Nearly half of the households received by Secours Catholique have an insufficient budget for food. The situation has worsened since the Covid.
Source AFP
© Frantz Bouton / MAXPPP / PHOTOPQR/NICE MATIN/MAXPPP
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Lhe Covid and the various crises that France has been going through in recent months have further impoverished households that were already the poorest and have pushed other families into a difficult situation, forcing them to seek help from Secours Catholique. Last year, nearly half of the households that called on the association had an insufficient budget for daily food.
The median income of people helped by Secours Catholique stood at 548 euros per month in 2021, reports the association in its annual report on poverty, published Thursday, November 17. “These people do not live, they survive, they are constantly calculating”, comments to AFP Véronique Devise, president of Secours Catholique.
Rent, electricity bills, insurance: pre-committed expenses absorb on average nearly 60% of the income of these households in a precarious situation, underlines the association.
A living allowance of less than 5 euros per day
If we take into account other “virtually incompressible” expenses such as the repayment of debts or transport costs, 48% of households received by Secours Catholique have a living allowance of less than five euros per day and per person, i.e. 0.5 to one euro less compared to the period before the health crisis. “With this, you have to buy food, hygiene products, get dressed”, describes in its report the Secours Catholique, which estimates the minimum food expenditure at seven euros per day and per person. “This situation is not acceptable, the government must absolutely take up this issue of the poorest 10% of society,” says Véronique Devise.
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Secours Catholique, which is asking for a revaluation of the RSA, is also concerned about the effects of inflation on the lives of these households, already faced with “impossible choices”, such as favoring the payment of bills or shopping for food. . “These families are already doing a lot to reduce their electricity and gas consumption, how are they going to do” in the face of the 15% price increase planned for next year?, asks the president of the association.
Secours Catholique welcomed 938,000 people in France in 2021, who were able to benefit from various services, such as food aid or social support. Single mothers represent a quarter of the households encountered, a share three times greater than in the general population, underlines the association. Many single men, often unemployed or inactive, also visited the association: they represent 22.4% of the households met. On the rise over the past ten years, the proportion of people of foreign nationality stood at 50% of people received last year.