchasing power per month with current inflation! 100 euros plus 50 euros per child, once a year, that doesn’t weigh much…”
The government had already paid similar exceptional aid during the Covid epidemic, in May and November 2020, to 4.1 million households. It had been issued to recipients of the RSA or to the unemployed at the end of their rights. It stood at 150 euros per household, plus 100 euros per dependent child. Families just receiving APL were also entitled to 100 euros per child.
In the longer term, the executive is working on a “help to eat better”, which should allow the French to buy more easily quality food products, organic and in short circuit.